Patient Retention Strategies Every Dental Practice Should Use

Attracting patients to your dental practice can be one part of a successful marketing strategy. The real success story is getting them to stay. Counting on patients to return for preventive care, emergency dentistry or any oral health need takes planning and effort, but it’s worth it to keep your practice thriving.

Regularly acquiring new patients is exciting and can make you feel like your practice is growing, but existing patients are often more profitable.¹ The longer a patient stays at your practice, the greater patient lifetime value (PLV) they are likely to generate. These dedicated patients are the true return on your marketing investment, and through continuous outreach and innovative technology, you can maintain patient satisfaction and keep patients coming back.²

Patient retention is important, and this article offers tips to help make a positive lasting impression on patients so they keep returning to your practice.

Prioritize and Personalize the Little Things

Before considering big ways to improve the rate of patient retention in your dental practice, consider how much of a difference the little things could make when deployed as an essential part of the patient experience. Patients who feel cared for and appreciated may be more satisfied with their experience. These differences can be as simple as:

• Being friendly. A smile, a genuine greeting and questions about a patient's vacation or family can help create a more meaningful experience and build long-term relationships.
• Personalizing the experience. Everyone enjoys hearing their name and appreciates it when you remember what they like — a certain flavor of toothpaste, for example.
• Addressing pain points. Whether a patient’s pain point is cost or cavities, listen carefully and engage patients in conversations about what matters most to them.
• Being proactive. Remind patients of upcoming appointments, when to follow up, special offers and dentistry treatments that might suit their oral health.

Create a Comfortable Office Environment

Many people enter the dentist’s office feeling uncomfortable, anxious and worried. Creature comforts can go a long way toward putting people at ease. Some suggestions include:

• A calm common area. Besides the usual comfortable chairs, reading materials and dental brochures, provide a TV or music in the waiting room.
• A private waiting room. Create a dedicated, calm room for extra-sensitive patients who need quiet and privacy before an appointment. Brief wait times help, too.
• Personal reassurance. Encourage anxious patients to bring along what gives them peace during a procedure, like headphones or a stuffed animal.
• Comfort methods. Offer exam room amenities for additional calming measures, such as blankets, aromatherapy, soft music, earplugs or dim lighting.

Offer Personalized Treatment Plans and Services

Patients are not one-size-fits-all, and neither is patient management. Some people you see twice a year for teeth cleanings, while other patients are working to restore their oral health and need regular appointments. Personalized treatment plans can help every patient feel special. This might include:

• Working together to schedule dental visits
• Arranging for restorative, cosmetic or preventive dentistry
• Making personalized treatment and product recommendations
• Explaining how dental procedures improve oral health over time

The bonus? Paying attention to your patients' needs can be a helpful way to grow your practice and improve patient retention.

Provide Effective Patient Communication

Prioritize effective communication with your dental patients, whether they’re standing in front of you or in their own home. From appointment reminders to follow-up messages to targeted marketing, every type of communication is an opportunity to boost dental patient retention.

• Set the date. Schedule the patient’s next appointment before they leave your office.
• Follow up. If the patient does not confirm an appointment during their visit, set up a reminder system to follow up at regular intervals.
• Use smart software. Offer online scheduling, a patient portal, mobile-friendly payment options and telehealth for easier communication.
• Send reminders. Send appointment reminders via text and request confirmation.

Practice Empathy

You can help create a positive dental experience for your patients through your words, gestures and sounds. Make it clear that you recognize their busy life and also understand the mixed feelings that come along with being in the dentist’s chair.

• Curate the experience. Create the experience your patients want by asking them what they need to be comfortable at the dentist's office.
• Be understanding. Be kind about the vulnerable position many patients find themselves in at your office. Patients who suffer from dental anxiety often require extra empathy.
• Be efficient. Invest in methods that are intuitive, fast, easy and wanted. Your patients are sure to appreciate being able to avoid tedious paperwork, access health information and get the insight they need to make choices about payment methods through an online platform.

