Missed Appointments Waste 10% of Dentists’ Time

Talk about some empty chair time… About 10% of dentist appointments are no-shows, found this survey.

It’s even worse for dental hygienists, who get stood up about 12% of the time. (That’s one hour of an 8-hour work day!)

When it comes to dealing with these patients, dentists have a lot of different dental management strategies:

• “Fee is optional at staff discretion.” (Florida pediatric dentist)
• “First time they break an appointment, they get a notification of broken appt policy and fee. Second time, we charge $50/hour. Third time, exit patient from practice unless there is a good excuse.” (Georgia periodontist)
• “We have them pre-pay for the next appointment.” (California dentist)
• “Big problem for 20 years. I’ve tried confirming twice… tried sending cards with cute pictures… tried recall cards with their handwriting scheduling the appointment… tried counseling patients… tried charging… I still have many multiple no shows EVERYDAY. It is the biggest headache of my career.” (South Carolina dentist)
• “Try to replace them with better patients. That’s not too difficult because the appointment-missers usually don’t remember to call back for another appointment.” (California dentist)
• “Call and say we are concerned and hope there is nothing wrong. If misses are ongoing, patient is dismissed from practice. No missed appointment fees are ever charged, creates bad will.” (Colorado pediatric dentist)
• “Kill them. — P.S. Suggested topic for future survey: how to dispose of dead bodies.” (Connecticut dentist)

Read more: Missed Dental Appointments: 1 in 10 Never Make It to the Dentist