Improve Profitability through Clean Claims

With almost 11 ADA recognized dental specialties and having a burgeoning market share, the specialty dental business is here to make significant gains in the coming years as we take a cursory glance on the latest trends of the dental industry.

Listen to Ryan Arnold, Principal, Wisdom Teeth Guys as he explains the possibilities that lie ahead for Dental Specialty business and how he has paid attention on patient care,technology adoption and brand management to further sustainable practice growth for his specialty.

Dentistry's Inner Circle bg 37

Creating Sustainable Specialty Dental Businesses

Dentistry's Inner Circle Podcast

A series of podcasts from practice owners on how they navigated the change and successfully transitioned to CareStack. 

Beatrice Perez

Ishtiaq Rouf

Dana Veach

Dr. Himesh Kana, DDS

Himesh Kana

 Penny Filipe

When Capital Tightens, Operations Matter More Than Ever

Dental AI

AI in Dentistry Isn’t About Replacing People. It’s About Removing Friction.

The Revenue Engine: Turning Work Into Profit

SMILE: CareStack recognized as 2026 Dental Leader by Capterra & Software Advice

Reducing patient no-shows and cancellations begins by accepting that 

it’s impossible to guarantee that your patients will always keep their appointments

. Once you accept that this falls outside your control, you can pool your efforts on the aspects that are within your control, and which help reduce no-shows and cancellations.

missed appointments cause a ripple effect

 that impacts your schedules, revenues, and the effectiveness of treatments. It strikes a serious blow to your bottom line. But with that said, there are 

effective safeguards you can put in place

 to address this issue. Before we explore these safeguards, let’s examine the key reasons behind no-shows and cancellations. 

Typically, patients miss their appointments when they:

Don’t understand the importance of keeping their appointments

Misunderstand when their appointment is scheduled

Self diagnose and decide to skip their appointments

Worry about bad news and try to avoid the situation

Have a shallow relationship with the provider

There is a wide range of reasons for patients to miss their appointments, but most can be mitigated with improved patient-provider communication and by implementing the following safeguards.

It became widely accepted as a care delivery method after the 2020 pandemic, but thanks to the convenience offered to patients, 

 is here to stay. Outside the initial check-up and actual treatment, consultations and routine post-op visits can be performed remotely. The virtual interactions offer patients the opportunity to 

receive treatment in the comfort of their living room

 or office. The added benefit of leveraging teledentistry is it adds one less reason for patients to rethink or opt out of their dental appointments. 

Another approach that has gained traction is using 

 to collect vital patient information. E-forms are a key feature of modern practice management software (PMS). This feature is now used widely to stay in line with the COVID-19 safety protocols. With this new norm, practices have completely replaced the clipboard and embraced digitization. Another fact that supports this approach is that 

98% of patients who take time to fill out online forms commit to their appointments

COVID-19 has added fuel to the fire of dental anxiety among patients. The risk of exposure is a valid fear. The best way for you to 

 is with communication and education. Ensure you convey the safety protocols and measures followed at your practice to reduce the risks from COVID-19. Launching targeted email campaigns, and updating relevant information on your practice website and 

convey your commitment to patient care and safety

 and encourage patients to follow through with their appointments.

When you provide your patients with the option to make payments in advance, it reduces the instances of no-shows and benefits your collections and accounts receivable. Get paid upfront instead of having to wait for 2-3 months. Paying cash in advance leads to 

. You can provide this option during patient checkout, especially when both you and your patient agree with the importance of scheduling the next appointment.

Offering upfront payment at this stage is apt, as the patient is likelier to take action and commit to their oral health. Another way to make it easy for them to pay is by providing an 

. Make sure that you inform your patient about your prepaid payment options. Market it through your campaigns, newsletters, and phone scripts.

Reminders are an effective way to reduce patient no-shows. Plan your 

and decide on a frequency that works best for your target clientele. Start off with a postcard, followed by email and text reminders. Add a phone reminder a few days before the scheduled appointment. Ensure that you cut down on reminders once you receive confirmation from your patients. Practice management software aids you to launch, coordinate and track your recall campaigns effectively.

reward patients who keep their appointments

. The reward initiatives can include discounts or gift cards. The benefits of such an approach are twofold. You encourage your patients to follow through on your appointments and 

convey how much you value their participation

. Moreover, curating such experiences helps you retain your customers.

Sometimes, patients simply forget an appointment. Send 

 that can include a “We missed you at the practice” message. Follow this up with a phone call to encourage them to reschedule immediately.

It is crucial that your patients know the impact of your treatments on their oral health. If your patients are not invested in the outcomes of your treatment plan, it is unlikely that they will uphold their commitments. 

 before every appointment. Remind them of the benefits of the procedure and the progress they’ve made so far. 

 of the scheduled appointment and ensure that they are fully onboard. A phone reminder before the appointment will help refresh what they already know about the 

Patients skip appointments because they owe your practice money or are worried the procedure will be too expensive. When this happens, it’s time to 

. It’s important that payments never come as a surprise to the patient. This causes anxiety in the patient, especially when they expect hidden expenses from each visit. When 

 and benefits are discussed upfront and agreed upon, patient no-shows due to financial concerns can be avoided. 

 allows you to effectively educate and communicate with your patients. Automating tasks like appointment reminders or confirmation/cancellation emails, filling last-minute openings, and sending online forms and other notifications to engage patients, practices can drastically cut revenue loss and staff workload while reducing patient no-shows and cancellations.

