Frequently Asked Questions

Salva AI is an AI-powered receptionist platform built specifically for dental practices. It answers phone calls and chat messages on your behalf — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week — handling appointment inquiries, patient questions, emergency triage, and more. It connects directly to your practice management system (starting with Open Dental) to assist with scheduling, and surfaces all important conversations in a single dashboard inbox.

No. Salva AI includes both a website chat widget and a full voice AI phone agent. The voice agent answers inbound calls, carries on natural conversations, handles after-hours callers, detects dental emergencies, and can assist with booking requests — all by phone. The chat widget provides the same intelligence on your website.

Salva AI is built exclusively for dental practices — general dental, orthodontics, oral surgery, and pediatric dentistry. It is not a generic small-business tool; every feature, prompt, and workflow is designed around the dental patient journey and front-desk experience.

Yes. During setup you configure your practice name, specialty, business hours, services with durations, accepted insurance, custom greeting, AI name, system prompt, and patient FAQs. The AI uses all of this information in every conversation. You can also write explicit Do's and Don'ts — plain English rules the AI follows on every call and chat.

Salva AI is a web-based platform. Your dashboard, inbox, settings, and analytics are accessible from any device — phone, tablet, or desktop — through your browser. There is no separate mobile app at this time.

Each practice location runs its own account. Contact support@getsalvaai.com to discuss your organization's needs.

Yes. All paid plans include a 14-day free trial with full access to features. You will not be charged until the trial ends. If you cancel before the trial ends, you owe nothing.

Most practices are fully configured in under 5 minutes. The onboarding wizard walks you through your practice profile, services, AI name and greeting, and basic customization. You can refine settings at any time from the Settings dashboard — no developer needed.

No. Everything is configured through a point-and-click dashboard. The most technical step is pasting an embed snippet to add the chat widget to your website — which typically takes 30 seconds and can be done by your front desk or webmaster. For the voice AI, a virtual phone number is provisioned for you automatically.

To complete setup you will need: your practice name, specialty, business hours, the services you offer (with approximate appointment durations), and optionally your custom AI greeting and patient FAQs. If you want to connect Open Dental, you will also need your Open Dental server URL and API key.

Yes. You can name your AI agent anything you like. Most practices choose a human-sounding first name (e.g., Claire, Jordan, Alex). The name is used in greetings and is what patients hear when the phone is answered.

Yes. In the AI Configuration settings tab you can add any number of patient FAQs. Each FAQ is a question-and-answer pair. The AI will use these as authoritative answers whenever a patient asks a matching question — for example, 'Do you accept Medicaid?', 'What's the parking situation?', or 'Do you see kids?'

From your dashboard, copy the embed snippet and paste it before the closing </body> tag in your website's HTML. If you use a website builder like Squarespace, Wix, or WordPress, this is done through the 'Custom Code' or 'Header/Footer Code' settings. The widget appears as a floating button in the corner of your website.

Yes. All settings — AI name, greeting, hours, services, features, Do's & Don'ts, voice tone, notification contacts — can be updated at any time from the Settings page. Changes take effect immediately on the next conversation.

When a patient calls your practice, Salva AI answers immediately — no ringing, no delay. It listens to what the patient says, understands the intent, and responds naturally. For routine questions (hours, services, FAQs) the AI handles the whole call. For anything that needs a human — explicit requests to speak with someone, dental emergencies, or topics you've configured as handoff topics — the AI announces a transfer and live-dials your team. If nobody picks up within 20 seconds, the AI returns, takes a message, drops it in your dashboard inbox, and texts/emails you so you can call back.

When you sign up for Pro or Growth, a virtual phone number is automatically provisioned for your practice the moment your subscription activates. You'll see it in your dashboard under Settings → Voice AI. Forward all calls from your existing office line(s) to that number and the AI starts answering immediately. If you have multiple office lines, forward them all to the same Salva AI number — one number per practice is all you need.

On most US landlines you pick up the office phone, dial *72, enter your Salva AI number (with area code), and wait for the confirmation tone — then hang up. To disable forwarding later, dial *73 from the same line. On VoIP / cloud phone systems (RingCentral, Vonage, 8x8, Nextiva, Spectrum Voice, Comcast Business, etc.) you log into your provider's admin portal and enable 'Call Forwarding Always' (sometimes labeled 'Forward all calls') on the user or extension that owns the office number, then paste in your Salva AI number. Step-by-step instructions for each carrier are built into Settings → Voice AI in your dashboard. If your carrier isn't listed there, email support@getsalvaai.com and we'll send tailored steps.