Offer Flexible Financing Options

Dental patients may stress about how to pay for advanced dental care. Flexible payment options can help patients breathe easier when it comes to paying for oral healthcare and making decisions about their dental care.³

• Dental financing. For patient financing for dental care, a health and wellness credit card like CareCredit can help patients manage their dental costs as well as other health and wellness expenses.
• In-house savings plans. Dental offices that offer annual, in-house savings plans can be a help to patients who do not have insurance. Basic oral healthcare seems much more manageable across the board when preventive care is included in the plan along with a discount for any additional work.
• Payment plans. When patients want a manageable method for tending to oral health, in-house payment plans can feel comfortable. Your practice and your patient agree on monthly payment amounts and an end date.
• Patient loyalty programs. Your dental clinic can offer patient loyalty memberships that allow the patient to collect points for every cleaning, X-ray or new-patient recommendation. Eventually, patients can earn a discount on popular cosmetic dentistry treatments or work toward earning a retail gift card.

Create a Happy Staff

Your staff is the first point of contact with patients, and they need to be happy and well-trained to fully convey the spirit of your dental office and keep patients coming back. The patient and employee experience is complex, but when you do right by your employees, they do better by your patients.⁴

• Supply training. Dental professionals benefit from staff development and employee training linked to customer feedback. Front desk staff are especially valuable in strengthening patient relationships. Equip your team with the tools to speak knowledgeably with patients about finances, procedures and timelines and tie improvements to compensation.
• Provide incentives. Your dental staff needs to feel good about their position if you want them to remain a part of your team. Support your people with days off, financial perks, a familial atmosphere and other rewards. If your staff is happy, this state of mind will rub off on patients.
• Offer recognition. Recognition of a job well done or someone who’s gone the extra mile is powerful.⁴ If your staff feels like you believe in them and trust in the consistency of your office, they will advocate for your dental clinic, offer patient encouragement and deliver front desk greetings and goodbyes with plenty of reasons to return.⁵

Learn More: Get some staff appreciation ideas to help boost office morale and maintain a positive office environment.

Offer a Diverse Range of Services

The choices you make for your practice directly affect your patients’ choices about which dentist they choose to see. A comprehensive menu of services and state-of-the-art treatments can create happier patients and a unique value proposition.⁶

• Specialty services. Dental patients love a pro who offers comprehensive care. Cosmetic dentistry, pediatric dentistry, Invisalign®, sedation and oral appliances make patients feel like their entire family’s dental health is covered in one place.⁶
• Advanced dental care solutions. Many patients seek dental innovations, like less-invasive treatments that eliminate discomfort and save time.
• Oral healthcare products. Offer convenient dental care items in your office so patients can invest in value-added purchases like an electric toothbrush or professional-grade whitening strips.
• Education. It helps to offer in-office materials about popular dental procedures and oral health, but patient education and patient engagement can also occur via social media, webinars and live workshops.

Ask for Patient Feedback

It’s always important to know how you can improve your services and dental care and to let your patients know you’re listening. One of the best ways to take the pulse of the people you tend is by accumulating immediate, unfiltered patient feedback after an appointment.¹ A high response rate is essential to get a sense of how well your practice is performing in patients' eyes.

• Request a survey response from those who prefer to be private.
• Encourage eager patients to post publicly about their experience on review websites.
• Say thank you for any review or comment — positive, negative or neutral.
• Address and resolve complaints or shortcomings immediately and with kindness, but be sure to adhere to privacy laws.

Be Flexible and Proactive

From digitized paperwork to customized communication, there are many simple and effective dental patient retention strategies you can implement into your practice. Even the smallest efforts can make an impact on keeping existing patients happy and returning. Consider the needs of your unique patients and add the comfort, flexibility, financing and convenience measures they will appreciate most.

A Dental Patient Financing Solution for Your Practice

Want to help more patients move forward with the dental care they want or need? Consider offering CareCredit as a financing solution. CareCredit allows patients to pay for out-of-pocket dental care costs over time while helping enhance the payments process for your practice.

When you accept CareCredit, patients can see if they prequalify with no impact to their credit score, and those who apply, if approved, can take advantage of special financing on qualifying purchases.* Additionally, you will be paid directly within two business days.

Learn more about the CareCredit credit card as a dental patient financing solution or start the provider enrollment process by filling out this form.

Author Bio

Elizabeth Weiss is a freelance writer and editor with more than 20 years of experience in content development for dentistry, orthodontics and cosmetic dermatology. She focuses on making healthcare topics accessible to readers and contributes to many fields, from family and estate law to industrial services and landscape design.

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