Every office books differently. Dr. Lin doesn't take new patients on Fridays, root canals need two hours between them, a seven-year-old asking for "a cleaning" needs a child cleaning, and nobody quotes implant prices on the phone. No other platform is as customizable: you write those rules down once, in your words, and Elva follows them on every call. The rules that must always hold are checked by the scheduling engine, not left to the AI's judgment.
Nothing changes for callers until you publish. Try a caller, place a test call, then publish; every version is kept.
"Don't book Dr. Lin after 4." "New patients need 90 minutes." "Kids on Wednesday afternoons." Every office runs on rules like these, and most of them were never written down. A new front-desk hire learns them by getting them wrong. An AI receptionist that can't hold them books visits your team has to move the next morning.
A script tells an assistant what to say. It doesn't stop it from booking the wrong visit at the wrong time.
The rules are what make your schedule work. They should be the first thing an AI receptionist learns.
Write the rule once. Have it kept on every call.
Settings are grouped the way your office thinks: who answers calls, how Elva sounds, what she may do, insurance, transfers, emergencies, appointment reasons, blocks, booking rules, hours and team, your answers, practice rules and privacy. Elva's team fills in a starter set with you; you edit anything.
Write practice rules as plain sentences, as many as you like, and click Analyze. Each one becomes a card showing what it became ("Elva never offers a new patient a Friday time"). If a rule could mean two things ("after 4 PM": end by 4 or start by 4?), she asks with two buttons. If it repeats or overlaps a setting you already have, she says which one.
Scheduling limits go to the scheduling engine, so a time that breaks a rule is never offered. Try a caller on any appointment reason, place a test call to your own phone, then publish. Callers hear the new version from the next call; the old one stays in History.
Written once. Kept on every call.
Each visit's length, parts, roles, room, buffer, who can book it, and what callers say for it.
"Younger than 12: Child Cleaning." "Last exam over 12 months: New Patient Exam."
Which visits go in each block of your schedule, and when an empty block opens to anything.
Fill gaps first, emergency double-booking, spacing between hard procedures, cleaning frequency.
Roles, what Elva calls them, time off with cover, new patients, may be double-booked.
Anything else, in plain English: limits, prices she skips, how she talks.
Book, move, cancel, confirm, waitlist, prices, callbacks. Each on or off, with what she says when off.
Who takes what, and when; what counts as urgent; what happens after hours.
28 voices, accents, greetings, names she must hear, pronunciations, and how callers prove who they are.
In a 20-minute demo, paste three of your office's rules and watch what Elva makes of them.
Providers, hours, rooms, block schedules, time off and blocked time come from your practice management system, so you set only what Elva should do with them. Rules that depend on a patient's history ("last exam more than 12 months ago", "a crown prep in the last 30 days") are read from the patient's record during the call. Works with Dentrix, Dentrix Ascend, Open Dental, Eaglesoft, Curve Dental, Denticon and CareStack.
Your settings shape every call the AI receptionist for dental offices takes. See how the rules work with the AI receptionist for Open Dental.
Authorized API Partner
| By hand or a basic script | With Elva | |
|---|---|---|
| Where rules live | In people's heads | Written in settings, in your words |
| "A cleaning" | The same visit for everyone | The right visit by age, history and new or returning |
| Provider limits | Remembered, sometimes | Enforced in the schedule search |
| Two long procedures | Back to back by accident | Kept apart by your spacing rule |
| Prices | Whatever someone remembers | Only your written prices; some never quoted |
| A rule that could mean two things | Each person reads it their way | Elva asks you once, with two buttons |
| Changing a rule | Tell everyone, hope it sticks | Edit, test, publish; live from the next call |
| What changed | Nobody knows | Every version kept, with who and when |
"No new patients on Fridays" beats a paragraph about Fridays.
"Dr. Lin: no crown preps after 2 PM" leaves nothing to guess.
"Hygienists" still works when you hire one.
"Unless it's an emergency" belongs in the sentence.
A price that isn't written isn't a price.
A seven-year-old, a patient not seen in two years.
New provider, new hours, new block.
When something feels off, you can see what changed.
ELVA AI Receptionist does, and no other platform is as customizable. It has 14 settings pages, from the voice and greeting to appointment reasons, booking rules, transfers and privacy, plus practice rules you write in plain English. Scheduling rules are enforced by its scheduling engine, so a time that breaks one is never offered, and every change is tested before callers hear it.
No. Every new office starts with a starter set: 14 appointment reasons with their lengths, roles, sentences and switch rules, plus default booking rules. Elva's team goes through it with you and changes what's different at your office.
Type it as a sentence, as many as you like, and click Analyze. Elva makes one card per rule and shows what it became. Rules she can't use yet (for example "don't book anyone with a balance over $500", since she can't see balances) are marked "not used" with the reason.
You see what each rule became before anything is used. If it could mean two things, she asks you to pick. To change a rule, delete it and write it again. Nothing reaches callers until you publish.
No. Scheduling rules (provider limits, spacing, cleaning frequency, blocks) are enforced by the scheduling engine: a time that breaks one is never offered. Only "how Elva talks" rules are instructions to the AI, and those are kept short.
Yes. Try a caller shows which visit Elva would book for a sample patient and which rule matched. A test call rings your phone and runs your unpublished changes. Publish when you're happy.
Every published version is kept in History, with who published it and when, so you can see exactly what changed. To undo a change, edit the setting back and publish again; there is no one-click restore.
Yes. Answering settings (who answers first, call rules, voicemail) take effect as soon as you save, because closing early can't wait for a publish.
In 20 minutes, paste your office's rules and see how Elva reads them, tests them and follows them on a call.
Product details from ELVA AI Receptionist. No outside figures on this page.
Dentrix, Dentrix Ascend, Open Dental, Eaglesoft, Curve Dental, Denticon and CareStack are trademarks of their respective owners.
