Elva is the best dental recall software in this comparison for practices that want every overdue patient followed up until they book. We compared nine tools (Elva plus eight established alternatives) on four things you can check yourself: PMS coverage, recall types, booking path and outreach channels. Elva publishes this list, so we show our criteria and a source for every figure. Ratings, prices and features were retrieved on October 25 and 26, 2026, and are refreshed regularly. Jump to the side-by-side table for a quick view, or read the shortlist in order.
Key Takeaways
- Recall is not a reminder. Recall finds patients who have no future visit. A reminder confirms a visit already booked. Most tools below do both, but the settings are separate, so check which one you are buying for.
- PMS coverage decides what a tool can do. A recall tool can only contact patients it can see in your practice management system. Find your system on the vendor’s named list, and ask how a booking reaches your schedule. Several vendor pages do not say.
- Few vendors publish prices. Among the eight alternatives, review sites list a starting price for only three: Weave, Solutionreach and RevenueWell. The rest route you to a quote, and so does Elva.
- Ratings are not comparable across sites. NexHealth shows 4.8 on G2 from 137 reviews, Dental Intelligence 4.6 on Capterra from 53, and Solutionreach 3.8 on GetApp from 236. Different platforms and review volumes mean you should read the reviews, not only the number.
- Ask for results per recall type. A vendor that can show booked visits for hygiene, perio and lapsed recalls separately can show you what is working. A single total hides it.
What dental recall software is (and what it is not)
Dental recall software finds patients who are due or overdue for care and have no appointment on the books, contacts them, and gets them back onto the schedule. It reads due dates from your practice management system (PMS), sends outreach by text, email, phone or mail, gives the patient a way to book, and reports on who came back. Many practices call this recare.
The gap it works on is large. The ADA Health Policy Institute reports that 47% of the U.S. population visited a dentist in 2024, up from 46% the year before (ADA HPI, National Trends in Dental Care Use, Dental Insurance Coverage, and Cost Barriers, September 2026; retrieved October 26, 2026). More than half of the population is not in a chair in a given year, and recall is how a practice reaches the patients of record who are due.
Here is what it is not:
- Not appointment reminders. Reminders and confirmations go to patients who already have a visit. Recall goes to patients who do not.
- Not only a reactivation campaign. Reactivation targets patients who have been gone a long time; Elva’s reactivation starts at 18 months. Recall covers patients who are due now. Some vendors bundle both, and some sell them separately.
- Not the recall list in your PMS. Systems such as Open Dental let you set a patient’s recall interval and switch between prophy and perio recall. That tells you who is due. It does not contact them.
- Not a clinical decision. Intervals such as six months for hygiene or three months for perio maintenance are set by your clinical team. The software follows what you set.
How We Ranked These Dental Recall Tools
Elva publishes this list, and Elva is on it. To keep the ranking checkable, we compared each tool on four criteria that anyone can verify from a vendor page or review listing, and we show the evidence for each.
- PMS coverage. The number of named practice management systems on the vendor’s page or review listing. A vendor that names none ranks lowest here, because you cannot confirm it works with your system.
- Recall types. Whether the tool handles hygiene, perio maintenance and lapsed patients as separate recalls with their own timing, or as one generic list.
- Booking path. Whether a patient can book from the message, and whether the vendor states that the booking reaches your schedule.
- Channels. The outreach channels the recall can use: text, email, phone or voice, and mail.
We weighted recall types and booking path above PMS coverage and channels, because those two decide whether an overdue patient ends up booked. Elva leads on those two. It does not lead on PMS count or channel count, and the comparison table shows where others are ahead. Where tools are close on the four criteria, we placed the one with the larger independent review base first.
Price and review ratings are shown for every tool but are not part of the ranking. Most vendors do not publish prices, and review counts range from 0 to 707, so a score built on either would mostly measure marketing, not fit. Where a vendor page does not state something, we mark it “not stated” and do not assume.
