Dental implant practices can increase their patient base by establishing reasonable payment options. In this day and age, many patients need more financial options than some clinics currently offer. Thankfully, when you give your patients more options, it shows that you care about their health and smile, not just the money.

The decision to get dental implants can be stressful and filled with uncertainty. The financial questions in your patient’s head could be the biggest obstacle preventing them from getting the treatment they need. 

We’re going to discuss three proven strategies for gaining dental implant patients through offering third-party patient financing. Before we do, we will briefly address getting emotional buy-in from patients. Emotional buy-in is a critical first step to getting patients to move forward with any treatment. Without that, it won’t matter what financial plans you have available.

Get Emotional Buy-In From Patients or Financial Plans Won’t Matter

In addition to the financial uncertainty, moving forward with implants is usually an emotional decision. Prospective patients often deal with lowered self-esteem, a negative social stigma, and even a fear of building close relationships. 

Make sure you understand these complex realities as you process patient financial options for dental implants together. When you speak to the emotions of the client, not just their wallet, you’ll have higher engagement. When they feel engaged, they try their best to figure out finances. Impassible obstacles feel more navigable. 

From the very start of your relationship, build trust and rapport with your patients. Make sure they know that you hear and empathize with their issues. This will make strategically figuring out finances much better.

Offer Multiple Financial Plans to Patients

To provide your patients with the best solutions, it’s key to give them options. You don’t want to go through the effort of consultation, connection, and trust-building to have the patient back out because you didn’t offer a solution to their greatest obstacle. 

Thankfully, the expensive cost of this procedure can be overcome through flexible financing. There are multiple financing solutions for large case dentistry and small cases alike.

1. Traditional Financing for Implants

These are lenders that fund implant clients provided they have a high enough credit score. Most of them fall around 620. They have comparable interest rates, financing up to $65,000 on seven-year payment plans.

Some popular options include GreenSky, CareCredit, and LendingUSA. You can reach out to them directly to inquire about a partnership or we can discuss them and other options if you book a free strategy call with us. This is a fantastic option for many patients, but not all.

2. Flexible Financing for Patients With Low Credit

Not every implant patient can qualify for traditional financing. For those patients, offering other flexible financing options is important. Which options you offer depends on how much risk your practice is able to shoulder.

Obviously, there is less risk with traditional financing, but there is always risk in any kind of financing. If you want your practice to be open to more people, regardless of their credit score, you may consider some of these dental financing solutions.

Get Patients Financially Pre-Approved Before They Show Up For A Consultation

The two financial plans mentioned above are wonderful for helping patients who otherwise cannot afford care. The fulfillment that comes from the ability to transform lives through transforming smiles cannot be overstated. But they can require substantial work by you and your team to educate the patient on financial plans and help them navigate the application process.

Because of that, many practices are considering a third, creative solution and partnering with a Virtual Patient Advocate (VPA) to handle all the financing details before the patient steps foot in your practice. 

Our VPAs qualify prospective patients for you, and only sends you strong leads with financing in place. This frees up your chair time and enables you to find win-win solutions with every patient who comes through your door. Naturally, this also enables you to transform even more lives by keeping your chair time focused on finalizing relationships with patients and placing implants..If you’d like to inquire about working with a VPA, or want more help strategizing your marketing approach, book a free strategy call with us today.