A dental recall script works when it does four things in under ninety seconds: it names the date of the patient’s last visit, states exactly what is due and why, offers two specific appointment times instead of asking when would suit, and closes by asking permission to text. Everything else on the call is variation on those four moves. The five scripts below cover the recall calls a Canadian front desk actually makes.
Recall is the one piece of clinic admin where a phone call still outperforms a message, because an overdue patient has usually ignored at least one text already. According to Statistics Canada’s Canadian Oral Health Survey, approximately three in four Canadians aged 12 and older (72%) reported visiting an oral health professional in the previous 12 months, measured between November 2023 and March 2024. The rest of that population is, in clinic terms, overdue, and a list of them is sitting in your practice management system right now.
What a Dental Recall Script Has to Do
Most recall calls fail at the same point. Staff open warmly, explain that the patient is due for a cleaning, and then ask “when would be a good time for you?” That question hands the work back to the person who has already shown they will not do it. An open diary is an invitation to say “let me check and call you back”, which almost nobody does.
A recall phone script that books appointments is built the other way around. The caller carries the memory, names the gap, and narrows the choice to two options. For background on how recall intervals and due dates are set in the first place, see the guide to what dental recall is and how it works.
Each step earns its place. Naming the last visit date proves the call is about this patient and not a list. Stating what is due, in plain words rather than procedure codes, answers the question the patient is silently asking. Two named times remove the diary problem. The closing request for permission to text is the part almost every clinic forgets, and it is the part with legal weight, covered further down.
Open the chart. You need the date of the last visit, what was done, what the hygienist recommended next, any outstanding treatment, and the two appointment slots you intend to offer. A caller who has to search mid-sentence sounds like a telemarketer, and the patient hears it.
Five Dental Recall Call Scripts You Can Use Today
The five situations below need different openings, because the reason the patient is overdue is different in each. The goal of the call changes with them: one call is a booking, another is permission to keep in touch.
| Script | Situation | Goal of the call |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hygiene recall, 2 to 6 months past due | Book the cleaning on the call |
| 2 | Lapsed patient, 12 to 24 months since the last visit | Re-establish contact, then book |
| 3 | Treatment accepted at the chair, never booked | Book the treatment, not a cleaning |
| 4 | Cancelled and never rebooked | Fill the slot the cancellation left |
| 5 | No answer | Leave a message that returns a call |
“Hi {{first_name}}, it’s {{staff_name}} calling from {{clinic_name}}. I was going through the hygiene list and saw you were last in with {{hygienist_name}} in {{last_visit_month}}, so your cleaning is about four months past due. I have Tuesday the 14th at 10:20 in the morning, or Thursday the 16th at 4:40 in the afternoon. Would either of those work?”
“Hi {{first_name}}, {{staff_name}} from {{clinic_name}}. It has been a while, so I wanted to check you are still with us before I close off your recall. Your last visit was {{last_visit_month}} and {{hygienist_name}} had you on a six month interval. Are you still looking for a dental home nearby, or have you moved to another practice?”
“Hi {{first_name}}, it’s {{staff_name}} from {{clinic_name}}. When you saw Dr {{dentist_name}} in {{last_visit_month}}, the plan was the {{treatment_type}} on the lower right, and that one has not been booked yet. Dr {{dentist_name}} asked me to get it in the diary because waiting tends to make it a bigger appointment. I can do {{option_one}} or {{option_two}}.”
“Hi {{first_name}}, {{staff_name}} from {{clinic_name}}. You had to move your {{cancelled_date}} appointment and we never got you back in the book. I am holding {{option_one}} while we speak. Shall I put your name on it?”
“Hi {{first_name}}, this is {{staff_name}} from {{clinic_name}} in {{city}}. Could you call me back on {{clinic_phone}}? We are open until five today. Thank you.”
Handling the Three Objections You Will Actually Hear
Three answers account for most of what a recall caller hears, and each has talking points that keep the call alive without pushing.
