Booking & OpenDental2 min readUpdated May 4, 2026

Connecting OpenDental to Salva

Two fields, one test button, and Salva can read your live availability and book real appointments. Here's the step-by-step.

Booking & OpenDental

Connecting OpenDental to Salva

Two fields, one test button, and Salva can read your live availability and book real appointments. Here's the step-by-step.

Salva AI · Learn

What you'll need before you start

Two values, both from your OpenDental cloud setup:

  1. Server URL — typically https://api.opendental.com for cloud, or a custom URL if you self-host
  2. Customer API key — generated in your OpenDental account (your developer key is built into Salva)

Pull them up in another tab before you start, then go to Settings → Integrations.

The flow

Booking-related questions get a callback collection ("Can I have someone from the team get back to you?"). No appointments are actually created.

Step by step

  1. Open Settings → Integrations in your Salva dashboard.
  2. Paste your OpenDental Server URL into the URL field.
  3. Paste your API key into the API key field.
  4. Click Test connection.
  5. Wait for the response (usually under 2 seconds). Green check = good. Red error = re-check the values.
  6. Click Save.

That's it. Booking is now live on the next call.

Common test errors

ErrorWhat it usually means
401 UnauthorizedAPI key is wrong or revoked. Regenerate in OpenDental.
404 Not FoundServer URL is wrong. Check for typos and trailing slashes.
Connection refusedWrong host, or firewall blocking the request. Check with your IT contact.
Empty providers listThe connection works but no providers have schedules. See OpenDental provider schedule setup.

After you're connected

By default, bookings created by Salva show up immediately in your OpenDental schedule. You can change this behavior in Instant booking vs. pending review — for practices that want to approve each Salva-created appointment before it's confirmed.


Published May 4, 2026

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