Scheduling Software for Dentists and Hygienists
Patients book new patient exams, hygiene visits and emergency slots online, after the reception phone has stopped ringing for the day. Hosted in the EU.
Updated 31 October 2026
Why do dental practices lose patients to the phone queue?
People look for a dentist when it suits them, which is often after the practice has closed. If the only way to book is to ring reception in the morning, some of them never call. Those who do call compete with patients rescheduling, asking about bills and reporting toothache. Tymeslot puts the appointments that suit online booking, such as new patient exams, hygiene visits and consultations, on a booking page that works at any hour, and leaves the phone for the calls that need a person.
Which dental appointments suit online booking
Not every dental appointment should be booked online. Treatment that depends on an examination, such as a root canal or a crown fit, belongs in your practice-management system. What patients can book themselves is the first step: a new patient exam, a scale and polish with the hygienist, a consultation about whitening or aligners, and a same-day emergency slot.
Those four have different lengths and different rules. Emergency slots should open only a day or two ahead and be limited per day. Cosmetic consultations take time to prepare and are easy to book on a whim. In Tymeslot each gets its own meeting type, availability schedule and limits, and on Pro a consultation can take a fixed deposit through your own Stripe account.
Everything dentists need. Nothing they don't.
A Meeting Type per Appointment
New patient exams, hygiene visits, cosmetic consultations and emergency slots each get their own duration, booking link and availability schedule.
Emergency Slots With a Daily Limit
Open emergency appointments only a day or two ahead and cap them per day, so toothache bookings never take over a day of planned treatment.
Time to Turn the Surgery Round
Set a buffer on each availability schedule for decontaminating instruments and setting up the surgery. Tymeslot never offers that time to the next patient.
Deposits for Consultations
On Pro, take a fixed deposit through your own Stripe account when a whitening or aligner consultation is booked. Routine hygiene can stay free to book.
Reminders Before Every Visit
Choose reminder times per meeting type: a week and a day before a hygiene visit booked months ahead, two hours before an emergency slot booked this morning.
Aligner Consultations by Video
Offer a cosmetic consultation at the practice or by video and let the patient choose. If they pick video, Tymeslot adds a Google Meet, Zoom or Teams link to the booking.
Privacy and compliance for dentists
Clinical notes, radiographs and treatment plans stay in your practice-management system, under the duties you already meet for them. A booking page is a second, smaller store of patient information: a name, contact details, a time and the answers to whatever you ask. The rules below decide what that store should hold and who gets to see it.
A reason for the visit is health data
GDPR Article 9 treats data concerning health as a special category. "Toothache since Friday" or "crown came off" typed into a booking form is exactly that. Give the emergency meeting type a neutral name, ask for a phone number rather than symptoms, and triage on the call.
The medical history belongs in the record
The GDC expects each patient record to hold an up-to-date medical history. Answers collected on a booking page would sit outside that record, so ask only what scheduling needs and take the history through your practice-management system's forms or at the chair.
Booking answers reach your calendar
Tymeslot writes each booking, with the patient's name and answers, into the calendar you connect. GDC standard 4.5 asks you to keep patient information secure whether it is on paper or electronic, so connect a practice calendar only the clinical and reception team can open, never a personal or family one.
- Hosted in the EU
- Signed DPA on Enterprise only
- Self-hosting for full control
- No HIPAA BAA on any plan
See the difference
Without Tymeslot
With Tymeslot
Common scheduling scenarios
How do dental practices let new patients book online?
Someone looking for a new dentist often compares a few practices in one evening. The one where they can book there and then has an advantage over the one that asks them to call during opening hours.
- Create a "New patient exam" meeting type of 45 minutes on its own availability schedule, open at the times you keep for new patients.
- Ask whether the appointment is for an adult or a child and for a phone number (booking questions are a Pro feature on the managed service).
- Embed the booking page on your practice website, or link to it from your listing on maps and search.
- Use the meeting type's description for parking, step-free access and a reminder to bring a list of current medicines for the history form.
How do dental practices reduce missed appointments?
Hygiene visits are often booked months ahead, and they are the ones patients forget. Phoning everyone the day before takes reception time that is needed elsewhere.
- Give the hygiene meeting type reminders a week and a day before: far enough ahead that a patient who cannot come still has time to move.
- The patient picks another hygiene session from the reschedule link in their confirmation email instead of ringing reception.
- The chair time they gave up reappears on the booking page at once, where a patient hoping for an earlier visit can take it.
- Keep hygiene free to book and take a fixed deposit on Pro only for whitening and aligner consultations.
How do dental practices offer same-day emergency slots without losing control of the day?
A patient with toothache wants to be seen today. A practice that sets aside a few emergency slots can help them, as long as those slots cannot swallow a day of planned treatment.
- Create an "Emergency appointment" meeting type of 30 minutes on its own schedule, with a booking horizon of 2 days and a minimum notice of 1 hour.
- Limit it to two bookings a day, so the rest of the day stays for planned work.
- Turn on host approval if you want to phone the patient before confirming the slot.
- Write your out-of-hours arrangements in the meeting type's description, for patients who cannot wait for the next free slot.
See Tymeslot in action
A starter setup for dentists
| Meeting type | Duration | Buffer | Minimum notice | Bookable ahead | Payment at booking |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New patient exam | 45 min | 15 min | 1 day | 6 weeks | None |
| Hygiene appointment | 45 min | 15 min | 1 day | 365 days | None |
| Cosmetic consultation | 30 min | 15 min | 2 days | 6 weeks | €40 deposit at booking |
| Emergency appointment | 30 min | 15 min | 1 hour | 2 days | None |
Intake questions
- Are you a new or an existing patient?
- Is the appointment for an adult or a child?
- Which phone number can we reach you on today?
- How did you hear about the practice?
Hygiene opens a full year ahead, so a patient on a six- or twelve-month recall can book the next visit at the desk on the way out, while emergency slots open only two days ahead. Because notice and horizon belong to the availability schedule, those two need separate schedules even if the same surgery runs both.
Tymeslot compared with Cliniko and Calendly
Next to Cliniko and Calendly, Tymeslot is the lowest-cost way for a dental practice to put EU-hosted online booking on its website, and the only one of the three it can run on its own server. These rows lead because a dental booking can reveal something about a patient's health, so where it is stored and under which agreement come first. The trade-off: Cliniko and Calendly include a data processing agreement on their standard plans, while Tymeslot signs one only on Enterprise.
| Feature | Tymeslot | Cliniko | Calendly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Signed data processing agreement | Enterprise: a signed DPA for the practice | Yes: incorporated into the terms where GDPR applies | Yes: accepted with the customer terms |
| Hosting in the EU | Yes: emergency and recall bookings stored in the EU | Yes: Ireland for accounts created in Europe | No: data is stored in US data centres |
| Self-hosting | Yes: practice IT can host it in-house | No: hosted service only | No: hosted service only |
| Entry price | Free for recalls; Pro €9/month for deposits | US$45/month for 1 practitioner | $10/seat/month, billed yearly |
Sources checked 5 October 2026.
How much time could you save?
A rough estimate, not a promise.
180
minutes saved per week
156.0
hours saved per year
€14,040
annual value of saved time
Which calendars and tools do dentists use with Tymeslot?
Start free, upgrade when you're ready
Free covers exams, hygiene recalls and capped emergency slots with reminders. The starter setup's questions (new or existing patient, adult or child, a phone number for the day) and the €40 consultation deposit need Pro at €9/month. A practice whose IT keeps patient systems in-house can self-host instead.
Free
€0 / month
Pro
€9 / month