Both AT&T and Verizon landlines support the universal call-forwarding code. Pick up your office phone, dial *72, then dial your Salva AI number with the area code. Listen for the confirmation tone (one short ring or stutter dial tone) and hang up. Calls forward immediately. To turn it off, dial *73 from the same line. If *72 doesn't work on your line, call AT&T or Verizon and ask them to enable 'Call Forwarding Always' on that line — it's a free standard feature on business landlines.

All four use the same basic pattern. Sign in to your phone system's admin portal (service.ringcentral.com, admin.vonage.com, admin.8x8.com, or NextOS on nextiva.com). Open the user or extension that owns the office number. Find Call Handling / Call Forwarding / Forwarding Rules. Add a new rule that forwards all calls to your Salva AI number and save. Forwarding starts within ~60 seconds. To verify, place a test call from your cell phone to your office line — Salva AI should answer.

For Spectrum Voice, sign in at voice.spectrum.net, open Settings → Call Forwarding, choose Forward All Calls, enter your Salva AI number, and save. For Comcast Business or Xfinity Voice, sign in to business.comcast.com (or the Connection Pro portal for VoiceEdge customers), open Voice for the office line, go to Call Forwarding → Forward all calls, enter your Salva AI number, and save. Both take effect within a minute.

Yes — most carriers support 'busy/no-answer forwarding' or schedule-based forwarding alongside the always-forward option. For VoIP systems (RingCentral, Vonage, 8x8, Nextiva, etc.) you'll find these as routing rules in the admin portal: 'Forward when no answer after N rings' or 'Forward when busy' or 'Forward outside business hours.' Point any of those rules at your Salva AI number. For landline carriers, ask AT&T or Verizon about 'Call Forwarding Busy' (*68) and 'Call Forwarding No Answer' (*92). Many practices start with after-hours-only forwarding and graduate to always-on once they trust the AI.

No. Call forwarding is completely reversible and lives at the carrier level — you keep your existing published office number. We never port or take ownership of your number. If you turn off forwarding, calls return to ringing your front desk exactly as before. If you cancel Salva AI, we release the Salva AI number back to Twilio and your office line continues to work normally.

Email support@getsalvaai.com with your carrier name (and a screenshot of the admin portal if you have access). We'll respond within 1 business day with the exact menu path. The good news: every modern US phone system supports call forwarding — it's just a question of where the setting lives in the admin UI.

Once you've enabled forwarding, call your office line from a cell phone (not from the office). You should hear Salva AI's greeting within one ring. If the call rings your office instead, forwarding isn't active yet — wait 60 seconds (some carriers propagate slowly) and try again, then confirm the steps in Settings → Voice AI. You can also check your dashboard Inbox — after a successful test call, you'll see the conversation appear there.

Salva AI does not impersonate a human and should not be configured to do so — this is a requirement of our Terms of Service. You can choose how explicit the AI is: some practices set the greeting to 'Hi, you've reached Bright Smiles — I'm Claire, an AI assistant' while others prefer 'Hi, this is Claire from Bright Smiles.' We recommend transparency. The AI never claims to be a licensed healthcare professional.

You can choose from four professional voice agents: Emma (Clinical & Precise — ideal for oral surgery and specialists), Sarah (Warm & Friendly — perfect for pediatric and family dental), James (Professional & Efficient — great for busy front desk energy), and Marcus (Warm & Approachable — builds strong patient rapport). Each voice has its own personality and tone to match your practice style.

With After-Hours Handling enabled, the AI stays active during your closed hours and tells callers you are currently closed — then offers to take their question, collect their callback number, or add them to a waitlist. All after-hours conversations appear in your dashboard the next morning. Without this feature, the AI still answers but responds as if the office is open.

Yes — and it's a live transfer, not just a message. The AI dials your office line (or your emergency line for emergencies) and bridges the patient when staff picks up. Staff see the patient's real caller ID. Transfers fire automatically on three triggers: (1) the caller explicitly asks for a human, (2) a dental emergency is detected, or (3) the caller mentions a topic you configured as a Smart Handoff (e.g., insurance, billing, clinical questions). If nobody picks up within 20 seconds, the AI takes a message and notifies you.

A Smart Handoff is a topic you decide should always go to a person instead of being answered by the AI. You choose the triggers — preset categories like clinical advice, billing and insurance, complaints, or an explicit request to speak with someone, plus any custom topics you write (up to 20). For each handoff you pick how it's handled: a live transfer (the AI announces it, dials your team, and falls back to taking a message if no one answers within 20 seconds) or take-a-message-only (the AI collects the details into your Inbox without ringing out). Whichever the office receives, the handoff includes the reason and any details already collected. Dental emergencies always route to your emergency line regardless of these settings.

