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Book an appointment on a call

Use this when a patient phones or walks up to the desk. You book in Ordo, and the appointment goes straight into Open Dental with an On call marker so the team knows it was booked by phone.

You need: the Appointments module on for your clinic, a role with Reschedule and cancel, and Open Dental connected for your location. See Appointments → Before you can use it.

Step 1 — Choose the patient

Open Appointments and click Book appointment (top right). Choose Existing patient or New patient.

Existing patient

  1. Type at least two letters of the Last name. Add First name and Date of birth (MM/DD/YYYY) to narrow the list. Click Search.
  2. Pick the patient. Each result shows the birthdate and the last four digits of their phone, so you can confirm with the caller. A chip such as Inactive appears if the patient is not active.

If nobody comes up: No patients found. Check the spelling or add them as a new patient.

New patient

  1. Enter First name, Last name, and Date of birth. Mobile phone and Email are optional but help later.
  2. Click Continue to times.

Before adding the patient, Ordo checks Open Dental for someone with the same name and birthdate. If it finds one, it stops with A patient with this name and date of birth is already in Open Dental. Search for them under Existing patient. That protects you from creating a duplicate chart.

Staff booking does not ask for address or insurance. Add those in Open Dental.

Step 2 — Pick a time

  1. Choose the Visit length (15 minutes to 2 hours; 1 hour by default).
  2. Choose the Day and the Provider.
  3. Under Open times, pick a time. Times come from Open Dental's open-slot search and are grouped by operatory.
  4. Optionally type a Reason for visit (up to 500 characters). It goes into the Open Dental note.
  5. Check the summary — Book Oct 8, 2026 at 10:40 am in Op 1 with Dr. Gupta — and click Book appointment.

Ordo checks the time is still free and books it. You see Booked Maria Santos for Oct 08, 2026 at 10:40 am, and the schedule jumps to that day.

What is written to Open Dental

  • New patient only: a patient record with name, birthdate, mobile phone, email, clinic, and primary provider.
  • The appointment: patient, operatory, time, length, provider (and hygienist for hygiene times), clinic, and the new-patient flag. Procedures and confirmation status are left blank — fill them in Open Dental if your office uses them.
  • The note:
Reason: Broken filling, lower left.
Booked by phone in Ordo by Jennifer Park (new patient).

The second line is what shows the On call · Ordo marker on the schedule.

No message to the patient

Ordo does not send confirmations or reminders for visits booked on a call. Use your usual Open Dental reminders for these patients. See Patient messages.

If something goes wrong

Message What to do
That time is no longer open. Pick another time. Someone booked it a moment ago. Pick another time.
A patient with this name and date of birth is already in Open Dental… Switch to Existing patient and search.
The patient was added to Open Dental, but the appointment could not be booked… The chart exists now. Search under Existing patient and book again — do not add them a second time.
Enter at least 2 letters of the last name. Type more of the name.
Open Dental is not connected… Ask an Owner or Admin to check Clinic settings → PMS Integrations.

More: Appointments and booking errors.

Example

A new patient, Daniel Kim, calls Bright Smile about a chipped tooth. Jennifer clicks Book appointment → New patient, types Daniel Kim, 05/12/1991, and his mobile, and clicks Continue to times. She picks 30 min, tomorrow, Dr. Gupta, and the 10:40 am time in Op 1, types Chipped front tooth as the reason, and clicks Book appointment.

Open Dental now has Daniel's chart and a 30-minute visit with the note Reason: Chipped front tooth / Booked by phone in Ordo by Jennifer Park (new patient). On the Ordo schedule it shows a phone icon and NP.