5 Ways to Improve Case Acceptance

October 2, 2023

This is a guest article written by Roger P. Levin, DDS, Founder and CEO of Levin Group.

Case acceptance is one of the most critical systems in a dental practice. All the marketing in the world will not replace the benefit of having patients who accept recommended treatment. Practices that want to reach their true potential should focus on excellent case presentation by using techniques that encourage patients to follow through with recommendations.

How can dentists create a successful case acceptance system?

Case acceptance is both an art and a science. There are specific steps you can take and repeat consistently that are beneficial to the process. However, there’s also another side of case acceptance that simply can’t be boiled down to a series of steps; that part involves applying human psychology and building powerful relationships.

Perhaps more than anything else, you should focus on fostering patient relationships that create high levels of trust, which will lead to stronger case acceptance. There are five specific strategies you can start implementing today:

1. Get to know patients on a personal level

At Levin Group, we teach dental practices that every new patient experience should start with the “Golden 10.” The Golden 10 is a tactic that involves learning 10 personal things about each patient, helping dentists move the relationship from professional to personal. Remember this simple truth: people like their friends, people trust their friends and people buy from their friends. Our mantra at Levin Group is, “Make your patients your friends,” and that’s what the Golden 10 is all about.

Set a goal to learn one new thing about your patients at every visit. Gradually, you will start to develop a deeper understanding of your patients’ personalities, thus accelerating their trust and advancing their desire to accept recommended treatment.

2. Ask questions and listen

Like many high-level professionals, dentists often fall into the trap of doing most of the talking during patient visits. While this approach can be conducive to answering patients’ questions and making them comfortable with their treatment, it does not lead to successful case acceptance.

Instead, you should focus on facilitating a case discussion that keeps patients interested, focused and engaged. The best way to achieve this goal is to prepare a series of questions that you ask on a regular basis, including:

Am I explaining this clearly?
Does this make sense?
Do you have any questions?
How does this sound so far?
Do you understand what I am explaining?

These questions should be part of the standard playbook of a case presentation. With these questions, you’re not only ensuring patients are following what you are explaining, but you’re also giving patients a chance to participate. When you can engage a patient in a treatment conversation, you will see higher rates of case acceptance.

3. Anticipate the standard patient questions

There are certain questions that almost every patient will have:

What do you recommend?
What are the benefits of having this treatment?
How long will it take?
How much will it hurt?
What is the recovery process?
How much will it cost?

We often advise dentists to address these questions in the case presentation. However, try not to overemphasize the clinical technical information and instead highlight the benefits of the treatment. Imagine a percentage pie-graph representing the time you spend with patients. We recommend that doctors spend 20% of their time on clinical technique; 20% on explaining how long the treatment will take, how much it will hurt and how much it will cost; and 60% on explaining the benefits.

Focus on making the case sound easy, effortless and enjoyable, and less on the negative aspects to improve patients’ response.

4. Ask for commitment

The truth is most dentists focus on presenting cases but never ask their patients if they would like to follow through. At Levin Group, we teach a concept called the “magic question.”

After presenting all of the details of the case and treatment, simply ask your patients, “Would you like to have this done?” The question is not a hard sell, and it is not pushy; it simply gives the patient a chance to have one of four reactions. The patient will say yes, say no, ask additional questions or pose objections. Objections are nothing more than questions with a little edge. Talking through objections and asking the magic question will put patients at ease and lead to case acceptance almost every time.

5. Explain financial details thoroughly

Even if you are the greatest case presenter in the world, you will inevitably field questions about money. Doctors don’t like to talk about money because often the case fee is high, which can cause a patient to reject treatment. I suggest that you overcome any inhibitions you may have about money and talk about it in the way you would explain treatments, benefits, clinical techniques or recovery time. Money is simply part of the case presentation.

At Levin Group, we recommend that practices focus on the benefit of having financial options. As one brilliant business school professor said, “It’s not about how much anything actually costs; it’s how the customer has to pay for it.” There are several financial options available to patients today, including interest-free patient financing, which allows almost everyone to afford recommended treatment. If you have handled the case presentation well and can manage the discussion about money comfortably, then your case acceptance rate will rise quickly.

The bottom line

Case acceptance is a critical system in the dental practice. If you have other excellent systems but weaknesses in case presentation, the practice will still underperform. Most dentists don’t realize that high-fee cases have a low case acceptance rate due to the way the case is presented, not the fee. The five recommendations in this article will benefit any practice.

ROGER P. LEVIN, DDS

Roger P. Levin, DDS, is the CEO and Founder of Levin Group, a leading practice management consulting firm that has worked with over 30,000 practices to increase production. A recognized expert on dental practice management and marketing, he has written 67 books and over 4,000 articles and regularly presents seminars in the US and around the world.