Details were retrieved from each vendor’s own website and from Capterra, G2 and GetApp on October 25 and 26, 2026, except where a source is dated otherwise. Vendor-reported results are labelled as vendor claims and are not independently verified. We do not link to vendor sites.
Before you compare tools, it helps to know what overdue patients are worth to your practice. The Revenue Recovery Calculator gives you an estimate in a few minutes.
The Best Dental Recall Software in 2026
Below are nine tools in ranked order. Each entry lists what the vendor says it does, what third-party listings show, and who it suits. Elva is first because it leads on the two criteria we weighted most, and we flag where other tools are stronger.
1. Elva, best for recall that follows up until the patient books
Elva Recall is Elva’s dental recall software. It reads your practice management system every night, works out who is due or overdue, and contacts each patient by text, email and phone until they book. The default hygiene recall sequence is a text, an email on day 5, an AI call on day 12, and a call from your team on day 21. Each step goes only to patients who have not booked.
Patients reply in their own words and their own language. Elva offers times with the right provider and puts the visit on the schedule. Phone calls are made by the Elva AI Receptionist; without it, recall runs on text and email and your team makes the calls.
Elva treats recall types separately, each with its own timing: six-month cleanings, gum-care maintenance and yearly exams. Patients gone 18 months or more are handled by its dental patient reactivation software. You describe a group of patients in plain language, such as patients overdue for a cleaning by three months or more. Elva turns it into a list with a live patient count. Elva syncs in real time with Dentrix, Dentrix Ascend, Open Dental, Eaglesoft, Curve Dental, Denticon and CareStack, so a patient who books by another route stops receiving messages.
Controls include quiet hours and a cap on how often any patient hears from the practice: about six texts every two weeks per phone number, fewer for patients who have not visited in a while, shared across everything Elva sends. A patient due for two things gets one message that covers both. Every name, date and number is checked against the chart before a message sends.
Elva does not publish its price; you receive a quote within 24 hours. We have no independent rating to show for Elva in this comparison.
Best suited for: Practices that want hygiene, perio and lapsed patients each followed up on their own schedule, with replies answered and visits booked in the conversation. A good fit if your team’s overdue list never gets worked as often as it should.
2. NexHealth, best for one-click recall booking
NexHealth’s recall feature sends messages by email or text, and patients can confirm or book with one click. Messages can show open time slots and pre-filled patient details (showing time slots requires its Appointment Journeys feature). Recalls can be customized by appointment type, due date and outstanding treatment.
You can create as many follow-up messages for a recall as you want. The page says NexHealth reads due dates and procedure codes from your records system and syncs booked appointments to your calendar. It describes the calendar sync but does not describe writing data back to the PMS.
On G2, NexHealth shows 4.8 out of 5 from 137 reviews and lists 15 integrations (G2 page modified October 17, 2026). G2 also lists an automated waitlist that fills last-minute cancellations. NexHealth’s recall page cites an 85% patient return rate, but that figure covers practices using Online Booking and One-Click Booking together, not recall alone, and no method is given. Pricing is not published on G2, which says billing is month to month with no long-term contracts.
Recall channels are limited to text and email on the feature page. If you want phone follow-up built into the sequence, confirm with NexHealth how it is handled.
Best suited for: Practices that already rely on online booking and want the shortest path from a recall message to a booked visit. Less suited to practices that want voice follow-up inside the same recall.
3. Dental Intelligence, best for recall alongside performance analytics
Dental Intelligence offers automated hygiene recall by text, email or its mobile app, with follow-up through in-app chat and mass recall campaigns by text or email. The system tracks which patients have their next hygiene visit scheduled and which need contact, and each message carries a link to book. The page does not say whether bookings made this way sync back to the PMS, and it does not name perio or lapsed recalls as separate types.
Supported systems listed on the page are Eaglesoft, Dentrix, Dentrix Ascend, Denticon, Fuse, Open Dental and Open Dental Clinics. Capterra shows 4.6 out of 5 from 53 reviews and no free trial (page dated October 21, 2026). Pricing is not published. The vendor says more than 10,000 practices use the platform, and quotes an office manager who said a morning of automated hygiene recalls booked 10 cleanings. Both are vendor claims.
