Improve Dental Treatment Plan Acceptance

Helping patients understand the importance of treatment can sometimes be difficult. You have to remember that patients need to feel confident in your decision before they trust your treatment suggestions. This confidence stems from several variables that come into play during their dental appointments.

To build trust and promote confidence in your practice, consider these four tips to improve your treatment acceptance rate.

Practice Environment

From the moment patients step in the front door, they should experience a professional and relaxed environment. Both professionalism and a stress-free tone help make patients feel comfortable and calm before, during and after their appointments. A practice that has a calm environment can often calm patients on the inside; when your practice runs smoothly, you help patients trust that they will have a great experience.

To achieve a professional and relaxed environment, we’ve created two special features in our cloud-based dental software. Both our patient reminder system and patient overview can help patients feel supported from the moment they arrive. The patient reminder system sends a text or email to patients, reminding them of the time and date of their appointments, while also providing them with an overview for their consultation. This helps patients arrive on time, informed about what their appointment entails. Our patient overview helps streamline the check-in process so you can focus more on customer service and relationships and less on stressful conversations about insurance and payments.

Supportive Team

From the receptionist to the head dentist, a supportive team helps increase your practice’s treatment acceptance rate. When the whole team is unified and supportive of a treatment option, patients feel confident in your diagnosis and their treatment options. Every employee in the practice can be part of that unified voice, so make sure your whole team is supportive and updated on your treatment suggestions.

Our patient profile feature and continuous access keeps your team on the same page through every appointment. Dentrix Ascend's patient profile manages patient connections and relationships. You can add conversation notes, family ties and your personal connections to help you build better relationships with your patients. With instant updates to clinical charts, your entire staff can see which treatment you've decided on in real time.

Patient Understanding

One of the biggest roadblocks for treatment acceptance is the fact that patients are overwhelmed and undereducated about the treatments you recommend. Give patients the information they need to understand why you’ve chosen a treatment and why they should proceed with your treatment plan. When patients have a full understanding of your decision, they are more likely to agree with your judgment and accept the treatment plan.

Patient understanding can stem from a simple conversation during their appointment. Using our treatment planner, you can show patients a broad overview of the cost, time commitment and goals of a specific treatment plan. When you have a detailed plan ready to show, patients get a holistic understanding of the frequency of appointments, the average appointment length and the reason for each consultation. When a patient understands their proposed treatment plan, they are more comfortable giving you a yes.

Original Intent

Our last suggestion to improve your treatment acceptance rate is to constantly remind yourself and your dental team of your original intent. Your practice intent should always be to make a positive impact on your patients’ lives; when you suggest a treatment it is because a patient will experience a positive outcome. A treatment proposition is not a sales pitch. Make sure your team remembers that treatment opportunities are just that—opportunities. If the patient chooses to accept this opportunity, that’s great. If not, you will still provide them with the best care possible. Always remember your intent; it guides your practice’s actions and sets the tone for patient care.

Cloud-based dental software helps you improve the daily tasks that lead to better treatment acceptance rates. Our software was built with both dentists and patients in mind. Start improving your treatment acceptance rate today with these four tips and our user-friendly, patient-centered dental software.