Updated 2026-07-25 · 2 min read
Almost every demo looks the same: somebody types «I'd like an appointment» and the assistant answers perfectly. That tells you nothing useful, because a practice's day isn't made of perfect messages.
These are the questions that separate a product built for practices from a generic layer of conversation.
On the calendar
Does it work with each dentist's real calendar, including which treatments each of them does and their hours? Can two appointments for the same dentist ever overlap, even with two people writing at the same time?
What happens if the time it offered gets taken while the patient is deciding? The right answer is that it detects it and offers another — never that it confirms an appointment that doesn't exist.
On memory (this is where the difference shows)
Does it know that one phone number can belong to a whole family, or does it create a single record and mix the histories? In a dental practice that isn't a detail.
Can it call people back for a check-up according to the treatment they had, or only on a single interval for everybody?
Does it follow up treatment plans that stalled? How many times does it write before it stops?
On limits
What is it forbidden to do? If there's no clear written answer about symptoms, diagnosis and medication, that's a bad sign.
What happens when a patient asks to speak to a person? Can I pause it in one specific conversation without switching everything off?
Does it store clinical information anywhere? The answer you want to hear is no, and that this lives in your practice management software.
On data and getting out
Where is the data hosted? Who processes it, and under what contract?
Can I export my patients and my history whenever I want, without asking permission? If you can't leave, you aren't choosing: you're being let in.
Is there a record of what the system did and when? With no trace there's no way to review a problem.