Room and chair assignment
Assign the right treatment room to each appointment based on equipment and dentist preference.
Overview
Treatment rooms (sometimes "chairs" or "operatories") are physical spaces. Each has equipment — X-ray, autoclave, scaler — and is at a specific location. The booking form blocks selecting a room missing the equipment the appointment type needs.
Prerequisites
- Owner, Admin, or Receptionist role
- The list of physical rooms at each location
- The equipment in each room (so the system can validate)
Steps
Open Dental Rooms settings. Settings → Dental Rooms.
Click "+ New Room". A form opens. Fields: name, location (for multi-location), equipment list, default dentist (optional), active toggle.
Name the room. Internal name visible to staff: "Surgery 1", "Hygiene Bay A", "Operatory 3". Patients don't see this — they see "your appointment room is X" only on confirmation if you've turned that on.
Pick the location. Single-location clinics have only one option. Multi-location: choose which clinic site the room belongs to.
Tick the equipment present. From the standard list — Dental chair, X-ray (intraoral), Panoramic X-ray, Autoclave, Ultrasonic scaler, Curing light, Suction, Compressor. Custom equipment is editable in Settings → Equipment Types.
Set the default dentist (optional). If a specific dentist always uses this room, set them as default. Booking forms pre-select this dentist when the room is chosen.
Mark active. New rooms are active by default. Inactive rooms still exist (for historical bookings) but don't show in the room picker for new bookings.
Save. The room appears in the list and is immediately usable in the appointment booking form.
Verify on a booking. Create a test appointment requiring specific equipment (e.g., panoramic X-ray). The room picker should only show rooms with that equipment.
Expected outcome
- A new DentalRoom entry exists with clinic, location, equipment array, status ACTIVE
- The room is selectable in the appointment booking form for compatible types
- Conflicting bookings on the same room are blocked
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Room not appearing in booking form | Inactive, wrong location, or missing equipment for the type | Edit the room; check active flag and equipment |
| Equipment list missing items | Custom equipment types | Add in Settings → Equipment Types, then assign |
| Multi-location feature disabled | Tier limitation | Upgrade to Professional+ for multi-location |
| Cannot delete a room | Has historical appointments | Mark Inactive instead — preserves the link |
| Default dentist doesn't apply | The default is a soft prefill, not a hard rule | Re-pick on the form; this is by design |