A dental call center representative answers calls, web requests and texts for all the offices in a dental group. They book new patients and move visits to another office when one is full. They also call patients who are overdue for a cleaning, and they handle dental emergencies with the Clinical Director's script.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
Annual pay: 10th percentile $37,050, middle half $43,840 to $58,120, 90th percentile $61,940. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025.
Reports to
Chief Operating Officer
Department
Call Center
Schedule
Weekday shifts, some Saturdays · Shifts span the offices' hours, often early morning to evening, and Monday mornings and days after holidays run busiest
Also called
Patient care coordinator · Central scheduler · New patient coordinator · Dental scheduling coordinator
Dental call center representative job description template
This is our Role Blueprint, word for word. Replace the highlighted fields and adjust the example targets and pay to fit your company.
You'll answer calls for all of our dental practices from our central call center. You book new patients, reschedule existing ones, fill openings across practices, and make outbound calls for hygiene recall and unscheduled treatment. You follow scripts for dental emergencies and protect patient privacy under HIPAA.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Answer calls, web requests and texts for every practice, and book new patients into new-patient slots.
Collect insurance details from new patients so the practice can verify benefits before the first visit.
Reschedule, confirm and cancel appointments, and offer a nearby practice when the first choice is full.
Call patients who are overdue for hygiene recall or have unscheduled treatment.
Follow the Clinical Director's emergency call script: book same-day visits for pain or a broken tooth, and direct severe swelling or trouble breathing to emergency care.
Verify each caller's identity before discussing appointments or balances.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Log in to the phone system and [your practice management software] for every practice at the start of your shift.
Answer inbound calls and keep hold times short.
Work outbound lists between calls: recall, reactivation and unscheduled treatment.
Ask each new patient how they heard about us, and record the source.
Send clinical and billing questions you can't answer to the right practice.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
New-patient calls booked: [your target].
Abandoned call rate: [your target].
Average speed to answer: [your target].
Appointments booked from outbound calls: [your target].
Call quality review score: [your target].
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
High school diploma or equivalent and [1+] years of phone-based customer service, scheduling or call center work.
A clear, friendly phone manner and accurate typing while talking.
Comfortable switching between several practice schedules and screens.
Follows scripts and privacy rules on every call.
6. Preferred Experience
Dental or medical scheduling experience.
Experience with [your phone system] and [your practice management software].
Knows basic dental insurance terms.
Can take calls in [language].
7. Physical Requirements
Wear a headset and work at a computer for most of the shift.
With or without reasonable accommodation.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Central call center in [city][or remote, with a quiet, private workspace].
Shifts between [7 a.m. and 7 p.m.], with [some Saturdays].
Steady call volume, heaviest [on Monday mornings and after holidays].
9. Compensation and Benefits
Pay: [range and hourly or salary basis].
Additional pay: [overtime, bonus or incentive terms, or none].
Benefits: [health, dental, vision, retirement, paid time off, and when they start].
10. Company Culture and Overview
[Two or three sentences on what your company does, the area you serve, and the support a new call center representative gets in the first 90 days.]
11. How to Apply
[Apply link or email]. Our process: [phone interview, in-person interview, and next steps]. Contact [hiring contact] if you need an accommodation during the application process.
Need help filling this role? HireBus posts the ad, Iris interviews every applicant by phone before you do, and you decide who to hire. Start hiring now
Plenty of call centers book appointments. In a dental group, nearly every call involves health information, a caller in pain can't wait until next week, and the right office for a caller depends on its dentists, hours and insurance plans.
Eight or ten offices on one screen
A caller asks for the closest office, but it may not take their plan, may have no new-patient opening for weeks, or may not offer the treatment they need. Reps learn each office's dentists, hours, services and plans. Then they offer a nearby office with an earlier opening before the caller hangs up and books with someone else.
Pain calls follow the script
Callers with pain or a broken tooth get a same-day visit under the Clinical Director's emergency script. Reps don't give advice on medicine or home care. They don't decide whether a problem can wait. The script lists the signs, such as severe swelling or trouble breathing, that mean the caller should go to emergency care now instead of waiting for a dental visit.
Confirm who is calling
HIPAA requires the practice to check the identity of anyone who asks for a patient's health information, if the practice doesn't already know them. Reps check details such as date of birth and address before they talk about visits or balances. A family member who helps with the patient's care may be told what relates to that help, such as a visit time, unless the patient has objected. The group's privacy policy sets where that line sits. Source: 45 CFR 164.514: Verification requirements.
Recorded calls need the right notice
Call quality reviews usually mean recorded calls. Federal law allows a recording when one person on the call consents, but some states require everyone's consent. Washington, for example, requires consent from all parties, and counts a recorded announcement that the call is being recorded as consent. Play a notice at the start of every call if the group serves patients in a state like that. Source: Revised Code of Washington 9.73.030: Recording private communications.
