Calendars Overview

This article explains how online booking works inside Dental Marketing Tool and clarifies the difference between calendars, appointment types, and availability so you can get your schedule accepting new patients quickly.

How Online Booking Works

When a patient visits your booking link or fills out the widget on your website, Dental Marketing Tool checks your real-time availability and presents only the open slots that match the appointment type they selected. Once they confirm a time, the appointment lands directly on your calendar inside the platform, a confirmation goes out automatically, and the patient record is created or updated in your contacts. No phone tag required.

Every booking flows through three building blocks: a calendar, one or more appointment types, and your availability settings. Understanding how these three pieces work together makes the rest of the setup straightforward.

Calendars

A calendar is the container that holds appointments for a specific provider, operatory, or service line. Most single-provider offices start with one calendar. Practices with multiple dentists or hygienists typically set up a separate calendar for each team member so patients book directly with the right person.

You can also create round-robin calendars that distribute bookings evenly across available providers, which is useful for new-patient exams when any doctor can take the appointment. See Team and Round-Robin Calendars for details on that setup.

Appointment Types

Appointment types define what a patient is booking and how long that slot should be held. A new-patient exam, a cleaning, a consultation, and an emergency visit are all separate appointment types with their own durations. When you attach appointment types to a calendar, patients choose from that list when they book online.

You control the name, duration, and any intake questions for each type. For example, you might ask new patients to describe their chief concern or confirm their insurance before they ever set foot in the office. Read Setting Up Appointment Types and Durations to configure these.

Availability

Availability tells the booking engine which days and hours are open for each calendar. You set your standard office hours once, and the platform uses them every week automatically. You can also block specific dates for holidays, staff meetings, or continuing education days without touching your regular schedule.

If you connect your Google or Outlook calendar, existing events there will block off time so patients cannot double-book you. Learn more in Two-Way Sync with Google or Outlook Calendar. For blocking individual days, see Blocking Time Off and Holidays.

Where to Find Your Calendars

1. From the main menu, click Calendars.
2. The Calendar View shows all appointments across your calendars in a daily, weekly, or monthly layout.
3. To manage calendar settings, click the Settings icon in the top right of the Calendars screen, then select Calendars from the left sidebar.
4. From there you can add a new calendar, edit an existing one, or adjust appointment types and availability for each calendar.

Automatic Confirmations and Reminders

Once a patient books, Dental Marketing Tool can send a confirmation text or email right away and follow up with reminders as the appointment approaches. This runs in the background and significantly reduces no-shows without anyone at the front desk having to make reminder calls. You set the timing and message content once, and the platform handles the rest. See Automated Appointment Reminders to turn this on.

Next Steps

If you have not created your first calendar yet, Creating Your First Booking Calendar walks you through the full setup in a few minutes. Once your calendar is live, head to Sharing Your Booking Link and Website Widget to put the booking button in front of patients.