“I cannot really afford it at the moment.” This is the most common and the most under-prepared for. Statistics Canada reported in February 2025 that 24% of Canadians aged 12 and older had avoided going to an oral health professional at least once because of the cost in the previous 12 months, and that the figure was 45% among those without dental insurance compared with 12% among those with public or private coverage. The useful reply is a question, not a discount: ask whether anything about their coverage has changed. Since the Canadian Dental Care Plan opened, a patient who could not pay two years ago may qualify now. Its four requirements are no access to private dental insurance, filed tax returns, an adjusted family net income under $90,000, and Canadian residency for tax purposes. What that means for a clinic’s own admin is set out in the guide to the Canadian Dental Care Plan for dental practices.
“I am too busy, can you call me back in a few months?” Agree, then pin it down. “That is fine. Rather than lose you in the system, shall I book something provisional for {{month}} and text you a reminder two weeks before? You can move it with one reply.” A provisional booking is a date; a promise to call back is a task that gets buried.
“Just send me a text.” Take it, and treat it as the most valuable sentence on the call. Confirm the number, say what you will send, and record the permission while you are still on the line. That is the consent conversation, and it has rules of its own.
Voicemail, and the Privacy Rule Clinics Get Wrong
A recall voicemail that names the procedure is a disclosure of health information to whoever plays the message. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada settled the principle in a case that had nothing to do with dentistry and everything to do with phone messages. In PIPEDA Report of Findings 2012–009, an insurance representative left a message about a client’s plans on her employer’s general voicemail. Her employer heard it and dismissed her. The Commissioner found the message “resulted in a disclosure of the complainant’s personal information, without her consent”, noted that messages left for one person “but that may be accessible to others may result in an accidental disclosure”, and recorded that the company “has no policy communicating to its employees how messages are to be left for clients”.
Transfer that to a dental front desk. A shared household phone, a work number, a partner who checks messages: none of them are the patient. The safe message carries four things and nothing else, which is why Script 5 is written the way it is.
The Consent and Do Not Call Rules Behind a Canadian Recall Call
Two separate rule sets apply to a recall programme, and clinics routinely apply the wrong one to the wrong channel.
The live call itself sits outside Canada’s anti-spam legislation. Section 6 of the Act does not apply to a commercial electronic message “that is, in whole or in part, an interactive two-way voice communication between individuals”. A member of staff speaking to a patient is that. The text you send afterwards is not, and it needs consent.
Which makes the call the best consent-gathering moment a clinic has. Section 10 of the Act requires that a request for express consent set out the purposes for which consent is being sought and prescribed information identifying the person seeking it, so the ask has to be specific. “Is it all right if we text you appointment reminders and your recall notices from {{clinic_name}} on this number?” does that work in one sentence. A vague “can we contact you?” does not.
Section 13 puts the onus of proving consent on whoever claims it, and the CRTC’s enforcement advisory on records of consent is blunt about what that means in practice: keep all evidence of express and implied consent, such as audio recordings, copies of signed consent forms or completed electronic forms, plus the documented methods through which consent was collected. A verbal yes on an unrecorded call is the weakest form of that evidence, so log the date, the time, the staff member, and the exact wording used, or follow up with a form the patient actions. The mechanics, and the consent wording for each channel, are in the guide to getting CASL consent for dental SMS.
The second rule set is the National Do Not Call List, which governs the call rather than the text. Its consumer FAQ lists organisations a person has done business with in the last 18 months, or asked about in the last 6 months, among those who may still call a registered number, alongside anyone holding that person’s express consent. It also states that all telemarketers must keep their own internal do not call lists, and that the National DNCL covers personal telephone numbers rather than business-to-business calls.
The practical consequence for recall is a date, and it is one worth putting on a dashboard. A patient seen eight months ago sits comfortably inside that 18 month window. A patient whose last appointment was three years ago does not, so the prudent order of operations is express consent first, or a check against the list, before the call. That is also the strongest argument for calling lapsed patients sooner rather than letting the list age, a point developed in the complete guide to dental patient reactivation. None of this is legal advice, and a clinic with a large dormant list should get its own before building a calling campaign around it.
