Virtual receptionists and remote admin for Australian dental practices, honestly compared
8 dental virtual assistant, phone answering and AI receptionist services for Australian dental practices compared on published price, location and software.
We run one of the services on this list. DotVA places offshore VAs from 10 hours a week, and if all you need is overflow calls caught, a per-call service costs a fraction of what we do. That is the most useful thing we can tell you, so it comes first.
The method is the same as our comparison of Australian VA agencies. Every claim about another provider comes from its own website, checked on 11 November 2026 and linked in the table. Where a figure is not published we write “not stated publicly” rather than guess, and where a site does not say where its team works, we do not assume. Several names that appear in search results are left out because their sites were unreachable or carried no details we could check.
The services at a glance
| Service | What it is | Published price | Where the team is | Dental software named | Terms |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DotVA dental virtual receptionist (that’s us) | One dedicated VA for reception plus recall, reactivation and health fund admin | $12-17/hr admin, $18-25/hr specialist, AUD ex GST, from 10 hrs/week | Philippines, working Australian business hours | Dental4Windows, Dental4Web, EXACT, Praktika, Core Practice | No lock-in contract; stop any time in the first 14 days, then 30 days’ notice; free replacement any time |
| Smart Online Staff | Dedicated full-time dental VA, office-based | Flat monthly fee quoted on request; $300 setup (GST basis not stated) | Cebu City, Philippines; Brisbane head office | Not stated publicly | ”Rolling 30-day contracts, no lock-ins” |
| Everest Practice Management | Dedicated remote receptionist for health practices | $2,500-3,000 a month for its virtual medical receptionist; pricing “depends on industry and years of experience”; hours and GST basis not stated | Philippines; Sydney management | No dental system named; its dental page lists medical systems | Pricing page: 3-month minimum term, then 30 days’ notice |
| HealthDoers | Offshore dental receptionist or dental admin support; HR, payroll and support included | ”From $24,000 /year” all-inclusive; hours and GST basis not stated | Filipino staff; offices in Richmond VIC and Taguig, Metro Manila | Dental4Windows, EXACT, Carestream | No lock-in contracts; 30 days’ written notice |
| Tarino | Recruiter: you engage and pay the person directly | $5,000 once excl GST, then no monthly fee to Tarino for a direct hire | Philippines-based hires; Tarino is in Sydney | No dental page; no dental system named | No lock-in; replacement search within 6 months |
| OfficeHQ | Per-call answering | $25 a month plus $2.65 a call for messages; $35 a month plus $3.40 a call on its MyReceptionist Starter plan, ex GST | Majority in Australia, with overseas overflow | No dental system named | No minimum term; 7-day free trial |
| Your Phones Covered | Per-call answering; diary management as a paid add-on | Per week ex GST on its Australian-team Essential tier: 55 calls a month $49; 105 calls a month $89 | Essential in Australia during standard hours; Value plan and after-hours calls in the Philippines | No dental system named | Pricing page: “no lock-in contracts”. Terms: minimum engagement two months; notice to the end of the plan period or 28 days, whichever is longer |
| Dentalflo AI | AI receptionist for dental practices: web chat, voice and SMS by plan | $299 a month for web chat and booking, $499 with inbound AI voice and outbound SMS, $899 with outbound voice, inbound SMS and campaigns; billed every six months, excl GST | AI, 24/7; Gold Coast office | Lists Dental4Windows, Dental4Web, Dentally, Principle, Core Practice and Praktika among its partners | 6 or 12 month term; renews automatically unless 30 days’ written notice is given before expiry; ending early leaves the rest of the term payable; fees non-refundable except where the law requires |
Checked on each provider’s own pages on 11 November 2026. “Not stated publicly” means we could not find the figure on the provider’s public pages; it is an observation, not a criticism.
Our row in full is on pricing. If a 30-minute call beats ten tabs, book a discovery call, and if another row fits your practice better we will tell you on the call.
