First week with NixDent

Who this is for: The Owner or Office Manager who is setting NixDent up, and the front desk lead.

You don’t need to do everything at once. This plan spreads the work over five working days, about 20 to 45 minutes a day. By Friday the AI is answering real calls, your team knows where to look, and you have a short list of improvements.

Day 1. Look around and finish the basics

Goal: the checklist shows no red items for things you control.

Sign in and set up two-factor. See Sign-in and security.
Open Settings. Read the Getting started card at the top. Click Show if it’s collapsed.
Work the items marked Go: time zone, hours, closures, rooms, providers, call summaries. Items marked NixDent sets this up have a Request button. Use it.
Start with Basics: hours, rooms, providers. See The Getting started checklist.
Enter your weekly hours and holidays: Hours, holidays and closed days.
Choose bookable rooms and providers: Booking rules.

Done when: the Getting started card no longer lists hours, rooms or providers, and the top bar shows the green dot.

Day 2. Teach the AI your office

Goal: the AI can answer your top ten questions.

Fill in the worksheet from What to give your AI receptionist with your front desk team. Allow 45 minutes.
Enter it in Settings → Patients and AI → AI receptionist and click Save.
Turn on call summaries so someone hears about calls. See Call summaries and the huddle brief.

Done when: you saw “The AI receptionist is using this now” and the checklist item What the AI knows (services, insurance, policies) is gone.

Day 3. Test calls and your team

Goal: no surprises on a real call.

Run the test calls in Test your AI receptionist. Plan 30 minutes.
Fix what you find and test again.
Add the people who will use NixDent: Add a person. Choose roles with care. See Roles and what they allow.
Ask each person to set up two-factor.

Done when: one test booking landed in Open Dental, and every team member can sign in.

Day 4. Go live and watch

Goal: real calls, closely watched.

Confirm with NixDent which number the AI answers, and that your patients’ calls reach it. See Phone numbers, porting and texting registration.
Check texting registration: Settings → Practice → Practice details → SMS Messaging. Anything other than Verified? Ask NixDent.
Through the day, open AI Receptionist → Call Logs twice. Read the transcript of a few calls.
Check Messages for anything the AI couldn’t handle.
Call back every Message Taken and Needs Staff call the same day.

Done when: you’ve read at least five real calls and returned every message.

Day 5. Tune and plan

Goal: fix the top three annoyances and agree on a routine.

List anything the AI got wrong or didn’t know. Fix settings first. See The AI said something wrong.
Report anything that isn’t a setting with Request.
Decide who checks Call Logs and Messages each morning.
Check the Getting started card again. Items marked with a yellow triangle are worth a second look.
If you have the website chat add-on, install it: Put the chat widget on your website.

Done when: you have a named person and a time for the morning check.

Every morning after

Top bar: green dot, not Practice offline.
Call Logs: open Needs Staff, Message Taken and anything from after hours.
Messages: reply to anything waiting.
Schedule: check today’s appointments for ones the AI booked overnight.
Your call summary email.