Dental Intelligence describes itself as a “practice performance platform” and links its recall page to an ROI calculator. We did not review the analytics features themselves.
Best suited for: Practices that want production and scheduling analytics in the same system as recall. If recall is the only job, check whether the wider platform is more than you need.
4. Lighthouse 360, best for mailed postcards and letters
Lighthouse 360, from Henry Schein One, recalls patients by email, text, postcard, letter and automated phone call, with Spanish versions of its emails, texts and calls. The page says the system checks every patient each night for over 20 issues, including being past due for recall and not scheduled. Each morning it emails the front desk a task list. An accountability report summarizes the previous day for the office manager or owner.
Capterra lists 4.0 out of 5 from 40 reviews and names three integrations: ABELDent, Denticon and Dentisoft Office. The vendor’s own supported-platforms page lists 17 systems, including Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Open Dental, EasyDental, PracticeWorks and Softdent (page modified November 2023). Pricing is not published on either source. The vendor page cites results such as an 8.1% higher recall rate from postcards, but that page was last modified in September 2021, so treat the figures as dated.
Because mail is part of the sequence, it suits patients who do not respond to digital outreach. Postcards and letters take longer and cost more per patient than texts.
Best suited for: Practices with many patients who respond to mail or have only a mailing address, and that want a daily task list for the front desk.
5. RevenueWell, best for recall bundled with reactivation and marketing
RevenueWell includes “Recall & Reminders” and “Reactivation” in its Starter plan, and every higher plan builds on it. The company’s plans page shows integrations with eight systems, including Eaglesoft, Dentrix, Dentrix Ascend, Open Dental, Denticon, Fuse and PracticeWorks. It requires an annual contract on all three plans and does not publish prices.
On Capterra, RevenueWell shows 4.4 out of 5 from 83 reviews (page updated September 30, 2026) and lists the Starter plan at $189 a month, with Professional and Premium by custom quote. Capterra’s sub-scores are 4.5 for customer service and 4.2 for value for money, and it lists a free trial. That Starter price comes from the review site, not from RevenueWell’s own page, so confirm it on a quote.
The Professional plan adds advanced campaign features, online scheduling, reviews and a patient portal; Premium adds a website and consulting services.
Neither source states the booking path or separates hygiene, perio and lapsed recalls by name.
Best suited for: Practices that want one vendor for recall, reactivation and wider marketing. If you only need recall, the larger plans add features you may not use, and the annual contract adds commitment.
6. Solutionreach, best for voice-message cadences
Solutionreach identifies patients who are due or overdue using criteria you can customize, then sends outreach by text, email or voice message on flexible cadences. Each message prompts the patient to book a preferred day and time, though the page does not describe the booking flow. It says recall integrates with your practice management software but names no systems.
GetApp shows 3.8 out of 5 from 236 reviews and lists a starting price of $329 per month (page updated October 2026). Its integration ratings are based on few reviews; Dentrix scores 2.0 from 2 reviews, so read the reviews for your PMS before committing.
On its recall page, Solutionreach cites a statistic that 48% of patients will not proactively schedule their next appointment. It also claims under 30 minutes a day on recall activities and more than $120,000 a year in recall revenue, marked as results that may vary. A linked case study reports one practice scheduled 50% more recall appointments. These are vendor claims.
The recall page was last modified January 8, 2026.
Best suited for: Practices that want voice messages in the sequence and the ability to tune cadence by patient group. Check the PMS-specific reviews first.
7. Weave, best for phones and messaging in one system
Weave’s recall page describes automated reminders by text, email and phone call, and suggests reaching each patient through the channel they respond to. It recommends tying recall messages to online scheduling. It does not say patients can book from the recall message itself, and it names no supported PMS on that page.