Tracking What the Calls Produce
A recall calling session that is not counted cannot be improved, and the number most clinics record is the least useful one. Calls made says nothing. Four numbers do: how many patients were reached by a human, how many booked, how many gave texting consent, and how many asked not to be contacted again. The second of those is the hygiene reappointment rate, the share of reached patients who end the call with a date, and it is the one worth posting where the team can see it. The third number compounds, because every consent captured on a call is a patient the clinic can reach next time without dialling.
Dividing those four across a shared spreadsheet is where this usually breaks down. Recall and reminder platforms such as DentRecall keep the due list, the consent flag and the outcome of each contact on the patient record itself, so the call list regenerates from the practice management system rather than from somebody’s memory of last Tuesday. For the written side of the same programme, the hygiene recall letter templates for email, SMS and print pair with these scripts: the call is for the patients a letter has already failed to move.
Frequently Asked Questions
What do you say when calling an overdue dental patient?
Open with your name and the clinic name, then say when the patient was last seen and what is due. Offer two specific appointment times rather than asking when would suit, because an open question moves the work back to the patient. Close by asking permission to send reminders by text. Keep the whole call under ninety seconds.
How do you get overdue patients to rebook?
Give them a decision instead of a task. Two named times, one morning and one late afternoon, book more appointments than an open diary does. Where the patient cannot commit, offer a provisional date with a reminder two weeks before rather than a promise to call back. For patients who decline over cost, ask whether their coverage has changed, since public dental coverage in Canada has widened since many patients last attended.
Does CASL apply to a dental recall phone call?
Not to the call itself. Section 6 of Canada’s anti-spam legislation does not apply to a commercial electronic message that is, in whole or in part, an interactive two-way voice communication between individuals, which is what a staff member speaking to a patient is. It does apply to the text message or email the clinic sends afterwards, so the call is the right moment to capture express consent for those channels.
Can a dental clinic leave a recall message on voicemail?
Yes, but keep it to who called, the clinic name, a callback number and the hours. In PIPEDA Report of Findings 2012–009 the Privacy Commissioner found that a message left for one person but accessible to others may result in an accidental disclosure of that person’s information, and criticised the organisation for having no policy telling staff how to leave messages. Naming the procedure or the words hygiene, overdue or results turns a reminder into a disclosure.
Can a dental clinic call a patient on the National Do Not Call List?
The National Do Not Call List FAQ lists organisations a person has done business with in the last 18 months, or asked about in the last 6 months, among the callers who may still reach a registered number, as well as anyone holding that person’s express consent. A patient seen within the past 18 months is inside that window. For a longer-dormant patient, rely on express consent or check the list first, and keep the internal do not call list the rules require.
How long should a dental recall call take?
Ninety seconds is a realistic target for a booking call where the chart is open before dialling. Calls run long when the caller searches for the last visit date or reads out the diary. Preparing the two slots in advance is what keeps the call short, and a short call is what makes a list of forty names a single session rather than a week.
Key Takeaways
- A recall script that books appointments names the last visit date, states what is due, offers two specific times, and asks permission to text. Asking “when would suit?” returns the work to the patient.
- Five situations need five openings. A lapsed patient needs an honest exit, accepted treatment needs the dentist’s clinical reason, and a cancellation needs a held slot.
- Cost is the most common objection and 24% of Canadians have avoided a visit over it, so the reply is a question about coverage rather than a discount.
- Voicemail carries a name, a clinic, a number and the hours. The Privacy Commissioner has found that a message accessible to others can be an accidental disclosure, and that having no staff policy on messages is itself the defect.
- The call sits outside CASL, the text afterwards does not, and the onus of proving consent sits with the clinic. The National Do Not Call List exemption for an existing business relationship runs 18 months, which makes a dormant list a dated asset.
DentRecall is an AI-powered dental recall and patient engagement platform built specifically for Canadian clinics. It automates SMS and email reminders and recall management from $99 per month billed annually, with online booking on the Complete plan. Consent is a hard gate on every send, so a patient who has not given it is never texted.
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