# AI receptionist for overflow and after-hours calls: Wolfe Dental's results

URL: https://howdentistsuse.ai/cases/wolfe-dental-arini-ai-receptionist-overflow-after-hours
Category: Front desk & phones · Source label: Vendor-reported · Published: 2026-10-20

A two-office practice in the Portland area with one receptionist per office let Arini's AI take overflow and after-hours calls. Arini reports missed calls fell from as many as 500 to about 50 a month and $134k in booked production over eight months, but it gives no price.

## At a glance

- Practice: General + specialty group
- Size: 2 offices · 6,000+ patients
- Location: Greater Portland area
- Tool: Arini AI receptionist
- Cost: Not disclosed
- Source: Vendor-reported

## Did it work? Results

- Arini reports the AI answered an average of about 500 overflow and after-hours calls a month that had previously gone to voicemail. (https://www.arini.ai/case-study/how-wolfe-dental-turned-500-missed-calls-per-month-into-140k-of-added-production)
- Arini reports missed calls fell roughly tenfold, to around 50 a month. (https://www.arini.ai/case-study/how-wolfe-dental-turned-500-missed-calls-per-month-into-140k-of-added-production)
- Arini reports the AI booked $34,000 in production value across both offices in its first full month live. (https://www.arini.ai/case-study/how-wolfe-dental-turned-500-missed-calls-per-month-into-140k-of-added-production)
- Arini reports the AI booked $134,000 in total production for the two offices from September 2025 to April 2026 (eight months). (https://www.arini.ai/case-study/how-wolfe-dental-turned-500-missed-calls-per-month-into-140k-of-added-production)
- Arini says front-desk staff went from skeptical to deliberately letting calls ring through to the AI. The office manager says the patients it books keep their appointments, but no show-up rate is given. (https://www.arini.ai/case-study/how-wolfe-dental-turned-500-missed-calls-per-month-into-140k-of-added-production)

## Who tried it, and why

According to Arini's case study, the practice had one receptionist at each office and heavy call volume, and it was missing as many as 500 calls a month. Its answer rate had fallen into the high 60s to low 70s percent. The practice spends more than $100,000 a year on marketing. Patients responding to evening and weekend campaigns called when no one was there, reached voicemail and moved on. At the desk, staff checked insurance questions against outdated reference sheets mid-call, often while patients in the office waited. The existing online booking on the website was limited and unreliable and could not handle all the appointment types patients wanted, so Arini says the practice was losing part of the demand its marketing created.

## What did they set up?

- Went live in August 2025. During business hours the AI took overflow calls, and after hours it took over entirely.
- Arini says the agent was trained on the practice's protocols, including new-patient intake, consult scheduling, emergency triage and hygiene bookings. It was also trained to answer patient questions on insurance coverage, services and scheduling policies.
- Calls the AI couldn't fully handle, such as complex billing or clinical questions, were transferred to the front desk for follow-up.
- Arini says it also gave website visitors a way to book without calling. The case study gives no separate numbers for online bookings.
- Not disclosed: which practice-management system the AI booked into, how long onboarding took, and exactly who did the configuration.

## What did it cost?

Not disclosed. The case study gives no price, and Arini's site shows no public pricing (arini.ai/pricing returned 404 on 2026-10-20). It points visitors to booking a demo.

## What didn't go well?

- About 50 calls a month were still missed. According to Arini, these were calls the AI transferred to the front desk (complex billing or clinical questions) that staff didn't pick up. Our note: a handoff only helps if someone answers it.
- Our caveat: without a price you can't check the return. The $134k is booked production (treatment put on the schedule), not money collected, and the case study reports no show-up or collection rate.
- Our caveat: Arini's own numbers don't match. The headline says $140k and the body says $134k, and the $34k month is called both the 'first full month' and the 'peak month'.
- Our caveat: this is published by the vendor and has not been checked independently. It names no practice-management system, gives no before-and-after booking rate, and doesn't say how long setup took.
- Context from a different practice: a dental professional on r/Dentistry who used another AI receptionist (Adit) reported that a whitening promotion brought 10 calls through the AI and zero appointments. On several calls the booking flow failed and nothing reached the schedule, support couldn't fix it, and the office went back to a human answering service. The author said they did not know whether the cause was configuration, PMS sync or the product. Results depend heavily on the vendor and the setup.

## Takeaways

- Start where you lose the most calls: overflow and after-hours. That was the scope here. The AI covered calls that were going to voicemail and did not replace the receptionists.
- Before go-live, write down the rules the AI must follow: new-patient intake, emergency triage, hygiene vs. consult booking, and how to answer insurance questions. A vague setup is how bookings fail.
- Measure your baseline first (missed calls a month, answer rate). Then ask the vendor in writing for the monthly price, appointments booked, appointments kept and production collected, not only 'calls handled'.
- Decide who owns the AI's transfers and set a callback deadline. In this case, the calls still being missed were transfers no one picked up.

## Prompt to try (written by us)

Write your AI receptionist's call rules before the vendor demo

```
You are helping a US dental office manager get ready for an AI phone receptionist. Using only the practice details I give below, draft a one-page call-handling playbook a vendor could configure from. Include: (1) which calls the AI takes (e.g., overflow during business hours, all calls after hours) and which must go straight to a person; (2) each appointment type with its length, which provider or chair it needs, and whether new patients may book it; (3) emergency red flags the AI must always escalate (e.g., facial swelling, trouble breathing or swallowing, uncontrolled bleeding, a knocked-out tooth) and the after-hours escalation path; (4) approved answers about the insurance plans we accept, and what to say when the AI isn't sure; (5) what the AI must never do (give clinical advice, quote fees not on our fee list, cancel an appointment without confirming); (6) a weekly report we want from the vendor: calls answered, calls transferred, transfers not returned, appointments booked, appointments kept, production booked. Ask me for anything missing before you draft. Do not include any patient names or patient information.

Practice details: [office hours] [number of locations] [practice-management system] [appointment types and lengths] [insurance plans accepted] [emergency/after-hours contact procedure]
```

## Sources

- How Wolfe Dental turned 500 missed calls per month into $140k of added production, Arini, Undated (results through April 2026); accessed 2026-10-20: https://www.arini.ai/case-study/how-wolfe-dental-turned-500-missed-calls-per-month-into-140k-of-added-production
- Wolfe Dental is open for business on Cedar Falls Drive, Cedar Mill News, 2024-07-28: https://cedarmillnews.com/?p=24899
- A review about Adit AI receptionist, Reddit, r/Dentistry, 2026-07-26: https://www.reddit.com/r/Dentistry/comments/1v7izyz/