Yes. You can have non-emergency handoffs take a message instead of ringing your team when you're closed — the request still lands in your Inbox and notifies you, but nobody's evening gets interrupted for a routine question. Dental emergencies always dial through to your emergency line, day or night.

Yes. If a caller wants to book for their son or daughter, Salva collects the child's name and date of birth as the patient, along with the guardian's callback number — so the appointment is created under the right patient record.

With the Emergency Detection feature enabled, the AI identifies key phrases and scenarios that indicate a dental emergency — severe pain, knocked-out tooth, facial swelling, uncontrolled bleeding. It flags the conversation as an emergency, offers the patient your emergency contact number, and immediately notifies your team by email and text message (SMS). The emergency also appears at the top of your dashboard Inbox under 'Emergencies.'

Salva AI handles barge-in gracefully. If a patient starts speaking while the AI is responding, the AI stops and listens. A 150ms debounce filter prevents false triggers from background noise or short sounds. The AI waits for the patient to complete a meaningful phrase before responding.

The AI can occasionally misunderstand or produce imperfect responses. You can review all conversation transcripts from your dashboard and refine your settings, FAQs, Do's & Don'ts, or system prompt to improve accuracy over time. You are also responsible under our Terms of Service for reviewing and configuring the AI's behavior — it is a supplementary tool, not a replacement for trained staff.

The chat widget is a floating button embedded on your practice website. When patients click it, they can type questions and receive instant answers from the AI — about services, hours, insurance, booking, pricing (if enabled), and more. All conversations are logged in your dashboard Inbox and analytics.

Yes. The chat widget books real appointments directly into Open Dental — the same booking the voice AI does, just over chat. It checks live availability, collects the patient's details, and confirms the appointment right in the conversation. If Instant Booking is off or you haven't connected Open Dental, it instead captures the request and drops it in your Inbox for your team to schedule. Either way, nothing is lost.

Yes. The widget is fully responsive and works on mobile browsers, tablets, and desktops.

Yes, extensively. You can customize: custom colors (primary, user bubbles, AI bubbles), upload your logo, set a custom widget title, customize the button label, set a custom chat greeting, and toggle SalvaAI branding on/off (Pro and above). All customizations are applied immediately to your live widget with a real-time preview.

Yes. The chat widget is included in every plan — Basic, Pro, and Growth. Voice AI is available on Pro and Growth plans.

If the AI cannot answer confidently based on your configured information, it acknowledges this and directs the patient to call your front desk for assistance. It will not make up information or guess at clinical facts.

Do's and Don'ts are plain English rules you write — one per line — that the AI follows in every conversation. Do's are things the AI should always do (e.g., 'Always ask for the patient's preferred callback time'). Don'ts are things it should never do (e.g., 'Never quote exact prices over the phone'). These rules are applied to both voice calls and chat conversations, on top of all other configuration.

The System Prompt is direct operating instructions for the AI — like a training document. You can use it to set tone, define specific workflows, or add context the AI should always have. Example: 'When a patient mentions they are a new patient, always ask if they have dental insurance and what their preferred appointment day is.' Most practices get excellent results without touching the system prompt by using Do's & Don'ts and FAQs instead.

Very specific. You can write rules like 'If a patient mentions Dr. Smith by name, tell them he is available Tuesday and Thursday afternoons' or 'Do not book appointments the same day the patient calls — always schedule for the next available slot 24+ hours out.' One rule per line, plain English.

Yes. All configuration — system prompt, Do's & Don'ts, FAQs, AI features — is applied uniformly to both voice calls and chat conversations. You configure once and it applies everywhere.

Yes. In the Services tab you can define every service you offer, including the appointment duration in minutes. The AI uses service duration information when discussing scheduling and availability, and when interacting with Open Dental for booking.

There are 7 toggleable AI features across three groups: Booking & Availability (Instant Booking, After-Hours Handling, Waitlist Offers), Clinical & Triage (Emergency Detection, New Patient Welcome), and Financial (Pricing Transparency, Payment Plans). Each feature injects specialized behavior into the AI's responses for both voice and chat.

When Instant Booking is ON, the AI can autonomously book appointments directly into your Open Dental schedule in real time, during the conversation. When OFF, the AI collects the patient's preferred time and name, then queues a booking request for your team to confirm — no direct calendar writes. This is controlled by the ai_features toggle and automatically sets the Open Dental booking mode accordingly.

When ON, the AI tells callers outside business hours that the office is closed, stays helpful, and offers to take a message, collect a callback number, or add the patient to a waitlist. When OFF, the AI does not differentiate between business hours and after-hours — it responds the same regardless of time.

