Whether you’re just getting started placing dental implants or have been placing implants for a while, you may have spent time and money looking into how to get more implant patients.

You may have researched dental implant patient marketing, which may be how you found your way here.

And you may even have researched how to close more implant cases to help you achieve a stronger return on investment.

Each of those topics is important for starting and growing an implant dentistry practice. Master the art and science of getting more implant patients, optimizing your implant patient marketing, and closing more implant cases, and you can quickly grow a dental implant practice. You’ll attract new patients to your practice and have a strong implant case acceptance rate.

The key to closing more dental implant cases.

But the key to closing more dental implant cases over the long term is more than just understanding the current marketing strategies. The key is understanding dental implant patients.

When you understand dental implant patients, you can more reliably attract implant patients to your practice and ensure industry-leading implant case acceptance. Your marketing will be more effective because your messaging can better match their concerns. Your case acceptance rate will improve because you can anticipate their objections and help them address those concerns. And you’ll change more lives by helping more people get the life-changing dental implants they want and need.

Here are five key things to know about dental implant patients to help you achieve long-term success with your implant practice.

Dental implant patients are price shoppers.

Because implant dentistry is typically not covered by insurance, dental implant patients are much more sensitive to price. That means they will shop around until they find an affordable dentist with whom they’re comfortable.

Procedures can range from a few thousand dollars to tens of thousands of dollars. That means even a small percentage of savings from one dentist to another adds up in real dollar terms. Add that to the fact that dental patients are used to having insurance support, and the out-of-pocket cost of care comes as a big surprise.

Thus, we must expect price shopping. But that doesn’t mean lowering your prices or competing on price is wise. Practices should be prepared to address this head on. For example, be prepared to discuss quality issues with care and why not all dental implants are the same. Also, be prepared to offer innovative solutions to help patients afford quality care. The practices that do these things well will be the most successful.

Dental implant patients need education.

Implant treatment is complex. We can’t expect patients to have a high dental IQ and understand the procedure. In fact, they’re often needing dental implants because they haven’t been to a dentist often.

Be prepared to answer questions in a way that patients will understand. That will help build trust and rapport with patients.

Dental implant patients are often especially anxious.

It’s not easy to live with missing teeth. Because of that, you’d think implant patients would be more excited than anxious. But the fear of going to the dentist, and of a procedure as complex as implant dentistry, can loom larger than the excitement of restoring their smile. Practices should be especially sensitive to anxiety levels with implant patients.

Dental implant patients take more time to make decisions.

Dental implants are complex procedures, involve major surgeries, and require a significant investment. Thus, dental implant patients often take longer to feel confident saying yes than other patients. Start small and focus on building relationships with patients. Avoid appearing transactional in your focus.

Have systems in place to follow up with patients so they can get to know, like, and trust you over time. Create automated nurturing campaigns into your marketing efforts to stay top of mind with patients.

Dental implant patients are looking for life-changing transformations.

Your dental implant patients will be the most drastic before-and-after cases of your career. They will experience a big difference in terms of cosmetic issues and function.

Because of that, they are often the best evangelists for your practice. Build in a process to capture and share their transformation stories so they can attract more patients just like them.

Match your marketing to dental implant patients' unique wants and needs.

When building an implant practice, be sure to consider and address the specific needs of high-value implant patients. That will be your key to building a profitable—and predictable—flow of dental implant patients. Even better, you’ll do so while delivering life-changing smile transformations to people in your community.

If you’re interested in learning more about how Driven Dental Marketing can help you to attract and convert more high-value patients, you can book a FREE 15-minute strategy session right here on drivendentalmarketing.com.