Email Reminders
Automatically email patients before their appointment - timing options, Free vs Pro limits, opt-out controls, and troubleshooting.
Dentare automatically emails your patients before their appointment - no manual follow-up needed. This article covers how to enable reminders, what the patient receives, and how to fix the most common issue (reminders not firing).
How Email Reminders Work
When an appointment is confirmed, Dentare schedules an email reminder for the patient. The email goes out automatically at the time you configure - no action needed from staff.
What the email contains:
- Patient's name
- Appointment date and time
- Doctor's name
- Clinic name and address
- A button to add the appointment to their calendar (Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, Outlook)
Default timing: 2 hours before the appointment. You can change this to any of the following:
- 30 minutes before
- 1 hour before
- 2 hours before (default)
- 3 hours before
- 4 hours before
- 6 hours before
- 12 hours before
- 24 hours before
You can also switch to fixed time mode - for example, always send the reminder at 9:00 AM on the day of the appointment.
Free Plan vs Pro Plan
Email reminders are included on all plans, including Free.
- Free plan - 100 email reminders per month. The counter resets on the 1st of each calendar month.
- Pro plan - unlimited email reminders.
When a Free-plan clinic reaches 100 reminders for the month, Dentare stops sending reminders for the rest of that month. Patients scheduled for the remainder of the month will not receive a reminder.
Enabling Email Reminders
Open Communications Settings
Log in to Dentare as a clinic admin, then go to Settings → Communications (https://dentare.io/clinic/settings/communications).
Turn On Email Reminders
In the Email section:
- Turn on the enable toggle at the top of the section - the master switch for all email communication from Dentare
- Turn on Reminder to enable the pre-appointment reminder specifically
Optionally also turn on Confirmation, Cancellation, and Reschedule if you want an email for those events too.
Set Your Reminder Timing
Scroll to the Reminder Timing section and choose when reminders go out: a relative offset before the appointment, or a fixed time on the day of the appointment.
Changes Save Automatically
Every toggle and timing choice saves as soon as you change it - there's no separate Save button. A confirmation toast appears after each change. New confirmed appointments will now trigger email reminders automatically.
Appointments Must Be Confirmed First
To confirm an appointment:
- Open the appointment on the calendar or reception dashboard
- Change the status from Pending to Confirmed
- Dentare immediately schedules the email reminder
If an appointment stays as Pending, no reminder will fire - even when the appointment time arrives.
Appointments booked through the online booking widget or QR registration form start as Pending by default. Staff must review and confirm them to activate reminders.
What the Patient Sees
The patient receives an email with the subject: Appointment reminder - [Clinic Name]
The body includes:
- A greeting with the patient's first name
- Appointment date and time
- Doctor's name
- Clinic name and address
- "Add to calendar" button
- A closing note from the clinic team
The email is sent in the patient's preferred language. If the patient's language is set to Albanian or Macedonian in their profile, the reminder arrives in that language.
Rescheduling and Cancelling
When you reschedule an appointment: Dentare automatically cancels the existing pending reminder and schedules a new one at the correct time for the new date. No manual action needed.
When you cancel an appointment: Dentare cancels all pending reminders for that appointment. If you have email cancellation notifications enabled, the patient receives a cancellation email instead.
Patient Opt-Out
Each patient can have email reminders turned off individually.
- Open the patient's profile
- Go to Notification Preferences
- Disable Email Notifications
Once email notifications are off for a patient, that patient will not receive any email from Dentare - reminders, confirmations, or cancellations - until you re-enable it. The opt-out is per-patient, not per-appointment.
Troubleshooting
Patient did not receive a reminder
Work through this checklist in order:
- Is the appointment confirmed? Pending appointments do not trigger reminders. Confirm the appointment and Dentare will schedule the reminder immediately.
- Does the patient have a valid email address? Open the patient record and verify the email field is filled in.
- Is Email Reminder enabled? Go to Settings → Communications and confirm the Reminder toggle is on in the Email section.
- Has the clinic hit the monthly limit? On the Free plan, check the reminder counter in the reception dashboard. If you've reached 100 for the month, reminders won't fire until the 1st of next month.
- Is the patient opted out? Check the patient's Notification Preferences - email notifications may have been disabled.
Reminder arrived at the wrong time
Check your timing setting in Settings → Communications. If you recently changed the timing, existing scheduled reminders were updated automatically, but it may take a moment to reflect.
I want to send reminders earlier than 30 minutes
The minimum offset is 30 minutes. For appointments booked less than 30 minutes before the start time, Dentare sends the reminder immediately upon scheduling.
Email reminders were working but stopped
On the Free plan, this typically means the monthly limit was reached. Check the reminder counter in the reception dashboard. Upgrade to Pro for unlimited reminders.