FAQ
Questions dentists ask
Ten questions a dentist or practice manager would actually ask, answered in under sixty words each.
- Is this a chatbot on my website?
- No. Nothing appears on your website. Chairside is a private link you make from a treatment plan and give to one patient. It answers questions about that plan, for that patient, and nothing else.
- Can patients book through it?
- No. It does not book, reschedule, or pass a message to the clinic, and it tells the patient so. If a patient says they want to book, the conversation is flagged so you can follow up.
- What if a patient describes an emergency?
- The reply points them to the clinic, an after-hours service, the emergency department, or 000 and Lifeline, before anything else. The conversation is flagged, and if you have alerts on, Chairside emails you that something needs a look — a count and a link, never what the patient wrote. Nobody is watching the chat as it happens, and the assistant never implies otherwise or promises anyone will reply.
- What if it gets something wrong?
- It only answers from your published pages and the plan, so a wrong answer traces to one of those. Every conversation is visible to you. Any page can be corrected a paragraph at a time, and your wording takes precedence from then on.
- Can I change what it says?
- Yes. Every page it answers from is editable, one paragraph at a time, in your words. Edits outrank the shipped wording and stay when Chairside updates the defaults. You are told what changed.
- Who can see the conversations?
- Your practice, for its own patients, after names, dates of birth, phone numbers, emails and addresses are removed from the conversation. If you attach a patient to a link so you know whose questions you are reading, their details are encrypted for your practice alone and never reach the AI service. Sharing de-identified conversations with Chairside is a practice setting, and when it is on, the patient is told.
- Do patients need an account?
- No. A short link and a four-digit code. Nothing to install. Five wrong codes lock the link.
- What happens when my trial ends?
- The trial is 30 days or 15 plans, without a card. Then the practice moves to Free: two credits a month with Chairside’s branding, until you choose a plan. Your patients’ existing links keep working whatever happens.
- Can I use it across two practices?
- Yes. One login can belong to more than one practice, and each practice sees only its own patients. Practices on a yearly plan can add another site.
- Does it replace the consult?
- No. It answers questions about a plan you have already made and explained. It does not diagnose, propose treatment, or estimate costs. It is the conversation after the consult, not instead of it.