10 Strategies to Help You Get More Dental Patients

Every dental practice wants to attract more patients, and you want them to be those who visit regularly and understand the importance of good oral health. There are many ways to encourage people to rely on your oral healthcare services and keep coming back for years to come. The 10 strategies below may make it easier to attract more dental patients, help more people, help grow your practice and thrive.

1. Savvy Dental Marketing

To attract new patients, you first need to make sure they know your dental office exists. A successful marketing strategy can ensure you meet potential patients in the places and online channels where they are already spending their time, capture their attention and get them to engage with your practice. Here are a few dental marketing strategies to consider:

• Website. The initial patient contact often begins with a dental website. An effective website has a clean design, is easy to navigate and includes compelling content that showcases your services and team along with the value propositions that set your practice apart. Additionally, a smile gallery with before-and-after photos and testimonials from satisfied patients can be a powerful tool for converting prospects into new patients.¹

• Content marketing. Clickable, engaging content marketing can provide relevant information, position your team as experts in the field of dentistry and keep your practice top of mind. From blog posts and videos that educate patients about common procedures to email newsletters that share important updates about your office and team, content marketing helps build interest and credibility in your practice.

• Digital advertising. This form of advertising can help you reach prospective patients when they're on their favorite online platforms (such as Google, YouTube, Instagram and popular media sites). Depending on the type of advertising you're doing, you may be able to show your ads when specific keywords are used, which helps you reach audiences that are actively searching for the types of dental services you offer. Advertising tools available to small businesses allow you to segment your audiences, helping ensure you are reaching the patients you want.

• Direct mail marketing. Sending out mailers to potential patients in the communities you serve can be a great way to get your practice's name out there and attract new patient visits. A few dental direct mail best practices include understanding which communities to target (where are your existing patients coming from?), using powerful messaging that calls out the practice benefits your patients care most about and finding your ideal mail frequency and cadence.²

2. Engaging Social Media

Social media is a form of digital marketing that can help dentists get their name out there. Choose social media platforms that your target clientele are most likely to frequent and populate them with information that educates, engages and entertains. Post photos of satisfied patients or positive patient reviews (with the patient's written consent), educational articles and videos, seasonal messages and anything that celebrates your practice, people and patients. The goal is to reach people where they are and manage your online reputation simultaneously.

3. Attractive Patient Referral Program

When you get a new patient and they leave happy, capitalize on their positive experience in your office by offering incentives if they spread the word about your practice. When a patient refers someone new to your practice, give them desirable perks like a percentage off their next treatment, a gift card to a restaurant or an electric toothbrush. Everyone needs to go to the dentist, but everyone doesn’t need to give you kudos — make it easy for people to promote you.

4. Generous Professional Referrals

Some of the highest praise a dentist receives comes from their peers. This often happens through referrals. Do you specialize in dental implants or porcelain veneers? Ask fellow dentists who don’t offer these services to send patients your way. Perhaps a dentist you trust and respect offers a treatment like laser gum therapy that supports your smile makeover work. Refer your patients to them. Instead of competing, help each other achieve greatness and give patients a team of dental professionals they can rely on.

And don't forget to keep networking. Join professional associations and groups, both online and in your local community and region, so you can continue building your potential referral network.

5. Genuine Community Engagement

No matter where you have your practice— in a big city or small suburb — there are opportunities to engage with the community at large and find creative ways to increase patient volume. Be present at local health fairs, business gatherings, school health events or even bridal fairs. Sponsor a local sports team. Get involved with senior centers, places of worship or local charities where you can host an educational workshop or provide pro bono dental services. Or create your own Free Dentistry Day once a year. Being present and active in your community can help raise awareness of your practice, and people are more likely to remember you when you lend a helping hand.

6. New Patient Promotions

There are always people seeking out a new dental practice, whether their dental insurance has changed, they are new to the area or someone in their family needs specialized care or emergency dentistry. New patient promotions or discounts can help you capture the attention of prospective new patients and get them through the door — and then it's the job of your team to foster trust and deliver an exceptional experience to keep them coming back. Make sure to post your new patient promotions and discounts on your website and across your various marketing channels.