Eliminating No-Shows and Cancellations at Dental Office

For a dental practice, revenue cycle management is the equivalent of the body’s circulatory system and the heart of a practice’s financial success. The revenue cycle incorporates data capture, claims and denials management, and the collection of payments from both patient and insurance receivables. A healthy system works in concert with industry best practices and technical solutions to optimize efficiencies, identify “leaks” and improve operational workflows. As every practice is unique, it is difficult to prescribe a “one size fits all” approach. However, there are key performance indicators, which can and should be followed to measure practice performance. There are several potential KPIs which provide valuable insight into the collection’s performance and financial health of practice including, but not limited to: Collections percentage, Production growth, Aging accounts receivable, Days sales outstanding, Adjustments percentage, and Credit balances. 

Since 2011, the dental industry has experienced a steady and upward trend in aging receivables, with the majority of balances aged greater than 90 days. The good news is that CareStack offers a solution that combines modern technology, effective processes, and industry expertise to kick start the heart and breathe life back into the revenue cycle.

Revenue Cycle Playbook for Dental Professional

Revenue Cycle Playbook for Dental Professionals

From small, solo practices to large, multi-location clinics, these case studies demonstrate the versatility and value of CareStack in improving the patient experience and driving practice . 

After spending time this week at the JP Morgan Healthcare Growth Forum in Nashville, one message came through loud and clear:

The healthcare organizations that win over the next several years won't necessarily be the ones with the most capital. They'll be the ones with the strongest operations.

For much of the last decade, growth was fueled by abundant capital, acquisition opportunities, and favorable market conditions. Today, the environment looks very different.

As a result, healthcare leaders are being forced to answer a question many haven't had to answer in years:

How do we create growth when capital is no longer the primary catalyst?

The answer that surfaced repeatedly throughout the conference was operational excellence.

One of the operators who embodies this mindset is 

, who was gracious enough to host me during the event.

What stood out wasn't a conversation about waiting for markets to improve or hoping capital becomes more readily available.

About creating visibility into performance.

About focusing relentlessly on the operational levers that organizations can control regardless of market conditions.

That mindset appeared repeatedly throughout the conference.

The strongest operators weren't talking about external factors.

They were talking about operational excellence.

History has shown that market leaders are often built during periods of uncertainty.

Companies like Walmart didn't pull ahead because they had perfect market conditions. They pulled ahead because they continued investing in operational excellence while competitors became reactive.

Healthcare may be entering a similar moment.

In many ways, it reminded me of the old saying:

Periods of market uncertainty have a way of exposing operational weaknesses. They also create opportunities for disciplined organizations to separate themselves from the competition.

Unfortunately, many organizations respond to market shifts by looking for the safe bet.

The problem is that standing still often becomes the riskiest decision of all.

Doing the same things that worked in a different market while expecting different results rarely ends well.

One lesson that surfaced repeatedly in Nashville is that market shifts expose the difference between organizations driven by process and organizations driven by emotion.

The strongest operators rely on systems, metrics, accountability, and disciplined execution.

They allow uncertainty to influence decision-making.

In uncertain markets, process compounds while emotion creates volatility.

The organizations that emerge strongest from this cycle will likely do the opposite.

They will make decisions based on data rather than emotion.

And they will focus relentlessly on same-store growth.

Throughout the forum, conversations around same-store growth were remarkably consistent. Healthcare organizations are increasingly focused on:

Improving patient acquisition and conversion rates

Optimizing provider schedules and capacity utilization

Accelerating revenue cycle management and cash collections

Leveraging automation and AI to reduce administrative burden

Creating greater visibility into operational performance across locations

In a market where capital is constrained, these operational improvements often produce a faster return than expansion alone.

Industry answer rates across healthcare and dentistry often range between 57% and 72%. That means many organizations are missing opportunities simply because staff are helping patients in front of them when the phone rings.

Every unanswered call represents a potential new patient.

Or an existing patient who may never call back.

Leading organizations are beginning to leverage AI-powered communication platforms to ensure every call is answered, every patient receives immediate engagement, and every opportunity is captured even when staff are fully occupied delivering care.

The same trend is emerging within revenue cycle management.

Insurance eligibility verification can consume up to 45 minutes of staff time per patient. Across multi-location healthcare organizations, that translates into hundreds or even thousands of hours spent on repetitive administrative work.

Forward-thinking organizations are increasingly using automation and AI to handle these tasks, allowing team members to focus on patient care, patient experience, and higher-value activities that directly impact growth.

These aren't technology initiatives for the sake of technology.

They're operational excellence initiatives.

The organizations that emerge strongest from this cycle will not necessarily be the ones that cut the deepest.

They will be the ones that become more efficient.

