Pricing, insurance positioning and case presentation for a dental practice
How to present fees, build good better best treatment options, handle the insurance question, and why your pricing model decides which marketing works.
Marketing brings a patient to the chair. Pricing decides whether the case gets accepted and whether the practice makes money on the patient you just paid to acquire. The two are the same subject, and most practices treat them as separate departments.
Decide what kind of practice you are, out loud
The single most consequential positioning decision in dentistry is your relationship to insurance, and half of practices refuse to state it publicly.
In network with several major plans. Your marketing advantage is volume and low friction. Then name the carriers. On the website, on the Google profile services section, in the ads. "In network with Delta Dental Premier, Cigna DPPO and Aetna" produces calls. "We accept most major insurance" produces nothing, because every office says it and no patient believes it.
Out of network or fee-for-service. Your marketing advantage is time and consistency, and you must say what the fee buys. Longer appointments, the same dentist every visit, no production quota deciding your treatment plan, no third party limiting what gets recommended. Then handle the money question head-on: you file the claim, the patient is typically reimbursed at their out-of-network rate, and here is roughly what that looks like on a crown.
Dropping plans. If you are transitioning out of network, say it early and often, and lead the messaging with the membership plan. Practices that go quiet through this transition lose more patients than practices that explain it.
The failure mode is being vague and hoping people call anyway. A patient who discovers on the phone that you are not in network after reading a website that implied you were leaves annoyed and sometimes leaves a review about it.
Publish real numbers
Practices resist this and the resistance costs them.
Put a range on the twelve most-asked procedures with what is included: new patient exam, cleaning, crown, root canal, extraction, implant, clear aligners, night guard, whitening, denture, wisdom teeth, emergency visit.
"Single implant with abutment and crown: $3,900 to $5,200 depending on whether a graft is needed. Consult and 3D scan are free."
Two objections come up. "Competitors will see it." They already called and asked; your fee schedule is not a secret. "Every case is different." True, which is why you publish a range and say what changes it.
What you gain: price shoppers filter themselves out before consuming front desk time, and a much larger group of people who were avoiding calling because they feared an unknown number pick up the phone. That second group is bigger than most owners think.
The membership plan
For a practice in a market with a lot of uninsured or gig-economy patients, an in-house membership plan is the highest-leverage pricing product available.
Typical structure: $32 to $45 a month, or $349 to $459 a year, covering two cleanings, two exams, annual X-rays and one emergency exam, plus 15% to 20% off everything else. No deductible, no annual maximum, no claim.
It converts extremely well in Meta ads because it names a number and removes the thing the audience is avoiding. It also produces predictable recurring revenue and a patient who books hygiene on schedule. The detail people miss: put the price and the inclusions on a public page, not behind a form.
Good, better, best on the treatment plan
Presenting a single number invites a yes or a no, and a lot of no.
Present three options, top down.
- Ideal. What you would do for a family member with no constraint. Implant, custom abutment, zirconia crown.
- Solid. Meets the clinical need and lasts, with a compromise the patient chooses knowingly. Three-unit bridge.
- Now. What stops the problem today when the budget cannot stretch. Extraction and a temporary partial, with the implant sequenced for next year.
Present in that order and stop talking after the third one. Case acceptance rises when the patient is choosing between options rather than deciding whether to buy.
Sequence the ideal plan across two benefit years when it makes sense. A $9,000 plan split across December and January uses two annual maximums and turns an impossible number into two manageable ones, which is also why the fourth quarter matters so much and is covered in the slow season plan.
Financing, said out loud
Third-party financing approval is the difference between a presented case and an accepted one. Get the patient approved before the treatment conversation, not after.
Say the monthly number, because that is the number people think in. "Full arch is $24,000, which is about $389 a month over 60 months if you qualify" lands differently than the total alone.
Put the monthly figure in ads and on landing pages too. It is the most effective single line in dental advertising, and it is honest as long as you state the qualification condition.
Deposits and no-shows
For consults, do not take a deposit; you will kill the lead. For long appointments booked far out, especially sedation, surgical and full-arch, a $200 to $500 refundable deposit cuts no-shows meaningfully.
For everything else, use confirmation instead of money. Text at booking, text three days out, text the morning of, with a one-tap confirm. Practices doing all three run no-show rates several points lower than practices sending one reminder.
The new patient special, done properly
Bad: "Free consultation." Attracts comparison shoppers, teaches nobody anything, converts poorly.
Good: "$89 new patient exam, X-rays and cleaning. For patients without insurance. Through November 30."
It has a number, a defined inclusion, a qualifier and an end date. Price it near your cost, not below it, and make sure the front desk and hygiene team know the point is a complete exam that surfaces real treatment, not a loss-leader cleaning where nothing gets discussed.
Track two numbers on every special: how many booked, and how much of the treatment presented off those exams got accepted within 90 days. A special that books 40 patients and produces no treatment acceptance is a marketing success and a business failure.
How pricing feeds the marketing
A practice with published prices, a membership plan and financing approval can advertise specifics. A practice without them can only advertise adjectives, and adjectives cost more per patient because they do not filter anybody.
That is why this page sits between the Google Ads guide and the front desk guide. The ad states a number, the phone confirms it, and the treatment plan gives three ways to say yes.
Frequently asked
Will publishing prices attract only cheap patients? The opposite happens more often. A published price with what it includes signals confidence, and patients who fear an open-ended bill are the ones who never call.
How often should fees be raised? Annually, quietly, small. Practices that hold fees for four years then raise 18% at once generate complaints. Three to five percent a year generates almost none.
Should the front desk quote treatment fees over the phone? Ranges for standard procedures, yes. Specific treatment plans, no; that requires an exam, and quoting blind creates a conversation the doctor has to walk back.
If you want your offers, landing pages and follow-up built around a pricing structure that works, it is part of the free 14-day trial. Text or call (385) 832-6175.