Three products, one front desk
- A per-call answering service (OfficeHQ, Your Phones Covered). A shared team answers overflow calls in your practice’s name and takes a message or transfers; booking into your appointment book is a dearer plan or add-on. Our comparison of virtual receptionist services covers the plans in detail.
- A dental AI receptionist (Dentalflo AI). Software that answers calls and web chat around the clock, books, and, in Dentalflo’s words, “follows up automatically until the patient books”. Outbound calls and campaigns are on its $899 plan, and it is sold on six or twelve month terms.
- A dedicated remote receptionist or VA (DotVA, Smart Online Staff, Everest Practice Management, HealthDoers, or a direct hire through Tarino). One person in your practice software for set hours. With us that person answers the phone and also works the lists a busy front desk never gets to: recalls, reactivation of lapsed patients, cancellation backfill, HICAPS exceptions and overdue accounts.
What a dedicated person costs
Where we have multiplied, that is our arithmetic, not the provider’s figure.
| Option | Published price | What that buys |
|---|---|---|
| DotVA, part-time | $12-17/hr ex GST | 10 hours a week for about $520-736 a month |
| DotVA, full-time | $12-17/hr ex GST | 40 hours a week for about $2,078-2,944 a month |
| Everest Practice Management | $2,500-3,000 a month | Its virtual medical receptionist; hours not stated |
| HealthDoers | From $24,000 a year | A dental receptionist; hours not stated |
| Tarino | $5,000 once, then the salary you agree with your hire | A direct hire you pay and manage yourself |
| OfficeHQ MyReceptionist 100, for comparison | $370 a month ex GST | 100 answered calls with messages; call transfers are listed as an add-on |
Where we fit is part-time. Most dental front desks do not need a second full-time person; they need the recall list and the phones covered for the busiest 10 to 20 hours of the week.
How to compare them
- Overflow or ownership? If the desk copes except at peaks, buy overflow. If recalls and reactivation never get done, buy a person.
- Which software? Ask for experience in your system by name, and check how remote access will work if your system is server-based.
- How many hours? Smart Online Staff places full-time assistants, and Everest and HealthDoers do not state hours against their prices. If you need 10 to 20 hours, check the minimum first.
- What are the exit terms? For a dedicated person, published terms run from a rolling 30 days to a three-month minimum; the per-call services run from no minimum to two months; the AI option is sold on six or twelve month terms.
- Who handles money? Decide which health fund, payment plan and overdue account tasks you will delegate, and write the rules down before anyone starts.
Privacy and clinical boundaries
Health information is sensitive information under the Privacy Act. Giving an overseas assistant access is, in most cases, a cross-border disclosure under APP 8 of the Australian Privacy Principles: you must take reasonable steps to make sure the overseas recipient handles the information in line with the APPs, and you generally remain accountable if they do not. Our guide to hiring an offshore VA legally covers the obligations, and the setup we use is on our data security page.
Whoever answers, the clinical line stays with the practice: no treatment advice, no triage decisions. A receptionist follows your written rules for dental emergencies and passes everything clinical to your team.
Who should pick whom
- Overflow and after-hours calls only: OfficeHQ by the call, or Your Phones Covered if you also want its team booking into your diary.
- Every call and web chat answered and booked around the clock, and you are comfortable with a six-month term: Dentalflo AI.
- A full-time dedicated assistant working from a managed office: Smart Online Staff, on a rolling 30-day contract.
- An offshore receptionist with a published price: Everest Practice Management (priced for its virtual medical receptionist), or HealthDoers, which names Dental4Windows and EXACT.
- A hire you are happy to engage and manage yourself: Tarino, for a one-off fee.
- 10 to 30 hours a week from one dedicated person covering the phones, recalls, reactivation and health fund admin: that is the practice we built DotVA for. See what the work looks like on our dental practices and dental virtual receptionist pages, or by software: Dental4Web, EXACT and Praktika.
Run your own numbers
Price your hours on the VA cost calculator and check our tiers on pricing. Medical practices have their own comparison. If the right answer for your practice is one of the other names in the table, we would rather you find that out now than in month two.