The Problem: Families Were Calling After Hours and Getting Voicemail
Dr. Rachel Homann has run Homann Orthodontics in Chesterfield, Missouri for eleven years. Her practice handles everything from traditional metal braces to Invisalign for teens and adults, and she operates out of a clean, modern office with a team of four dental assistants and two front-desk coordinators. From the outside, the practice looks exactly like it's thriving — because it is. But behind the scenes, her front desk team was drowning in a specific, recurring problem: families were calling or messaging after 5 p.m. and not getting answers until the next morning at the earliest.
The inquiry pattern at an orthodontic practice is predictable. Parents research treatment options in the evenings after kids are in bed. They find the practice website, read about Invisalign versus traditional braces, look at before-and-after photos, and then they have questions. How long does treatment typically take? Do you accept Delta Dental? What's the process for a free consultation? What's the difference between Invisalign Teen and regular Invisalign? Can my child start before all their adult teeth are in? These are answerable questions. But at 9 p.m. on a Tuesday, nobody at Homann Orthodontics was there to answer them.
The front desk team reviewed voicemails every morning at 8 a.m. sharp. On a typical weekday, they'd find six to ten messages. Some were from existing patients with adjustment questions. Others were from new families genuinely interested in starting treatment. But by the time callbacks happened — usually by 10 or 11 a.m. — some of those families had already booked a free consultation with a competing practice that had a faster response time. Dr. Homann estimated that her practice was losing four to six new patient consultations per month simply due to response lag. At an average treatment value of $5,800, that represented upward of $30,000 in lost revenue per year from families who were ready to move forward and simply went with whoever got back to them first.
Insurance questions compounded the problem. Orthodontic insurance varies wildly by plan and employer, and patients wanted to know whether their specific plan was accepted before they even scheduled a consultation. The front desk team spent an estimated 45 minutes per day just fielding insurance calls — most of which were the same five questions repeated by different callers.
The Solution: An AI Chatbot That Answers the Questions Families Are Actually Asking
Dr. Homann partnered with Anchor Co AI to deploy a chatbot on Homann Orthodontics' website. The setup focused on the questions that were eating the most staff time and causing the most after-hours drop-off. The Anchor Co AI team trained the chatbot on the practice's full treatment menu — traditional metal braces, clear ceramic braces, Invisalign, Invisalign Teen, and early orthodontic treatment for younger children. It learned the typical treatment timelines for each, the general process for a free consultation, what patients should expect at a first visit, and how to describe the practice's in-house payment plan options.
For insurance, the chatbot was trained to clearly explain which major carriers the practice accepts as a general category while directing patients to call the office for plan-specific benefit verification — handling the question in a way that was accurate, helpful, and didn't require staff to verify coverage live on the phone before a consultation was even booked.
The chatbot also captured new patient inquiry information through a structured intake form embedded in the conversation. Families who were ready to schedule were guided to submit their name, contact info, child's age, and questions — and that information arrived in the practice's inbox instantly, flagged as a new patient lead.
What the Chatbot Does
- Explains the differences between metal braces, ceramic braces, Invisalign, and Invisalign Teen — including cost range, duration, and candidacy factors
- Answers frequently asked insurance questions — which carriers are generally accepted, how to verify benefits before a consultation, and what the practice's in-house financing looks like
- Describes the free consultation process — what to bring, what to expect, how long it takes, and that no commitment is required
- Addresses early treatment questions for parents of younger children, including what ages the practice typically sees and when a first orthodontic evaluation is recommended
- Captures new patient inquiry information through a structured form and routes it to the front desk as a flagged lead, even at midnight
- Handles questions about retainers, post-treatment care, and what happens if a bracket breaks — reducing callbacks from existing patients
The Results
- After-hours lead capture increased by 40% — new patient inquiry forms now arrive around the clock, not just during office hours
- Front desk insurance call volume dropped by 38% within the first 60 days of deployment
- Estimated $18,000 in recovered new patient revenue in the first six months, based on three additional consultations per month that previously would have been lost to slow response time
- Average response time for new patient inquiries dropped from 14 hours to under 2 minutes for website visitors who engage the chatbot
- Staff reported fewer frustrated voicemail callbacks — callers who got answers through the chatbot were better informed and more ready to commit when they did speak with the front desk
Why It's a Perfect Fit
Orthodontic practices have a unique combination of high-ticket services and an information-heavy pre-commitment phase. Families rarely book a consultation without researching extensively first, and they have real, specific questions before they're willing to even schedule. A chatbot that can answer those questions instantly — at 9 p.m. when they're actually researching — removes the friction that causes families to move on to the next practice in the search results.
The after-hours problem is especially acute because orthodontic patients skew toward families with school-age children. Parents of those children tend to do their research in the evening. Any practice that isn't available to answer questions after 5 p.m. is invisible during the highest-intent window of the day.
Dr. Homann put it simply: "We were doing everything right during business hours. The chatbot fixed what was happening when we weren't there."
Anchor Co AI sets this up for orthodontic practices starting at $29/month. See what's included at anchorcoai.com/pricing.