It's 10:05 and the 10 o'clock patient has not arrived, leaving you scrambling to rearrange the schedule or risk losing production time. No-shows like this, along with last-minute cancellations are among the most frustrating and disruptive things a dental practice team has to deal with. They are also to some extent, inevitable. You are in a profession that depends on coordinating schedules with many people every day, so it is understandable that sometimes emergencies and unexpected events will occur. Often these broken commitments are a sign of deeper problem. Only you and your team can determine that by asking yourself some important questions:

  • How often do these non-events occur? Does it seem to be happening more often?
  • What reasons are patients giving for not coming in? How many of those “reasons” seem more like matters of convenience than genuine emergencies?
  • Are cancellations and no-shows having a measurable effect on hygiene production?
  • Do some of these hygiene no-shows stay no-shows until their next scheduled visit six months from now?

Ultimately, if you seem to be seeing – or not seeing – more no-show patients for dubious reasons, it comes down to a value problem. If patients are cancelling their “cleaning” appointments with you in favor of a visit to their hair stylist, they don't fully understand the importance of clinical hygiene care. Luckily, there are ways to change those mindsets, and it's not as hard as you might think. In fact, if you and the team have a free lunch hour coming up, we can do a quick tutorial, because I have made this vital issue the topic of one my first online Lunch + Learn sessions. In the lesson, I go over the reasons patients skip out on appointments and include a five-point communication plan that, if implemented consistently, is guaranteed to reduce those dreaded disappearing patients who are sacrificing their oral health and creating havoc with your schedule.


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