Dos and don'ts for case presentation: Getting more patients to say 'Yes'

Your practice production is directly influenced by your case acceptance rate. Successful case presentations will lead to scheduled appointments, production, satisfied patients, collections, and profitability. By the same token, every case presentation that is declined likely results in untreated patients, reduced revenue, lower efficiency, and less profit for your practice.

Provide support materials. Educational materials, such as brochures, should be available to reinforce services discussed with the doctor or hygienist. This information is not a replacement for a powerful, motivating case presentation. Instead, they are as the name suggests -- "support" materials.

Don't neglect the follow-up. Any patient who has been presented a case and does not schedule for treatment should receive a follow-up phone call from the front desk staff the next morning. Many patients are extremely interested in having treatment and just need a slight additional prompt to schedule. By instructing a front desk coordinator to call the next morning, there is a much greater opportunity that the patient will follow through with treatment.