Weave’s Capterra listing shows 4.4 out of 5 from 707 reviews (page dated October 19, 2026), the largest review base of any tool here. It lists a starting price of $199 per month per location and no free trial. Reviewers note that add-ons and extra phones raise the cost, with one citing $20 a month per additional phone.
Capterra lists integrations including Dentrix, and its FAQ says Weave integrates with more than 20 platforms, including Eaglesoft, Open Dental and Denticon. Capterra’s feature list focuses on reminders, confirmations, missed-call texting and payment reminders, and shows no dedicated recall feature. The recall detail comes from Weave’s own page.
Per Capterra’s pricing listing, the $199 plan includes up to 15 VoIP phones, so you are buying a phone system as well as messaging.
Best suited for: Practices replacing their phone system as well as adding messaging. If you only want recall, you will pay for a platform larger than the job.
8. PatientXpress, best for recall alongside an AI voice receptionist
PatientXpress’s recall page says it automates reminders, supports one-click booking from recall texts and emails, manages continuing-care intervals and tracks recall results. The same site lists a 24/7 AI receptionist that answers calls and schedules appointments, and automated insurance verification. The recall page names Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Open Dental, EZ2000 and Practice-Web as supported systems. It does not say whether a booking made from a message reaches your schedule.
Capterra lists integrations including Dentrix, and says the product connects with over 20 tools including Open Dental, Eaglesoft, RingCentral Engage Voice and Sinch (page updated September 29, 2026). Capterra shows no reviews for it, and pricing is by contact only, with a free trial listed.
Its 63-item feature list has no dedicated recall entry; the nearest are confirmations and reminders. A product with no independent reviews can still be a good fit. That absence means you should ask for references from practices on your PMS and test the recall workflow in a trial.
Best suited for: Practices that want recall and call answering from one vendor and are comfortable validating a newer product through references and a trial.
9. PracticeMojo, best for family texting and postcards
PracticeMojo, now part of ProSites, contacts patients by phone call, text message, email and postcard, and supports individual, group and family text messages. Its ReachAll recall page says it syncs data with the practice management system every hour. The page also says it detects phone numbers entered in the wrong PMS field, so it does not text a landline. Its Capterra page lists Dentrix, Dentrix Ascend, Eaglesoft, Open Dental and Carestream Dental among others.
Capterra shows 4.3 out of 5 from only four reviews, all dated April to June 2021, no published price and no free trial (page updated October 19, 2026). The vendor’s marketing claims practices add about 2.5 appointments a day and earn $50 back for every dollar spent. These are vendor claims on undated pages, so we do not count them as evidence.
The ReachAll page says it covers dental recalls and reactivation, contacting a patient for up to two years. Online booking is a separate product, and the pages we reviewed do not say a patient can book from the recall message.
Best suited for: Practices that want family and group texting with mailed postcards in the mix. Ask the vendor for recent references, since the independent review base is small and old.
Side-by-Side Comparison
The table repeats the four criteria we ranked on, then lists price and independent rating for reference. “Not stated” means we could not find it on the vendor page or the review listing we reviewed.
