Two phone numbers. Two purposes. Keeping them separate is what makes the system work.
When the main line is used
The main office line is your standard "transfer me to a person" number — typically your front desk during business hours, or a fallback such as a partner office.
It fires when:
- A caller explicitly asks for a person ("can I speak to someone?")
- The call hits a smart handoff topic you've configured (e.g., appointment requests, clinical advice)
When the emergency line is used
The emergency line is for true dental emergencies — trauma, severe pain, swelling, bleeding. Read Emergency detection and routing for the full keyword list and classification logic.
Typically practices point this number at:
- An on-call dentist's mobile
- A clinical answering service
- A managing partner's direct line
It should never be the same number as your main line. The whole reason it works is that it stays quiet unless something urgent comes through.
The 20-second rule
When Salva transfers to either number, the line gets 20 seconds to pick up. If it doesn't, Salva resumes the conversation and takes a detailed message instead.
Salva quietly drops out and the patient is connected to the human who answered. The call is logged in your dashboard with the transfer destination and duration.
This means the patient never gets dead air. Worst case, Salva takes the message — and you still see the caller in your dashboard with the full transcript and a "callback needed" flag.
Setting both numbers
Both fields live under Settings → Voice settings → Transfer destinations (and in the onboarding flow). Salva won't transfer at all if the corresponding field is blank — so make sure both are set during initial setup, even if they point at the same physical phone for now.
Published April 18, 2026