Chat books for real now
A website visitor asking "can I come in Thursday?" used to get a friendly answer and a nudge to call. Now the chat widget finishes the job: it checks your live Open Dental availability, collects the patient's details over the conversation, and creates the actual appointment — the same booking your voice AI does on the phone.
What the patient experiences
Booking in chat feels like texting your front desk. Salva collects what it needs one step at a time, confirms, and books.
The same modes apply
Chat respects the booking mode you've chosen — you don't configure it separately:
- Instant — the appointment is written to Open Dental during the chat.
- Pending review — the request is held in your Inbox for a staff member to confirm.
- Collect-only — Salva gathers the details but doesn't write to Open Dental.
It won't double-book
Before it writes an appointment, Salva re-checks that the slot is still open, and it guards against two messages confirming the same slot at once. If a time was just taken, it offers the next available option instead of creating a conflict.
If you're not connected to Open Dental
Booking still works as a capture step. Salva collects the patient's name, contact, and requested time, then drops the request in your Inbox and notifies you — your team schedules it in your usual flow. The widget is useful from day one, with or without a practice-management integration.
Where it lands
Every chat booking — confirmed or pending — shows up in your dashboard alongside your voice conversations, with the full transcript attached. One inbox, whether the patient called or typed.
Published June 16, 2026