| Tool | Named PMS (count) | Recall types stated | Booking path | Channels | Published price | Independent rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elva | 7 (Dentrix, Dentrix Ascend, Open Dental, Eaglesoft, Curve Dental, Denticon, CareStack) | Hygiene, gum-care (perio), yearly exam, lapsed, each with its own timing | Replies answered and visit booked in the conversation, synced to the PMS | Text, email, AI call (needs the Elva AI Receptionist), team call | Quote within 24 hours | None shown |
| NexHealth | 15 integrations listed on G2 (names not shown) | By appointment type, due date, outstanding treatment | One-click booking from message; calendar sync | Text, email | Not published | 4.8 on G2 (137 reviews) |
| Dental Intelligence | 7 (Eaglesoft, Dentrix, Dentrix Ascend, Denticon, Fuse, Open Dental, Open Dental Clinics) | Hygiene recall named; others not stated | Booking link in message; PMS sync not stated | Text, email, app | Not published | 4.6 on Capterra (53 reviews) |
| Lighthouse 360 | 17 on vendor’s supported-platforms page; 3 on Capterra | Recall; reactivation via postcards and letters | Not stated | Email, text, postcard, letter, automated call | Not published | 4.0 on Capterra (40 reviews) |
| RevenueWell | 8 on plans page | Recall and reactivation included in Starter | Not stated | Not stated for recall | Starter $189 per month (Capterra); others by quote | 4.4 on Capterra (83 reviews) |
| Solutionreach | Not named on recall page | Due and overdue by custom criteria | Prompts to book; flow not described | Text, email, voice message | From $329 per month (GetApp) | 3.8 on GetApp (236 reviews) |
| Weave | Not named on recall page; 20+ platforms on Capterra | Not stated | Not stated on recall page | Text, email, phone call | From $199 per month per location (Capterra) | 4.4 on Capterra (707 reviews) |
| PatientXpress | 5 (Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Open Dental, EZ2000, Practice-Web) | Continuing-care intervals | One-click booking from recall texts and emails; schedule sync not stated | Text, email | Contact vendor | No Capterra reviews |
| PracticeMojo | Dentrix, Dentrix Ascend, Eaglesoft, Open Dental, Carestream Dental and others (Capterra) | Recall and reactivation | Not stated | Phone call, text, email, postcard | Not published | 4.3 on Capterra (4 reviews, 2021) |
Where the alternatives are stronger
Elva ranks first on our criteria, but other tools lead on things we did not score. Weave has the largest review base and bundles a phone system. NexHealth has the highest independent rating of the group and a documented one-click booking path. RevenueWell names eight PMS on its plans page and Lighthouse 360 lists 17 on its supported-platforms page, both more than Elva’s seven. NexHealth, Weave and PatientXpress list more integrations on review sites, though not all of them are PMS.
Dental Intelligence pairs recall with performance analytics. Lighthouse 360 and PracticeMojo include mailed postcards, which Elva does not offer. If one of those is the main reason you are shopping, weigh it above our order.
Which Dental Recall Software Fits Your Use Case
Use this table to match your situation to the tool most likely to fit. It uses the same sources as the rest of the article.
| If you want | Look first at | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Hygiene, perio and lapsed patients each followed up until they book | Elva | Separate recalls with their own timing, replies answered, visit booked in the conversation |
| The shortest path from message to booked visit | NexHealth | One-click booking with time slots shown in the message |
| Recall plus practice performance analytics | Dental Intelligence | Recall sits inside a practice performance platform |
| A new phone system and messaging together | Weave | Phones, texting and recall in one platform |
| Voice messages and tunable cadences | Solutionreach | Text, email and voice with custom criteria |
| Recall, reactivation and marketing from one vendor | RevenueWell | Recall and reactivation in the base plan |
| Mailed postcards and letters for patients who ignore texts | Lighthouse 360, PracticeMojo | Both include mail in the outreach mix |
| Recall plus AI call answering from one vendor | PatientXpress | Recall and an AI receptionist on one site |
What Results Look Like
Elva does not publish customer results, so the figures below come from a demo practice with sample data. They show what you would see on the Recall dashboard, not what a customer achieved. Do not read them as expected outcomes.
| Recall (demo practice) | Steps | Patients in progress | Visits booked, last 30 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hygiene, 6 month | 4 (text, email, call, call) | 412 | 58 |
| Perio maintenance, 3 month | 3 (text, email, call) | 88 | 14 |
| Lapsed, 18 months and over | 4 (text, email, call, call) | 1,316 | 21 |
| Annual exam | 3 (text, email, call) | 214 | 22 |
| Oral cancer screening | 2 (text, email) | 96 | 9 |
The dashboard headline for this demo practice reads “Six recalls are running. They booked 131 visits in the last 30 days.” The sixth running recall is a birthday message (61 sent in 30 days, no booking request), and 2,131 patients are in a recall. The audience builder shows how the lists are formed. In the sample data, 143 patients were overdue for hygiene by three months or more, 470 were due for hygiene, including 58 not yet in a recall (unrelated to the 58 booked visits above), and 96 were due for perio maintenance.