When ON and a patient asks about a fully-booked time slot, the AI proactively offers to add them to your cancellation waitlist. If a slot opens up, they are the first to know. When OFF, the AI simply tells the patient the slot is unavailable.

When ON, the AI identifies dental emergency signals in the conversation (severe pain, facial swelling, knocked-out tooth, uncontrolled bleeding) and flags the conversation as an emergency — alerting your team immediately and offering the patient your emergency contact. When OFF, the AI handles these situations like any other inquiry and does not escalate.

When ON, the AI recognizes first-time patient calls and walks them through what to expect — explaining your new patient exam process, approximate duration, and what to bring. It also collects their contact information to streamline their first visit. When OFF, the AI books them without any special onboarding flow.

When ON, the AI will share approximate price ranges for common procedures (e.g., crowns, cleanings, root canals) and mention that insurance may cover a portion. Pricing is presented as approximate ranges, not guarantees. When OFF, the AI redirects all pricing questions to the front desk.

When ON, the AI acknowledges that cost can be a barrier and mentions that your practice offers flexible payment plan options — encouraging the patient to schedule a consultation to discuss. When OFF, the AI does not volunteer payment plan information.

The Inbox is a section of your dashboard that surfaces the conversations that need human attention — grouped into three tabs: Emergencies, Pending Bookings, and Callbacks. Items remain in the Inbox until your team marks them resolved. The Inbox updates in real time using Supabase Realtime — no page refresh needed.

When Emergency Detection is enabled and a patient triggers it, Salva AI simultaneously: (1) flags the conversation in the Inbox under Emergencies, and (2) sends an email and text-message (SMS) notification to your configured contacts. The notification includes the patient's name and a summary of what was said.

Email and text-message (SMS) notifications are available — add your email address and mobile number in Settings and you'll get instant alerts for emergencies, booking requests, and callback requests. All channels are optional — the Inbox always captures every conversation regardless of notification settings.

Twilio is used for voice AI. A Twilio account is required for voice AI — your virtual number is provisioned through Twilio automatically when you sign up for Pro or Growth. Twilio trial accounts work but include a watermark on calls. For production use, a paid Twilio account is recommended.

Currently, notifications are sent to the contacts configured in Settings > Notifications. Support for multiple notification recipients and team roles is on the roadmap.

A callback request is logged when a patient indicates during a conversation that they would prefer to be called back rather than continue chatting or leaving a voicemail. These appear in the Inbox under the Callbacks tab.

There are three plans: Basic (chat widget + custom AI), Pro (voice AI with 1,000 voice minutes/month), and Growth (voice AI with 2,000 voice minutes/month). See the Pricing page for the full comparison and pricing details.

For chat, an interaction is a single exchange — one patient message and one AI response. Voice calls are counted by the minute (from pickup to hangup, including any transfer window). Pro includes 1,000 voice minutes/month; Growth includes 2,000. Typical voice calls run 3–5 minutes.

Yes. All plans include a 14-day free trial with full access to all plan features. You will not be charged until the trial ends. If you cancel before the trial ends, you owe nothing.

During the 14-day trial, voice minutes are capped a little lower to keep trials sustainable — 500 minutes on Pro and 1,000 on Growth. When you convert to a paid plan you get the full monthly allowance (1,000 on Pro, 2,000 on Growth), and any minutes you used during the trial carry into your first paid cycle.

We accept all major credit and debit cards via Stripe. No invoicing or net-terms billing is available at this time.

Yes. You can cancel from your dashboard at any time. You retain access until the end of your current billing period. No refunds are issued for unused portions of a billing period.

We do not offer refunds for partial months or unused months. If you believe you were charged in error, contact support@getsalvaai.com and we will investigate promptly.

Your calls are never dropped. When you reach your monthly voice-minute limit, Salva quietly forwards new incoming calls straight to your office line — the patient never hears a billing message — so your front desk answers them just as before. There are no overage charges. You'll get a heads-up email as you approach the limit, and your dashboard shows a banner with the minutes you have left and your reset date. Chat is unaffected. To restore AI answering right away, upgrade to the next plan and your minute pool refreshes immediately.

Yes. You can upgrade or downgrade at any time from your dashboard. Upgrades take effect immediately. Downgrades take effect at the next billing cycle.

Salva AI is designed with HIPAA-alignment principles in mind — including data minimization, encryption in transit (TLS 1.2+) and at rest (AES-256), access controls, and breach notification procedures. There is no official 'HIPAA certification' — compliance is an ongoing practice. Our AI agents do not collect clinical diagnoses, treatment histories, or health conditions. A Business Associate Agreement (BAA) is available on Pro and Growth plans.

