Start with the patients already in your chart
The new appointment that costs least to win is a patient you already have. Every practice has a list of people who were seen once or twice and then drifted: they moved jobs, changed insurance, or simply never got the recall card. Before you spend on ads, pull a report of active patients with no visit in the last 18 months and no future appointment. That list is the first part of the 30-day plan below.
The second part is new patients, and that is where most marketing advice starts. This article is the dental chapter of our guide on how to get more clients, which covers the five steps every service business works through. Here we apply them to a practice where insurance, privacy and the front desk shape almost every decision.
How a new patient narrows the list
A new patient rarely compares every dentist in town. They filter first, then choose.
- Insurance network. Many patients start in their plan’s provider directory or search “dentist that takes” a plan name. If you are in network but the directory or your website says otherwise, you never make the list.
- Location and hours. Close to home or work, with early, late or Saturday times for working parents.
- Reviews. Recent ones, and how the office answers them.
- Availability. “Accepting new patients” and how soon a first visit is possible. Publish only timing you can keep.
- The phone. The first call is often the deciding moment: who answers, whether they can say yes on insurance, and whether a time is offered before the caller hangs up.
Two groups break the pattern. Patients in pain search “emergency dentist” and call the first office that says it sees same-day emergencies. Families moving to the area ask neighbors and coworkers first and use search only to check the name they were given.
What to publish so the filter works in your favor
- One insurance list, kept identical on your website, your Google Business Profile, and every directory. Say plainly which plans you are in network with, which you accept out of network, and what an uninsured new-patient exam includes.
- A new-patient page. What to bring, how long the first visit takes, what happens if X-rays came from another office, and whether you see children and anxious patients.
- An emergency line. If you hold time for emergencies, say so on the profile and on its own page.
- Practitioner listings done right. Google’s guidelines name dentists as individual practitioners: a public-facing dentist may have one profile, support staff should not create their own, and a practitioner should not have several profiles for different specialties. Keep the practice profile as the main place to book.
Our dental website design page shows how we lay out these pages. AI assistants and search engines read the same facts; nobody can promise how an assistant will describe your practice, but missing insurance and hours give it nothing to say.
Reactivation, recall and the benefit year
For patients whose plans run on a calendar year, unused benefits often prompt a call in the fall. Ask the front desk to record each patient’s plan year so reminders go out while benefits remain. Families tend to book checkups before school starts. Check your own new-patient count by month for the last year, then send recall messages about six weeks before your busiest stretch.
Reactivation is follow-up, so the consent rules apply. Text only patients who agreed to texts, say who you are, offer a STOP reply, and keep the reason for the visit out of the message. “It’s time to book your next visit with Dr. Lee’s office” is enough.
Privacy rules that change how you market
A dentist who sends claims electronically is a HIPAA covered entity under 45 CFR 160.103. Under HIPAA, even a patient’s name tied to an appointment request is protected health information. In practice:
- Patient information, including booking requests, only goes through tools whose vendor signs a business associate agreement. Without one, a website chat or form gives general answers (hours, services, insurance accepted) and points to your booking system or front desk.
- Review requests never name a treatment. “Thank you for visiting us” works.
- Review replies never confirm that someone is a patient. In October 2019 the California Dental Association reported that Elite Dental Associates in Dallas paid $10,000 to HHS’s Office for Civil Rights after its replies to Yelp reviews disclosed patient information. Write a reply template now: thank the reviewer, invite them to call the office, and stop.
This is not legal advice. Ask your attorney or compliance adviser before you change how patients book or how you answer reviews.
Reviews without incentives or filters
Google’s review policy bars offering discounts, free goods or services in exchange for reviews, and it bars selectively asking only happy customers. The FTC’s rule on consumer reviews bans incentives tied to a positive or negative review. So the method is plain: the same short request to every patient after a completed visit, a direct link, and a reply to each review within a day or two.
Referrals from other offices
Specialists send patients back to general dentists who make the handoff easy, and general dentists refer to specialists who report back quickly. Send each referring office a one-page sheet with your hours, the insurance you accept, and the name of the person who schedules referred patients. A short thank-you after each referral does more than a gift basket at the holidays.
Your 30-day plan
| Days | Task | Who |
|---|---|---|
| 1-3 | Run the overdue-patient report. Check which of those patients consented to texts or email. | Office manager |
| 4-7 | Call the practice five times as a new patient, at different times. Note who answers, whether insurance is answered on the spot, and whether a time is offered. | Owner |
| 8-10 | Compare your insurance list on the website, Google profile and the three directories patients use most. Make them identical. | Front desk |
| 11-14 | Publish or update the new-patient page and the emergency line. | Owner, with your web help |
| 15-18 | Send recall messages to consenting overdue patients, in two batches, so the phones stay manageable. | Front desk |
| 19-21 | Write the review request and the review reply template. Check both for any patient detail. | Owner |
| 22-25 | Send the referral sheet to five offices that refer to you or that you refer to. | Office manager |
| 26-30 | Add “How did you hear about us?” to intake. Count new patients and reactivated patients by source. | Front desk |
What it costs with us
A practice website with a page for each service, insurance and the first visit is the usual first step. A 5-8 page site costs from $3,500; a single landing page for one service costs from $1,200. Reminder and recall texting costs from $500 to set up, then from $99/month, using a tool covered by a business associate agreement. Domain and hosting, new photography, third-party software subscriptions (billed at cost), SMS carrier registration (A2P 10DLC) and message fees are not included. Full details are on our pricing page.
To see your practice the way a new patient with a phone sees it, including what AI assistants say about you, ask for a free demo. There is no charge and no obligation.
Published . Updated .