How Southwest Family Dentistry Added a Virtual Assistant for Insurance Verification and Phones

At a glance: Southwest Family Dentistry is a general and cosmetic dental practice in Littleton, Colorado, owned by Dr. Arezoo Sotoodeh. She brought on a virtual assistant through Stellar Staff to help with three areas of work: insurance verification, answering phone calls, and marketing. In the video below, Dr. Sotoodeh explains how the search went and how her assistant fits into the team.

Dr. Arezoo Sotoodeh, owner and dentist, Southwest Family Dentistry. The full transcript is at the end of this page.

A family dental practice in Littleton, Colorado

Southwest Family Dentistry is on West Cross Drive in Littleton, near Southwest Plaza. The practice's website lists Dr. Sotoodeh as owner and dentist, and its team also includes general dentist Dr. Malik Jackson, along with hygienists and dental assistants. The practice offers preventive care such as cleanings, X-rays, fluoride treatments, and sealants. Its general dentistry covers fillings, root canals, extractions, dentures and partials, and crowns milled in the office. It also offers porcelain veneers, teeth whitening, dental implants, clear aligners, and nitrous oxide and oral conscious sedation (details checked on the practice's website, October 29, 2026).

The site is also clear about cost questions. It says the office is in network with most major PPO insurance plans and offers a free benefits check. Patients without insurance can join an in-house membership plan, and financing is available through Cherry. Patients can book online or call the office, which is open Monday through Friday.

All of that runs through the front office. Every benefits check, every estimate, and every phone call is work that someone has to finish before the patient sits down in the chair.

Three jobs that compete for the same person

Dr. Sotoodeh explains why she came to Stellar Staff in one sentence: she wanted "a VA to help with insurance verification and answer phone calls and help me with marketing."

In most dental offices, those three jobs fall on the same few people. Insurance verification means confirming each patient's eligibility and benefits with the carrier before the appointment, often on hold with the payer or working through a carrier portal. The phones ring all day with new patient calls, reschedules, and billing questions. Marketing work, such as review requests, social media posts, and patient emails, tends to get done only when the other two are quiet, and in a busy practice that is rare.

The interview doesn't describe how those tasks were divided before the hire. Her priorities were clear: recurring insurance verification, phone, and marketing work that needs consistent attention.

How the search and onboarding went

For an owner who is also treating patients, the hiring process itself can be the hardest part. Dr. Sotoodeh says Stellar Staff "helped me find my VA within the span of days," and describes the team as "super responsive, very supportive in all the steps," from the search through getting onboarding underway.

The search takes 5 to 10 business days. During that time, Stellar Staff screens candidates, and the practice interviews 2 to 3 finalists before choosing one. The owner makes the final decision, which matters in a dental office where the assistant will speak with patients on the phone and represent the practice.

What Dr. Sotoodeh says about her VA

The video opens with her overall view:

"The VA we ended up going with, it's just absolutely amazing. She's such a great addition to the team."

She singles out one quality in particular: "She does great with her time management." In a role that divides the day among verification work, incoming calls, and marketing tasks, that is the skill that decides whether all three get done. An assistant who manages her own time well can work through the verification list between calls instead of letting one job push the others aside.

Dr. Sotoodeh also talks about the assistant as part of the practice, not as an outside service: "We're really [lucky] to have her as part of the team." She ends with a simple recommendation: "I definitely do recommend them."

Setting up insurance verification with a remote assistant

Dental insurance verification is often the first task practices hand to a remote assistant, because it follows a clear routine and the results are easy to check. Practices that do it well usually settle a few things before the assistant starts:

• Agree on a breakdown template. Decide which details the assistant records for each patient, such as eligibility, annual maximum and remaining benefits, deductibles, frequency limits, and waiting periods, and where the breakdown goes in the chart.
• Set a verification window. Verifying coverage a few days before each appointment leaves time to fix problems and give patients an estimate before they arrive.
• Set up separate logins. Give the assistant their own accounts in your practice management software, carrier portals, and phone system, with only the access the role needs, so permissions can be changed or revoked at any time.
• Write the phone script and the handoff rules. The assistant books, reschedules, and answers administrative questions. Anything clinical, such as pain, symptoms, or treatment questions, goes straight to the dentist or the clinical team.

What other dental practice owners can take from this

• Name the work before you hire. Dr. Sotoodeh knew the three areas she wanted covered, which made it easier to find the right person and to set expectations from the first day.
• Group related front office tasks. Verification, phones, and marketing are different jobs, but each one is recurring administrative work that can be done remotely, so one full-time assistant can cover all three.
• Look for time management, not just task skills. In a mixed role, the person who can prioritize the day is the one who keeps every task moving.
• Treat the assistant as part of the team. Dr. Sotoodeh talks about her VA the way she would talk about any staff member, and that is how the role works best.

If you are considering a virtual assistant for a dental office, our page on dental virtual assistants lists the tasks the role can cover. If phones and scheduling are your biggest need, see our virtual medical receptionist service, and for campaign and content support, see our marketing virtual assistant page. For another healthcare practice story, read how TLA Therapy's co-founders handed their admin work to one assistant.

How Stellar Staff matches an assistant to a dental practice

Stellar Staff recruits dedicated, full-time remote assistants, primarily from the Philippines, and accepts the top 0.1% of the thousands of applicants who apply each month. Each candidate completes a 6-step application and 6 individual tests, written and spoken English verification, professional interviews and skill assessments, reference checks, an equipment check, background checks, and internal QA before a practice sees them.

The practice interviews 2 to 3 finalists and picks one. Stellar Staff handles recruiting, payroll, HR, tracking, and replacements, and the practice directs the assistant's daily work. Pro is $1,999 a month for 160 hours, and Executive is $2,999 a month. Both plans are month to month with no long-term contract and 14 days' notice to cancel, and managed plans include free replacements, forever.

To find the plan that fits your practice, compare pricing, or book a call to start a search.

Video transcript

Machine transcription of the video above, edited for punctuation and for names the software misheard. Words in brackets are our best reading of audio that is not fully clear.

"And the VA we ended up going with, it's just absolutely amazing. She's such a great addition to the team. My name is Dr. Sotoodeh. I am the owner of a small dental office, and I started using Stellar Staff to find a VA to help with insurance verification and answer phone calls and help me with marketing. They helped me find my VA within the span of days, got the onboarding [going], were super responsive, very supportive in all the steps. She does great with her time management. We're really [lucky] to have her as part of the team. I definitely do recommend them."

This case study is based on a recorded video interview with Dr. Arezoo Sotoodeh. Practice details come from the Southwest Family Dentistry website, checked October 29, 2026. Results are described only as the client stated them; we have not added figures that were not in the interview. Stellar Staff pricing is current as of October 2026.