Dental clinic software for diaries, sittings and recalls

Procedures and their lengths

A diary of equal slots either wastes the dentist’s time or runs late. Give each procedure the time it really takes your dentists. The lengths below are only a starting point: time your own dentists for a week and use those. A dentist who works faster or slower gets a diary of their own, with their own lengths.

Root canal treatment usually takes 2 or more appointments, and each may last 1 to 2 hours, the UK’s NHS says. So book the sittings one by one, at the length your dentist needs, rather than as one long slot. Keep a buffer after each appointment for cleaning up, and give walk-ins a short consultation first.

How far apart recalls should be

Six months is a habit, not a rule. The UK’s NICE guideline on dental recall (CG19) sets the gap between check-ups by each patient’s risk: at least 3 months, and at most 12 months for patients under 18 or 24 months for adults. For practical reasons it uses steps of 3 months: 3, 6, 9 or 12 months under 18, and up to 24 months for adults. So let the dentist choose each patient’s next visit when the visit is done, note it on the patient, and send the recall a few days before. Look at the gap again at the next check-up.

Tooth pain after hours: what goes to a person

Many night-time messages ask for a time to come in, and a booking for the morning answers them. A few should reach a person at once. Decide which, write them down for the desk and for the AI, and keep the clinic’s emergency number in every such reply. For example:

• A swollen face, jaw or neck, or swelling that makes it hard to breathe, swallow, speak or open the mouth
• An injury to the mouth, or a knocked-out or broken tooth
• Bleeding that has not stopped after an extraction
• Anyone asking which tablet to take, or how much: the dentist answers that, not the desk or the AI

The UK’s NHS sends people with toothache to A&E when the swelling reaches the eye or the neck, or makes it hard to breathe, swallow or speak. In those cases, the reply should send the patient to the nearest hospital emergency department.

Fees for treatments in sittings

The Revised Dentists (Code of Ethics) Regulations, 2014 ask a dentist to announce the fee before treatment starts, not once it is under way (clause 3.8), and a clinic to state the cost of each procedure and estimate all the costs likely (clause 5.7.1). A later increase is for the dentist to justify, and there is no bar on showing fees in the clinic.

So agree the whole fee before the first sitting, in writing, and split it by sitting: a part at each sitting, and the crown or the last aligner set when it is ready. Each part has a name the patient understands, an amount and a date. Say in the reminder how to pay — at the desk, or your UPI ID — and note each payment the day it is made.

A treatment estimate format

Words in [brackets] are yours to fill in. The figures are an example for a root canal and a crown on one tooth, written by FDI tooth number. It is a sample to adapt to your clinic, not legal or tax advice.

Records, prescriptions and receipts

The same 2014 regulations set a few rules for a dental clinic’s paperwork:

• Keep each patient’s records for at least three years from the start of treatment (clause 3.3.1), and try to keep them in digital form (3.3.4).
• When a patient or a legal authority asks for the records, they may be issued within 72 hours against a receipt; keep a copy of what you give (3.3.2).
• Show the dentist’s registration number from the State Dental Council in the clinic and on every prescription, certificate and money receipt (3.4.1).
• Print the dentist’s full name, degrees and registration on the prescription letterhead (5.7.2), prescribe generic names where you can (3.5), and say on the prescription if the dentist dispensed a medicine (5.7.1).

GST on a dental bill

Under GST, health care services by a clinical establishment, an authorised medical practitioner or para-medics are exempt (entry 74, heading 9993, of Notification 12/2017-Central Tax (Rate)). The notification’s meaning of health care leaves out cosmetic or plastic surgery, except when it restores or reconstructs the body after a congenital defect, a developmental abnormality, an injury or trauma. Whether whitening, veneers or aligners fall on the cosmetic side is a question for your CA.

In iSuite AI, the bill at the desk puts your clinic’s one GST setting on every line, so it cannot mix exempt and taxed work on one bill. An invoice made in Sales takes a GST rate for each line. This is a summary to check with your CA, not tax advice.

What a dental clinic may post online

The Revised Dentists (Code of Ethics) Regulations, 2014 let a dentist or a group of dentists advertise if they keep decorum (clause 8.1), and a clinic’s website may list its treatments and their fees (8.2.9). Among what they call unethical: false promises in advertisements (8.1.1), claims to be the “best” or “first” or better than others (8.2.7, 8.2.8), boasting of cases or cures (8.2), and promotional camps in schools, colleges and old age homes (8.1.2).

On 14 October 2026, Medical Dialogues reported, the National Dental Commission’s ethics board warned dentists against recording and posting consultations and procedures, patient testimonials, before-and-after photographs and misleading claims. So post facts: what you offer, the fee, your timings and how to book. Leave patients’ reviews on Google rather than reposting them as testimonials, and check anything else with your State Dental Council. This is a summary, not legal advice.

Seven WhatsApp messages to copy

Change the words in brackets. In a WhatsApp Business template, each part in brackets becomes a numbered variable such as {{1}}, and Meta reviews the template before you can send it. A review link can also go on a button under the message instead of in the text.

Hello [Name], this is a reminder of your next sitting with [Dentist] on [Date] at [Time]. Please reply here if you need to change it.

வணக்கம் [Name], உங்கள் அடுத்த சிகிச்சைக்கான நினைவூட்டல்: [Date], [Time], [Dentist] அவர்களிடம். நேரத்தை மாற்ற வேண்டுமென்றால், இங்கே பதில் அனுப்புங்கள்.

Hello [Name], your crown is back from the lab. Your fitting with [Dentist] is on [Date] at [Time]. Please reply here if you need another time.

வணக்கம் [Name], இன்று உங்கள் அப்பாயின்ட்மென்ட்டில் உங்களைச் சந்திக்க முடியவில்லை. உங்களுக்கு வசதியான புதிய நேரத்தைப் பதிவு செய்ய, இங்கே பதில் அனுப்புங்கள்.

Vanakkam [Name], unga last dental check-up mudinju [months] maasam aachu. Reply pannunga, unga vasathikku oru time book panrom.

नमस्ते [Name], आपके पिछले डेंटल चेक-अप को [months] महीने हो गए हैं। अगला चेक-अप बुक करने के लिए इस मैसेज का जवाब दें, हम आपकी सुविधा के अनुसार समय तय कर देंगे।

Thank you for visiting us today, [Name]. If you have a minute, please tell others how your visit went on Google: [review link]. Your feedback helps us care for you better.

Send the review message to every patient, not only the happy ones. Google’s policy forbids asking only for positive reviews, and offering a discount or a free service for a review.

If the tooth chart and the X-ray link matter most, a dental EMR is the better buy, and iSuite AI can run beside it for bookings, reminders, recalls, fees and the AI.