In a large dental practice, even small inefficiencies have a way of resonating through the entire schedule. For Westgate Dental Care, a 20-room practice with 12 hygienists and 8 doctors, the management of documentation and insurance notes had become a full-time issue. The manual charting process was taking up chair time and creating unwanted insurance denials—a pain point shared by many dental offices looking into dental practice software.
Maria Campillo, a longtime team member and office leader, began searching for an easier, smarter method to streamline her team’s clinical documentation and reduce denials. That’s when she found Bola AI, whose HIPAA-compliant AI tools—such as Voice Perio and AI Scribe—offered exactly what her busy team needed: accurate, hands-free charting that saves hours a day while safeguarding patient information.
Finding the Right Fit for a Growing Practice
Inefficiencies multiplied when Westgate expanded from a 1,200 sq ft office to a 12,000 sq ft building. “Our motto is any room, any procedure,” Maria explained. “With so many hygienists and assistants moving between rooms, our old workflow stopped working.”
Maria first tested Open Dental’s basic voice-charting tools, but training that many staff on manual voice commands wasn’t feasible. When she discovered Bola AI’s perio-charting integration, she quickly realized its potential to go further—with SOAP notes, AI scribe capabilities, and treatment-planning automation all in one.
She presented the idea to the practice owner as both an efficiency and ROI solution. Insurance coordinators had been spending hours appealing denials caused by incomplete documentation. Maria saw Bola AI as a solution for both workflow and billing accuracy at once.
Implementation: Overcoming Resistance and Proving Value
Technological changes rarely are received without resistance. Some assistants begrudged talking into a microphone, settling for copying and pasting. “Change is hard,” Maria recalled. “But once they saw how much time it saved, they hated going back to typing.”
To prepare all of their rooms for ambient listening, Westgate invested in 20 Philips Smart Duo mics. And, despite a price jump from $100 to $300 per mic, the owner approved the full rollout—a testament to faith in the technology’s long-term value.
From the first demo to full adoption, the journey was swift: research in March, and in June the system was live. Training sessions for hygiene, clinical, and doctor teams sped adoption. Even doctors who “didn’t want to wear a headset” began requesting installations in their operatories after their initial skepticism.
How Bola AI Changed Their Workflow
The Bola Voice Clinical Suite swiftly became part of Westgate’s daily rhythm. Hygienists now write SOAP notes using voice commands, assistants use AI Scribe for emergency exams, and the front desk relies on detailed documentation to streamline their insurance verification.
Maria especially values how Bola helps her capture thorough clinical narratives:
“I used to think I wrote pretty detailed notes, but Bola picks up everything. Our insurance coordinators said it captures all the details they need for appeals.”
This improved accuracy has reduced follow-ups and repetitive data entry. Even more, Maria uses voice documentation as an educational tool for patients:
“When I talk to Bola in front of patients—saying things like ‘fractured distal-buccal cusp with abscess due to decay’—they realize the seriousness of treatment. Patients often say, ‘That’s so cool!’”
Continuous Improvement and Collaboration
Bola AI’s team didn’t stop after going live. When Maria reported occasional note-saving glitches, Director of Product Pari Katyal confirmed a fix was underway to enable automatic note saving and to connect saved notes to Open Dental patient IDs. Upcoming updates also include an optional toggle for “stricter” SOAP-note logic—based directly on Maria’s feedback.
This quick response shows how committed Bola AI is to their partnerships. As CEO Rushi Ganmukhi told her, “Good customers [like you help us improve the product].”
Why This Story Matters
Across the country, around 60% of dental practice owners name staffing shortages as their biggest operational challenge (ADA News, 2025). Furthermore, many practices also report that the demands of documentation eat up valuable time they could spend with patients (AMA, 2025).
For practices seeking meaningful dental innovation, Bola AI proves that smart automation can improve care, documentation, and morale all at once. Westgate Dental Care turned their challenges into opportunities:
- Their clinicians can focus more on patient care due to a significant reduction in charting time.
- Their more thorough SOAP notes resulted in fewer insurance denials.
- They attained higher staff satisfaction, since their clinicians reported that they “hate to write their own notes.”
- They improved patient communication—a benefit also verified by the American Medical Association, where 84% of the physicians surveyed reported there were better patient interactions with AI scribes (AMA, 2025).
Westgate’s success indicates that when technology meets dentistry, patient care improves and clinicians get their time back.
Today, Maria’s colleagues call her “the Bola person”—a title she wears with pride now that Bola AI is an integral part of Westgate’s daily routine.
To learn how Bola AI can help your office reduce documentation time, enhance accuracy, and boost efficiency, request a demo today.
