Dental practices: scheduling several dentists and chairs

A dental practice with several dentists can put every chair on one Book page. Give each dentist their own services, such as "Check-up with Dr Martin", open their slots in the surgery and on the days they work, and give the hygienist services of their own. Keep a few urgent slots each day for patients in pain, and move patients between dentists when someone is away. The practice pays €5/month, whatever the number of dentists.

Book gives one booking page per business. Each service has a name, a price and an optional description shown on the page, and each slot belongs to one service, sits within one day and has its own number of places. There's no staff field, so the dentist's name goes in the service name. Patients book their own dentist; new patients can take the first free new-patient exam with whichever dentist has room.

Lengths are examples: set your own, following your clinical protocols and the rules that apply to your practice. A price can be shown on each service if you wish; leave it empty to hide it.

Check-ups, new patient exams and hygienist appointments have a known length, so patients can book them online. Treatment appointments depend on the plan the dentist has drawn up: fillings, crowns, extractions or a series of visits. Don't open free treatment slots: at the end of the consultation, create the slot with the right length in the dentist's treatment service and book the patient into it straight away. With one place, the slot is full at once and never offered to anyone else; the service name stays on your page, with no free time to pick. First and last name are required, email and phone optional; with an email entered, the patient receives a confirmation with a calendar file.

Slots of different services can overlap, which is what lets two dentists work at the same time. Book doesn't know how many surgeries you have, so it won't stop three dentists being booked into two chairs. Plan it when you open slots: assign each dentist a surgery for each session of the week, and open their slots only in the sessions where they have a chair. If a chair is shared between a dentist and the hygienist, give them alternate days or half-days.

Slots repeat each week on the weekdays you choose until an end date, so each dentist's sessions become one series, and a part-time associate on Monday and Thursday has their own. When the rota changes, delete the remaining slots of the old series and create a new one.

A patient with a toothache needs to be seen soon, not in three weeks. Keep one or two urgent slots per day in a shared urgent service, spread over the dentists on duty, and say in the description what counts as urgent and to call the practice if no slot is left. Free urgent slots that are still open in the morning can be turned into check-ups by deleting them and opening check-up slots instead.

The booking form takes first name, last name, email and phone, plus an optional note. The note reaches the practice in the new booking email and appears in the patient's calendar file, so ask patients not to describe symptoms or medical history there; take that at the appointment.

Patients can't move or cancel online; the practice does it from the bookings list. Rescheduling works across services, so Dr Martin's check-ups can move into Dr Okafor's free slots, or to after the leave. Book doesn't email patients about changes, so call or message each patient, then delete the absent dentist's free slots. Every booking syncs with the practice's Google, iPhone or Mac calendar, so reception sees all chairs in one place. Book doesn't take payments; say how patients pay. Book costs €5/month for the practice, everything included: unlimited services and bookings, no commission, no contract.