Insurance questions come before the visit
New patients are asked for their dental plan, member ID, the name and birth date of the person who holds the plan, and the employer for work plans. That lets the office check benefits before the first visit. Reps don't promise what a plan will pay. They tell the caller the office will check benefits and go over costs before any treatment.
How much dental call center representatives make
The closest BLS group for dental call center representatives is medical secretaries and administrative assistants. Medical secretaries and administrative assistants who work for dental offices earned a median of $23.07 an hour ($47,990 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s above the $45,930 median for medical secretaries and administrative assistants in all industries. About 120,490 of the 961,610 medical secretaries and administrative assistants in that survey work for dental offices.
An hourly job that earns overtime, sometimes with extra pay for evening or Saturday shifts or for a second language. A bonus for each booked patient deserves a healthcare attorney's look first when Medicaid pays for some of the care.
Dental offices
$47,990$47,990 median Middle half $43,840–$58,120 10th–90th $37,050–$61,940
All industries
$45,930$45,930 median Middle half $38,570–$50,580 10th–90th $35,930–$60,530
$30k$40k$50k$60k$70k
10th–90th percentileMiddle halfMedianAnnual pay, May 2025. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
Annual pay by percentile
Group
10th
25th
Median
75th
90th
Dental offices
$37,050
$43,840
$47,990
$58,120
$61,940
All industries
$35,930
$38,570
$45,930
$50,580
$60,530
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Stays warm and steady on the phone with a caller in pain or one who is angry about a balance
Accurate notes typed while talking, across several office schedules at once
Sticks to the script on emergency and privacy steps, and passes a call to the office when it goes past the script
Asks for the booking by offering two times instead of asking when the caller is free
Keeps outbound recall calls moving between inbound calls without losing track
Each office's dentists, hours, services and insurance plans
Your practice management software and phone system
The Clinical Director's emergency script
Identity checks and the group's privacy policy
Reps work in the group's practice management software with every office's schedule open at once, plus a phone system with call queues and recording, a texting tool for reminders and recall, and the web request inbox.
Dental call center representative interview questions
They have their own page: 6 questions that test this job, what strong and weak answers sound like, and a work exercise to run with your finalists.
Each target is blank in the template. Fill them in from your phone system's reports for the past few months, and set booking goals by call type, since recall calls and new-patient calls don't book the same way.
New-patient calls booked
Of the calls from people who aren't patients yet, how many ended with a booked first visit. Use call tracking or a call outcome code, and listen to some unbooked calls each week.
Abandoned call rate
Calls where the caller hung up before a rep answered, out of all calls that reached the queue. Read it by hour of the day to set shifts for the Monday rush.
Average speed to answer
Average seconds from when a call enters the queue to when a rep picks up, from the phone system's queue report. Track Monday mornings and days after holidays on their own.
Appointments booked from outbound calls
Visits booked from the recall, reactivation and unscheduled treatment lists, per rep and per list. Compare with calls made to see which lists are worth the time.
Call quality review score
The score from a lead's review of recorded calls on a set form: greeting, identity check, booking offer, script use and notes. Go over low scores with the rep the same week.
Career path
Call center representativeBooks and moves patients for all of the group's offices.
Call center leadTrains new reps, scores calls and watches the queue.
Treatment coordinatorMoves into one office to walk patients through plans and costs.
Practice managerLeads an office after time at its front desk or treatment desk.
Does a dental call center representative need dental experience?
The template prefers dental or medical scheduling, but booking skills from other call centers carry over. A rep from outside dentistry has to learn the words, the plans each office takes, and the group's emergency and privacy scripts. Pair each new rep with an experienced one for the first shifts, and listen to calls together.
How much does a dental call center representative make?
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants who work for dental offices earned a median of $23.07 an hour ($47,990 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $43,840 and $58,120 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and overtime.
Can a dental call center representative give dental advice?
No. Reps aren't clinicians, so they shouldn't suggest medicine or home care, or guess whether something can wait. They follow the Clinical Director's emergency script, book the visit it calls for, and pass clinical questions to the office. When a caller describes a sign the script sends to emergency care, the rep says so right away.
Can a dental call center representative work from home?
Yes, if the setup protects patient privacy. That means a room where others can't hear calls, a screen others can't see, and a secure link to the group's systems. The template allows remote work with a quiet, private workspace. Check the setup before the first shift, and say in the ad what the rep must provide.
What should a dental call center job ad include?
List the shift times and the Saturday rotation, and say whether the job is on site or remote. Say how many offices the rep books for, which phone and practice software they'll use, and any language you need. Explain how outbound recall calls fit into the day. Mention the Monday morning rush too, so applicants know what a busy shift is like.
