Why Chairside exists

Patients leave an appointment with a plan and half of what was said about it. The questions arrive later: in the car, at dinner, at eleven at night. Some come back as emails. Most never get asked.

Chairside is a way for a patient to ask those questions and get an answer that stays inside what their dentist actually told them. It answers only from the practice's own published information and the patient's plan. It refuses the rest, and it says so.

Who made it

Chairside was built by Dr Will Shield, a general dentist in Cairns, Queensland. He builds it in the gaps around full-time clinical work and uses it with his own patients. It is early: its maker and a small group of practices use it daily, and every part of it is shaped by what those conversations show.

Will writes about dentistry and the tools he builds at drwillshield.com .

Where it runs

Chairside is Australian-built, for Australian general dentistry. Item numbers and fee handling follow the Australian schedule.

What is stored — plans, conversations, your pages — sits in a database in the Oceania region. The service that writes the answers runs overseas: it receives the conversation and the plan, never the patient's name or date of birth. Every service Chairside uses is named in writing on request, and it is a fair thing to ask before you sign up.