Setting Up Your Texting and Calling Number

Your texting and calling number is the business phone number your practice uses to reach patients directly from Dental Marketing Tool. This guide walks you through claiming that number so your team can send texts, make calls, and handle missed call text-backs all from one place.

What This Number Does

Once your number is set up, every outbound text and call to patients goes through it. Patients will see a consistent local number when you reach out, and any replies or return calls come straight into your Conversations inbox. You can also hand the number off to AI features like the voice receptionist or automated reminder messages.

• Send and receive text messages with patients
• Make and receive calls from inside the platform or the mobile app
• Power automated appointment reminders and reactivation campaigns
• Enable missed call text-back so no patient goes unanswered

Before You Begin

A few things to have ready before you claim your number:

• Your practice address and business name as they appear officially. The registration process uses this to verify your number.
• Access to your Dental Marketing Tool account as the account owner or a user with admin permissions.
• A credit card or wallet balance on file to cover per-message and per-minute usage fees. See Wallet and Usage Charges Explained for details on how those charges work.

Claiming Your Number

1. From the left menu, click Settings.
2. Under the Business Profile section, select Phone Numbers.
3. Click Add Number.
4. Choose your preferred area code. Enter the area code for your city or the surrounding area where most of your patients live. You can also search by city name.
5. Browse the available numbers and click Select next to the one you want. Local numbers tend to get better response rates from patients who see an unfamiliar caller ID.
6. Confirm the selection. The platform will provision the number and attach it to your account.

Completing Business Registration

After claiming a number, you will be prompted to complete business registration. This is required by wireless carriers before you can send outbound texts at scale. The form asks for:

• Your legal business name
• Business address and website
• A brief description of how you will use texting (for example, appointment reminders and patient follow-ups)
• Estimated monthly message volume

Submit the form and allow up to a few business days for approval. You can still send individual messages while registration is pending, but bulk campaigns will be held until the number is fully approved.

Setting a Default Number

If your account has more than one number (for example, if you added a second location), you can choose which number goes out by default:

1. Go to Settings, then Phone Numbers.
2. Find the number you want as the primary outbound number.
3. Click the three-dot menu next to it and select Set as Default.

Your team can still choose a different number when composing a message, but the default will pre-fill automatically.

Forwarding Calls to Your Office Line

Calls made to your platform number can be forwarded to your physical front-desk phone so your team never misses a patient. To set this up:

1. Go to Settings, then Phone Numbers.
2. Click the number you want to configure.
3. Under Call Forwarding, enter your office phone number.
4. Click Save.

When call forwarding is on, inbound calls ring your office first. If no one answers, the platform can trigger a missed call text-back automatically.

Next Steps

With your number active, your practice is ready to start communicating. A good place to continue is Sending and Replying to Text Messages to see how your team handles patient conversations day to day. You may also want to set up Missed Call Text-Back so patients hear from you immediately even when the phones are busy.