Business phone system for dental offices

Dental offices in the United States

County Business Patterns counted 135,665 dental offices in the U.S. in 2023 (NAICS 621210, Offices of Dentists). They employed 1,028,889 people in mid-March and paid $62.5 billion in annual payroll. The average establishment has 7.6 employees. That is 39.9 establishments for every 100,000 residents.

California has the most (22,757), followed by Texas (11,902), Florida (9,039), and New York (8,001). Relative to population, California leads with 57.7 per 100,000 residents, and West Virginia has the fewest at 26.7.

Why the phone matters for dental offices

Dental appointments are booked, moved and confirmed by phone, and a new patient whose call goes unanswered can simply dial the next practice on the list. Front desks also juggle insurance questions and hygiene recalls while patients are standing at the counter.

Calls dental offices commonly handle:

• A new patient calls to ask whether the practice accepts their insurance plan.
• A patient with a cracked tooth calls first thing in the morning asking for a same-day visit.
• The front desk calls a list of patients who are overdue for a cleaning.
• A parent calls to reschedule two children's appointments around school.
• A specialist's office calls to coordinate a referral.

Texting and after-hours calls

Dental front desks text appointment confirmations, reschedule requests and simple directions to the office.

After-hours calls are often about dental pain or a lost filling, so a voicemail that is transcribed and flagged for urgency helps staff decide who to call back first in the morning.

Practices that handle protected health information should review their own privacy obligations before recording calls, enabling AI summaries or texting appointment details, and keep clinical conversations out of text messages unless their policies allow it.

How big dental offices are

37.7% of U.S. dental offices with employees had fewer than five people in March 2023. 73.1% had fewer than ten. Most phone decisions in this industry are made for small teams, where one shared number and sensible routing matter more than a desk phone per person.

Dental offices by state

Establishment counts for the 51 states (and DC) where Census published a figure, with the rate per 100,000 residents.

Largest metro areas for dental offices

Census published dental office counts for 918 metro and micropolitan areas. The 25 largest:

Callata vs. per-seat pricing for dental offices in the U.S.

The average U.S. dental office has 7.6 employees, so the comparison uses an 8-person team. On a per-user plan that headcount sets the bill: $199.60 a month on Ooma Office Pro or $240.00 on RingCentral RingEX Core at list price (checked September 28, 2026). On Callata the same 8 people cost $159.00 a month, less than either per-seat plan.

The annual difference against RingCentral's monthly list price comes to $972. Some vendors discount annual contracts; the table shows month-to-month prices.

How Callata works for dental offices

Callata is a business phone system priced at $99 a month with 5 users included, then $20 per additional user. Callata Office includes up to 3 local business numbers, unlimited inbound calling, 1,500 pooled outbound US and Canada minutes per user each month, a browser softphone that can also ring your cell, voicemail with transcription, call recording with AI summaries, business-hours routing and E911 on every number.

Existing numbers can be ported at no charge, and team texting turns on after the one-time $49 carrier registration (10DLC) is approved.

Optional AI agents (receptionist, sales, support or scheduler) can answer calls after hours or when nobody picks up, take messages, text, email and transfer to your team. They are billed from prepaid AI minutes at $0.25 per minute, identify themselves as AI, and may only place outbound calls to people who consented, between 8am and 9pm.