Dental Recall Best Practices to Help Increase Treatment Acceptance

As a dental practitioner, one of the key ways to help your practice thrive is to improve your dental recall program. Getting patients to make appointments, show up for treatment and return for follow-up and maintenance care can help ensure a steady flow of business and improve patient outcomes. 

However, practices regularly face challenges, including patient no-shows and cancellations, especially since some treatments require several visits.¹ When appointment slots go unfilled, it can be more difficult for practices to stay profitable. In the State of the U.S. Dental Economy Q2 2025 report by the ADA Health Policy Institute, dentists report that their costs for equipment, supplies and staff keep increasing, while an estimated 27% reported their practice was not busy enough.²

As such, keeping appointment calendars filled is good for your business and for your patients, and there are some proactive steps you can take. Learn more about improving your dental recall, from practice management and front desk best practices to appointment scheduling tips and offering patient financing to help ease financial concerns.

Why Dental Recall Matters for Treatment Acceptance

Preventive dental care and timely exams can be important for both patients and dentists. For patients, staying on top of oral health may help identify potential issues early, before they have a chance to progress — and possibly become more costly to address. On the practice side, it can help you maintain a steady flow of patients while also developing deeper relationships that can help build trust in your practice.

While patients may have good intentions about seeing their dentists regularly, there are often barriers to care as well as logistical reasons that may prevent them from making or keeping those appointments. In fact, nearly one-third (31%) of dental appointments are missed.³ 

Common patient barriers could include scheduling conflicts that they didn’t know about when the appointment was first made. Considering that 58% of patients schedule future checkups (which can be several months away) at the end of an exam,⁴ it’s understandable that new work or family commitments might emerge that prevent them from keeping their appointment.

Another big reason why patients may not follow through — or make an appointment at all — could be that they are worried about their finances. For example, the CareCredit Dental Lifetime of Care Study found that among individuals who did not visit a general dentist in the past 12 months, 54% of those surveyed identified “expense” as the primary reason.⁵

Whatever the cause of declining recall adherence, with the right approach, your dental practice may be able to get more patients to keep their appointments. 

Practice and Front Office Strategies to Strengthen Dental Appointment Scheduling

Doing your part to help patients remember that they have an upcoming appointment, are due for preventative care or still need to complete a treatment plan may help improve recall. Here are some best practices to try:

Use dental recall cards and reminder systems to reduce missed appointments

There are various ways you can reach out to remind patients that they may need to schedule a visit. Your practice management software can help automate digital message reminders via text or email, and you can reinforce those messages with traditional tools like postcard mailers or phone calls. Recall cards can be personalized based on the patient’s last visit date or sent out seasonally. For example, some practices like to remind patients to schedule a fall appointment to take advantage of any remaining annual benefits (if applicable).

Book appointments strategically

Making the patient’s next appointment during checkout is a smart practice since you won’t have to rely on them remembering to call for their next visit. But you can increase the odds that they’ll actually want to make that appointment if you offer flexible scheduling (such as having one late night or some weekend hours). If you only have limited weekday hours, the patient may be more inclined to hesitate since they may want to check their work schedule or their family calendar before committing. 

Pay attention to trends

If a particular day or time tends to have more cancellations or no-shows than others, double-check that the patient is aware of any potential conflicts at booking time. For example, one study showed that appointments scheduled on Monday of the first week in the school year had the highest percentage of missed appointments, reaching up to 60%.³

Perhaps saying something like, “I know you have young children. Just making sure that you realize this is the first week of school before we schedule,” might help avoid any issues. A similar approach could be used when scheduling a Friday appointment before a holiday weekend, or a date that might conflict with a local event in which transportation or parking access could be limited.

Train staff on patient communication regarding appointments

Getting your team to share a consistent practice message around the benefits of continued treatment to overall dental health can help encourage patients to come back. This can include letting them know that for 22% of people surveyed who delayed care, it led to additional dental issues.⁵ It might also include messaging around financial options if the potential cost might be a deterrent to care.

Financing with the CareCredit Credit Card Can Ease Cost Concerns and Boost Dental Recall

Often, the reason many patients are hesitant to come back for needed dental care is that they’re afraid of the cost. In fact, the majority of patients in the CareCredit survey (58%) said they believe dental care is not affordable. In other cases, there may be a lack of understanding about dental coverage, with 1 out of 2 people with dental insurance admitting they didn’t know their annual maximum.⁵

Tackling this concern head-on by having cost conversations and letting patients know about CareCredit’s financing options could help. For example, CareCredit can help make treatment costs more manageable by allowing patients to break up the total price into convenient monthly payments.

Because CareCredit integrates seamlessly with existing practice management software, it can become a natural part of the recall scheduling workflow. This integration can improve patient confidence in their ability to pay for future treatment, which can, in turn, encourage them to return.

The Broader Impact on Practice Growth and Patient Retention

As CareCredit’s survey revealed, 58% of respondents would choose a payment option that provided predictable, set, equal payments without having to use their general-purpose or retail credit cards.⁵ Patient education may help you achieve higher treatment acceptance rates.⁶ 

By offering CareCredit, your practice can work toward gaining a competitive advantage by addressing one of the biggest patient concerns — cost — helping lead to increased loyalty and practice growth.

Recall With Financing: A Winning Message

Patient education around financing options, along with a strategic recall strategy, can create a powerful, patient-centered approach that can benefit both dental practices and their patients. Integrating financing into recall workflows may further increase treatment acceptance and retention and support long-term practice success.

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 the CareCredit credit card 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

Dawn Papandrea is a journalist with more than two decades of experience covering personal finance and consumer issues. She has written for leading financial publications and organizations, including U.S. News & World Report, Investopedia, BankRate and others.

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