# Answer Every Dolphin Practice Call, Including the 8pm Ones

> AI receptionist for Dolphin Management practices. Answer every call 24/7 -- new consults, reschedules and broken brackets -- with no change to your PMS.

**Canonical:** https://gethelpdesk.ai/integrations/dolphin/

## In short

Yes, but the connection works differently from a cloud PMS. Dolphin Management is a Windows client-server product and Dolphin does not publish a public REST API -- documented third-party integrations run through a local bridge configured per workstation and are typically one-way pushes out of Dolphin.

## Specifications

| | |
| --- | --- |
| System | Dolphin |
| Vendor | Dolphin Imaging & Management Solutions (a Patterson Dental brand) |
| Deployment | Windows client/server on-premise; Dolphin Cloud is hosted remote-desktop access, not a browser app |
| Best for | Imaging-led orthodontic and oral surgery practices, multi-doctor and academic-lineage offices |
| How we connect | Configured per practice against your Dolphin environment and version during onboarding |
| Included in plans | All plans, at no additional cost |

## Overview

Dolphin Imaging & Management Solutions is a Patterson Dental brand serving orthodontists, oral surgeons and ortho-pedo practitioners.

## At a glance

- **24/7** -- Answering that does not depend on your server
- **Zero** -- Software installed on your Dolphin workstations
- **Under 1s** -- Answer time, with no hold queue and no IVR menu

## What the AI can do inside Dolphin

| Action | Supported | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Answer every call 24/7 | Yes | Entirely independent of Dolphin, so it works when Dolphin does not. |
| Qualify a new-patient consult | Yes | Your own intake questions, asked consistently, captured in writing. |
| Triage a broken bracket or post-op question | Yes | Prioritised and escalated on your protocol. The AI never assesses clinically. |
| Capture a confirmed, ready-to-enter booking | Yes | Complete with type, provider preference and timing, so entry is seconds rather than a callback. |
| Read live schedule availability | Scoped at setup | Depends on your Dolphin version and hosting. Confirmed before you commit. |
| Write an appointment into Dolphin | Scoped at setup | Dolphin publishes no open API. We will not promise write-back we have not established for your environment. |
| Install software on Dolphin workstations | No | Deliberately not. Nothing touches the machines running your Dolphin clients. |
| Imaging, tracing or clinical records | No | Out of scope. That is what Dolphin is for. |

## Why GetHelpdesk.AI for Dolphin

### Fixes the new-patient flow

The gap Dolphin's own users name most often is the front end.

### Independent of your server

Reviewers report Dolphin going down office-wide or on single workstations.

### Nothing installed on your workstations

Call forwarding is a change your phone admin makes in minutes.

### Not competing for your bandwidth

Dolphin's own guidance warns that office VoIP contends with Dolphin for the same connection.

### Knows orthodontic appointment types

A bonding, a wire change, a debond and a retainer check need different chair time and often different providers.

### Covers oral surgery too

Dolphin serves OMS as well as orthodontics.

## How the integration works

1. **Forward the line** -- Your carrier or phone admin points the number at us -- overflow, after-hours or the full line.
2. **Capture your booking rules** -- Your real appointment types, durations, provider templates, emergency protocol and the questions your coordinator always asks a new consult.
3. **Establish what your version supports** -- We check your Dolphin Management version and hosting setup and tell you plainly what schedule read and write-back is achievable -- rather than implying an API that does not exist.
4. **Review transcripts, then widen** -- Start narrow, read the first weeks of real calls together, tune the triage and the consult questions, then hand over more of the line.

## Features

- **Runs when Dolphin does not** -- Outages office-wide or per workstation stop taking your phone line down with them.
- **Consistent consult intake** -- The same qualifying questions on every enquiry, captured in writing rather than remembered.
- **Orthodontic and OMS call types** -- Consults, adjustments, debonds, retainer checks, referrals and post-operative questions.
- **Ready-to-enter bookings** -- Where write-back is not available, your coordinator gets a complete booking to key in -- not a callback list.
- **Transcript and summary on every call** -- Written record of what the caller wanted and what was promised.
- **25+ languages, detected automatically** -- No menu, no transfer, no waiting for a bilingual colleague.

## Use cases

### A Dolphin outage on a Tuesday morning

When the server is the single point of failure

Dolphin goes down office-wide. Nobody can see the book, so nobody can confidently answer the phone, so the calls stop being answered at all.

### The consult enquiry that arrived at 8pm

The new-patient flow gap

A parent researching treatment calls three practices after putting the children to bed. Dolphin is closed with the office.

### A coordinator tethered to a workstation

Dolphin Cloud is a remote desktop

A parent asks when their son can next be seen.


## FAQ

### Does Dolphin Management have an API?

Not a public one. Dolphin publishes no developer portal or open API reference.

### Do I need an IT team to install an AI receptionist with Dolphin?

No. The phone side is a call-forwarding change your carrier or phone admin can make in minutes, and nothing is installed on the workstations your Dolphin clients run on.

### Can the AI handle different orthodontic appointment types?

Yes, and in orthodontics it has to. A bonding, a wire change, a debond, a retainer check and a new-patient exam need different chair time, different providers and often different days.

### Is Dolphin Cloud the same as a cloud practice management system?

No, and the difference matters here. Dolphin Cloud is hosted remote-desktop access to Dolphin's infrastructure, reached through an RDP session rather than a browser, so your team still needs a proper workstation session to check the book.

### What happens when Dolphin is down but the phone still rings?

That is exactly when it earns its place. Dolphin reviewers report the software going down office-wide or on individual workstations, and Dolphin Cloud depends on a healthy remote-desktop session.

### Does this work for an oral surgery practice on Dolphin?

Yes. Dolphin serves oral and maxillofacial surgery alongside orthodontics, and the call mix is different -- referral calls from general dentists, consult enquiries, pre-operative questions and post-operative concerns.


## Other practice management systems

- [Cloud 9](https://gethelpdesk.ai/integrations/cloud9/) -- AI receptionist for Cloud 9
- [OrthoTrac](https://gethelpdesk.ai/integrations/orthotrac/) -- AI receptionist for OrthoTrac
- [athenahealth](https://gethelpdesk.ai/integrations/athenahealth/) -- AI receptionist for athenahealth
- [Curve Hero](https://gethelpdesk.ai/integrations/curve-hero/) -- AI receptionist for Curve Hero

## Next steps

- [Book a demo](https://gethelpdesk.ai/#schedule-demo)
- [All integrations](https://gethelpdesk.ai/integrations/)
- [Pricing](https://gethelpdesk.ai/pricing/)