This is the kind of dental recall reporting to ask every vendor for: visits booked per recall type, not messages sent. In a demo we walk through the audience builder and the messages your patients would get. The same engine runs Elva’s unused dental benefits reminders before benefits reset.
Two Questions to Ask on Every Demo
How do I know the software is booking patients? Ask for booked visits for each recall type over the last 30 days, not a single total. Compare patients in progress to visits booked for hygiene, perio and lapsed recalls separately, and ask which patients the recall could not reach and why.
What still goes to a human? Patients who have not booked after several messages, and anyone whose reply needs a judgment call. In Elva, those calls go to Triage Inbox with who to call, why, and what the patient has already been sent. If nobody records the outcome within five open days (the default), Elva marks the call not attempted and moves the patient to the next step.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best dental recall software?
On the four criteria in this comparison (PMS coverage, recall types, booking path and channels), Elva ranks first. It runs hygiene, perio and lapsed recalls separately and books the visit in the conversation. NexHealth leads on independent rating and Weave on review volume. Match the tool to your PMS and your main job before you weigh the order.
What is the difference between dental recall software and appointment reminders?
Dental recall software contacts patients who are due or overdue and have no appointment. Appointment reminders go to patients who already have a visit. Most platforms offer both, but they are separate settings.
What is dental recare?
Recare is another name for recall, used by some practices and vendors. It means contacting patients to bring them back for their next hygiene visit, exam or maintenance appointment.
How does recall software connect to my practice management system?
It reads due dates and appointment data from your PMS, and some tools write bookings back to the schedule. Check the vendor’s named list for your system and ask whether a booking made from a message appears in your schedule in real time.
How much does dental recall software cost?
Most vendors do not publish prices. Review sites list Weave from $199 per month per location, RevenueWell Starter at $189 a month and Solutionreach from $329 a month, all as of October 2026. Elva provides a quote within 24 hours, and the rest of the tools here are by quote.
Try Elva Recall on Your Own Schedule
You already know who is overdue. The question is whether anyone has time to chase every one of them. Elva’s hygiene recall is built before you log in. You review the wording and press Start, and nothing is sent until you do. Patients who do not book reach your team with who to call and why.
In a demo we show the recalls that are ready on day one and the messages your patients would get. Book a demo and see how Elva follows up with your overdue patients.
Sources
Vendor facts are from each vendor’s own website and from Capterra, G2 and GetApp, retrieved October 25 and 26, 2026, unless noted. We do not link to vendor sites.
- ADA Health Policy Institute, “National Trends in Dental Care Use, Dental Insurance Coverage, and Cost Barriers,” September 2026 (linked above); also reported by Becker’s Dental Review, October 16, 2026.
- NexHealth: recall feature page on nexhealth.com; G2 listing (modified October 17, 2026).
- Dental Intelligence: dental recall system page on dentalintel.com; Capterra listing (October 21, 2026).
- Weave: dental recall page on getweave.com; Capterra listing (October 19, 2026).
- Solutionreach: recall page on solutionreach.com (modified January 8, 2026); GetApp listing (October 2026).
- RevenueWell: plans page on revenuewell.com; Capterra listing (September 30, 2026).
- Lighthouse 360: consumables page (modified September 2021) and supported-platforms page (modified November 2023) on lh360.com; Capterra listing (retrieved October 26, 2026).
- PatientXpress: dental recall software and features pages on patientxpress.us; Capterra listing (September 29, 2026).
- PracticeMojo: ReachAll recall page and homepage on practicemojo.com; Capterra listing (October 19, 2026).
- Open Dental recall settings: opendental.com manual, retrieved October 15, 2026.
- Elva: elva.ai feature pages for hygiene recall and patient reactivation, retrieved October 26, 2026. Dashboard figures: demo practice with sample data, not customer results.
