Every business must pivot with the times to remain successful and growing — including dental practices. Patients expect same-day services because they are easier for them to fit into their schedules and provide instant results. Your dental practice should respond by offering the latest technological advancements to your patients. 

Here are the four reasons same-day dentistry will grow your practice.  

1. It Saves Time and Money

Investing in the latest dental technology is expensive, but it has untold benefits for your dental practice and your patients. For example, digital scanning is less invasive, faster, accurate, safe, and more economical than traditional molds. With digital scanning technology, you can provide same-day patient appointments that save time and money. 

Chairside Economical Restoration of Esthetic Ceramics (CEREC) machines place your dental practice on the cutting edge. The same-day services these machines allow you to offer your patients can resolve their dental needs in a single day, provide instant gratification, and reduce their copays. In addition, since this technology only requires a single appointment, it is far easier for them to schedule.

Your patients have busy lives occupied with family, work, and friends. If they can receive the dental care they need in a single visit, they will appreciate the convenience and will likely remain loyal patients.  

At the same time, these machines allow you to accomplish in a single appointment what would have taken your dental practice two appointments in the past. Thus, you can see more patients and grow your dental practice. In addition, they diminish the effect of cancellations, as patients are twice as likely to make one appointment as they are to make two appointments.  

2. Patient Satisfaction

A simple crown used to require multiple appointments, a temporary crown, and the construction of the permanent crown in a distant lab. 

Now dental practices have the ability to create and place a permanent crown in a single dental appointment with their CEREC machines. In addition to crowns, your dental practice will be able to complete the following procedures in a single appointment: 

• Inlays
• Onlays
• Veneers

The advancement in technology is safe and tested. With fewer appointments required, your patient satisfaction increases. 

Combine these advancements with modern software for dental appointment reminders from Dental Intelligence and truly automate your office so you can spend less time on administration and more time on patient care.  

3. Reduces Fear-Based Cancellations

Many people have dentophobia, the fear of dentists. According to the Cleveland Clinic¹, 36% of people in the United States fear dental appointments, and 12% are terrified. This fear can manifest in some patients refusing to see a dentist. Therefore, dental practices must address this fear head-on as it will attract a more extensive patient base and grow the practice. 

One effective way to address this is by reducing the number of appointments necessary to complete dental procedures. A person who is afraid to see a dentist is more likely to show up for a single, same-day appointment than multiple appointments that are weeks away. Technological advancements in dentistry make this possible. In addition, the technology of these latest machines reduces discomfort, which plays a major role in dentophobia. 

4. Emergency Dental Services

Patients often need same-day dentistry. It is common knowledge that patients in pain or needing cosmetic repairs will seek out the first appointment they can obtain.

Technological advancements have shortened the time and number of appointments to meet the needs of these patients. Your dental practice must capture the patients that need services in an emergency. 

By offering same-day appointments, you can bring these emergency patients to your practice rather than leading them to a different one. Then, when they need future dental care, they may be more likely to seek out your practice again. 

One way to provide more same-day emergency appointments is through integrated online scheduling for your patients. A system that coordinates in real-time with your calendar can maximize the number of patients you can serve. Offering the ability for your patients to schedule an appointment online and in real-time is especially useful in emergencies where patients are looking for an immediate dental appointment. 

Make sure your dental practice takes advantage of same-day dental services by employing a real-time, online patient scheduling portal — like the one we offer at Dental Intelligence. You can learn more about dental scheduling and expand your business! Reach out to us today for a free demo and see how we can help you intelligently shape the future of your practice.

Resources

¹ Cleveland Clinic

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