7. Flexible Financing Options

Sometimes people think they can’t afford the care they want or need for services such as cosmetic or restorative dentistry. Dental care can be expensive: From ages 20 to 79, people can spend anywhere from $51,000 to $95,000+ for out-of-pocket costs.³ Consider offering flexible patient financing options that can help your patients prioritize their dental care.

While your dental office can offer in-house loans or installment plans, a third-party patient financing company like CareCredit will allow you to get paid right away without financial recourse if the patient does not make their payments on time. An improved patient payment experience can be the touchpoint that makes a person commit to your practice.

8. Positive Online Reviews

It's no secret that dental patients share their experiences online. According to a study by the American Dental Association's Health Policy Institute, 88% of surveyed dentists said they have received patient reviews online.⁴

While you can't control what patients write about your practice on sites like Google, Facebook, Yelp and dentistry- and healthcare-focused sites like Dentistry.com and Healthgrades, you can get proactive about building (and ideally improving) your online reviews. Here are some tips to help boost your online reputation:

• First and foremost, focus on delivering a positive patient experience so you can naturally attract positive reviews.

• Make it a regular part of your team's process to remind patients to leave a review of your practice online. For example, you can place signage in your practice, add links and/or QR codes to your preferred review sites on your website and share the links in follow-up texts and emails.

• Regularly monitor and respond to patient reviews, both positive and negative, in a professional manner. However, be careful to keep your responses general so as not to disclose any sensitive patient information, which could put your practice in violation of patient privacy laws.⁵ Check out the American Dental Association's guidance for responding to online reviews, which includes sample responses.

9. Convenient Remote Consults

Dentists, especially cosmetic ones, who offer free remote consults give hesitant patients a no-pressure way to explore smile upgrades. Unlike live telehealth visits, these consults aren’t for emergencies but provide guidance without commitment. After submitting a video or form, patients receive a personalized video response, making it easier to turn an online inquiry into an in-person appointment.

10. Easy Dental Membership Program

Many potential dental patients hold off on dental care, even emergency dental care, because of cost.³ With a dental membership program, your practice can give potential patients an easier way to take care of their oral healthcare needs. A plan might include things like two cleanings per year, one set of X-rays, a discount on one cosmetic dentistry treatment or a percentage off all restorative dentistry annually. These plans can be customized to your dental office for individuals, families and uninsured patients, with perks such as online appointment scheduling.

Balance Patient Attraction Strategies With Patient Retention Efforts

Getting patients in the door of your practice is one thing, keeping them is another. Patients almost always appreciate a dental office that offers an introductory exam and X-rays, a comprehensive menu of services, a new-patient special and convenient payment methods. With thoughtful patient retention strategies like these and the following, you can keep people devoted to your practice for the long haul.

• Superior patient care and service. Dental care begins at the reception desk, moves to the exam and treatment chairs and ends with payment and making another appointment. Every member of the dental team is pivotal in helping to deliver a smooth and positive patient experience. Make sure to train your staff on best practices for properly addressing patients' needs at every stage of their visit so you can boost patient satisfaction.

• A comfortable experience. The in-office patient experience is crucial, especially for patients who are anxious about going to the dentist, their diagnosis, having work done or the cost of treatment. Through comfort measures and anxiety-reducing efforts like calming music, blankets, sedation options and stuffed animals for children, you can help patients feel better about their experience and remind them that your dental office was the place that provided that comfort.

• Flexible payment options. Giving patients more options for paying for their dental care can help your practice stand out. Consider offering a financing solution like the CareCredit credit card from Synchrony, a trusted leader in health and wellness promotional financing. With its large provider network, many of your prospective and existing patients may already use their CareCredit credit card with other health and wellness providers, such as their dermatologist or veterinarian, so it's easy to start using it at your dental office, too.

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.

Healthcare payment and financing solution

The CareCredit health and wellness credit card helps improve the payment experience for patients and clients, and your financial performance.

Get Started