The AI does not collect clinical information — no diagnoses, treatment histories, health conditions, medications, or lab results. When a patient books an appointment, basic scheduling details are collected: name, phone number, date of birth, and appointment preference. The date of birth is used to create or match the patient's record in your practice management system, and its collection is disclosed in our Privacy Policy. If a patient brings up clinical concerns, the AI redirects them to contact the practice directly.

If a patient spontaneously discloses health information, the AI is configured to acknowledge it and redirect to clinical staff rather than engage. Any inadvertently received PHI is treated with the same protections described in our BAA and Privacy Policy.

Not necessarily — Salva AI is designed to minimize the patient health information it handles, so many practices may not require a BAA. If your compliance officer or legal counsel recommends one, a BAA is available on the Pro and Growth plans — contact support@getsalvaai.com to request it.

Email support@getsalvaai.com with your practice name and plan type. We will send you our standard BAA (based on the HHS model template) for review within 1 business day.

Salva AI only handles inbound calls — patients call your number, the AI answers. It does not make outbound calls or send unsolicited messages. You are responsible for ensuring your use of the voice AI complies with all applicable telecommunications laws, including the TCPA. See our Terms of Service Section 5A for details.

No. We do not use your conversation data or practice configuration to train any general-purpose AI models. Your data is used solely to provide the Service to you.

All data is stored on servers located in the United States. We use Supabase for database infrastructure. Data is encrypted at rest using AES-256 and in transit using TLS 1.2+.

Only your account and authorized team members can access your conversation data through the dashboard. Salva AI staff may access data for support and operational purposes, subject to strict internal controls.

Yes. You may request an export of your practice data and conversation history at any time by contacting support@getsalvaai.com. We will provide the export before any account deletion.

Account and conversation data is retained as long as your account is active. Upon account deletion, practice configuration and conversation transcripts are deleted within 30 days. Billing records are retained as required by financial regulations (up to 7 years). Aggregated, anonymized analytics data may be retained indefinitely.

Your account remains accessible until the end of your billing period. After that, your data enters a 30-day deletion window. You can request an export before deletion. Contact support@getsalvaai.com to initiate data deletion or export.

No. We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information or your patients' information to any third party for marketing or any other purpose.

We use: Clerk (authentication), Supabase (database), Stripe (payments), Twilio (voice and SMS), Groq (primary AI inference), Anthropic (secondary AI inference), ElevenLabs (voice synthesis), Resend (email notifications), and Vercel (hosting). Each provider processes data under their own privacy policies and security practices. See our Privacy Policy for the full subprocessor list.

Open Dental is our primary supported integration, with real-time availability checking, instant appointment booking, and automatic patient matching. Eaglesoft, Dentrix, Curve Dental, Carestream, Dolphin Management, and Fuse are on the waitlist — you can join the waitlist from the Integrations tab in your settings.

With the Open Dental integration enabled, Salva AI can: check appointment availability in real time, autonomously book appointments (with Instant Booking ON), or queue booking requests for your team to confirm (Instant Booking OFF). Future capabilities include reading patient records for more personalized responses.

From your dashboard, go to Settings > Integrations. Enter your Open Dental server endpoint URL and your Customer API key (created in the OpenDental Developer Portal). Click 'Test Sync' to verify the connection. Once connected, the integration is live — no restart or support ticket needed.

Yes. Without a PMS integration, the AI can still handle all inquiries, collect booking requests, detect emergencies, and surface everything in your Inbox. Booking requests will appear as pending items for your team to manually schedule. The AI is fully functional as a triage and communication layer even without direct calendar access.

No. Salva AI is not responsible for data loss, scheduling conflicts, or failures originating from third-party software. You are responsible for verifying that appointment data synced through integrations is accurate. See Terms of Service Section 7.

Email support@getsalvaai.com for any questions or issues. We aim to respond within 1 business day. For urgent matters, include 'URGENT' in the subject line.

Setup is self-serve with full documentation available in our Help Center. We are available by email for any setup questions. For enterprise requirements, contact us to discuss specialized onboarding.

Email support@getsalvaai.com with a description of the issue and, if possible, the conversation transcript. We treat accuracy and reliability as critical — you will receive a timely response.

Major updates are communicated via email to registered users. Follow us for announcements. You can also check your dashboard for any in-app notifications.

We do not publish a formal uptime SLA at this time. We use Vercel for hosting and Supabase for infrastructure, both of which maintain high availability. For enterprise reliability requirements, contact support@getsalvaai.com.