The ones that use technology, automation, and AI to remove friction from the patient journey while allowing their teams to focus on the work that creates the most value for patients and the organization.

Because operational excellence is no longer just an efficiency strategy.

Eventually, access to capital will improve.

When that happens, the organizations that spent this period strengthening operations will be positioned to move faster and outperform their peers.

The healthcare landscape is entering a chapter where execution matters more than enthusiasm, process matters more than emotion, and operational excellence has become one of the most important competitive advantages a healthcare organization can build.

Thank you again to Chad Trull and the HighFive Healthcare team for the hospitality and conversations throughout the event. I also appreciated the opportunity to spend time with David Skelton from Flagship Specialty Partners and many others who are proving that great operators don't wait for better conditions, they build better systems.

Because when capital tightens, operations matter more than ever.

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Why operationalizing AI, not just adopting it, will become a defining advantage for modern dental organizations.

One of the strongest conversations at the

 came from the main stage presentation by 

, co-founder of Alcan Dental Cooperative and Kids Tooth Team, who focused less on AI hype and more on the operational realities of implementing AI inside modern dental organizations.

The presentation challenged one of the biggest misconceptions surrounding AI in dentistry: that technology is here to replace people.Instead, the message was much more practical. AI is becoming a tool that helps practices reduce operational drag, improve consistency, and create more capacity for teams to focus on patient care. That distinction matters because dentistry is entering a period where operational efficiency is becoming a competitive advantage.

Practices today are balancing staffing shortages, rising patient expectations, tighter margins, and increasing administrative complexity. The groups that separate themselves over the next five years likely won’t be the ones chasing every new technology trend. They’ll be the ones who learn how to operationalize the right technologies effectively.

The Real Divide: Safe Bets vs Growth Bets

The presentation also highlighted a broader shift happening across dentistry. For years, many practices and organizations have leaned toward operational “safe bets”: legacy systems, disconnected workflows, manual processes, and incremental operational change. But growth-minded groups are beginning to think differently. They are investing in systems that reduce friction, automate repetitive work, improve calibration, and increase operational visibility across the practice, not to replace teams, but to enable them to operate at a higher level.

What will separate organizations over the next five years is not ownership structure or size. It will be their willingness to operationalize technology consistently across the organization. Because AI adoption by itself is not the advantage. The advantage comes from alignment:

and a willingness to rethink how practices operate as patient expectations continue evolving

AI powered dentistry

That shift is also changing how independent practices evaluate future partnerships and growth opportunities.

Historically, scale alone carried significant weight in dentistry. But as operational models mature, practices will increasingly seek out organizations with proven playbooks; groups who are capable of delivering integrated technology, operational consistency, workflow efficiency, and systems that meaningfully improve both the provider and patient experience.

In many cases, the differentiator will no longer be size alone. It will be operational maturity. That shift is happening across the industry, from independent practices to cooperatives to large DSOs, and organizations that embrace operational transformation early will gain significant long-term advantages in efficiency, patient experience, and sustainable growth.

AI adoption by itself is not the advantage. The advantage comes from operational alignment.

The best AI often operates quietly in the background. Not replacing the front desk. Not replacing providers. But supporting them.

Examples range from AI voice agents handling inbound communication to automated insurance verification, workflow automation, AI scheduling, clinical documentation support, and AI scribe technology.

In particular, AI scribe technology may become one of the most overlooked operational advantages in dentistry. Reducing the documentation burden in the operatory creates meaningful time savings for providers and teams while improving the consistency of clinical notes and reducing administrative fatigue.

The common thread across these technologies is not replacement. It is operational leverage.

Removing repetitive administrative work allows practices to create better patient experiences while reducing stress on teams already stretched thin.

Today’s patients expect faster responses, easier scheduling, more transparency, and clearer communication. Practices that fail to modernize those workflows increasingly create friction that impacts both growth and retention.

The practices that successfully implement these technologies are not becoming less human. In many ways, they are creating more opportunities for meaningful patient interaction by reducing the operational burden surrounding the care experience.

AI-assisted imaging and provider calibration were also highlighted by Dr. Alex as emerging operational advantages within modern dental organizations.

Not as a replacement for clinical judgment, but as tools that improve consistency, support patient education, and create greater transparency during treatment conversations.

When patients can clearly visualize what providers are discussing, trust improves, and communication becomes more effective. That may become one of the most valuable applications of AI in dentistry: 

not replacing expertise, but helping practices communicate clinical findings more clearly and consistently across tea

AI Is Accelerating a Proven Operational Model

What makes this shift particularly important is that the underlying operational model is not new.

Highly scaled organizations have historically won through standardized systems, operational visibility, workflow optimization, and consistent execution across locations.

The formula has already been proven across industries. Companies like McDonald's scaled globally through process standardization, operational consistency, and workflow optimization. The goal was not simply to reduce labor, but to improve throughput, consistency, and customer experience at scale.

As technology evolved inside stores from kiosks to mobile ordering to kitchen automation, labor was often reallocated rather than eliminated. Employees shifted toward higher-value functions tied to guest experience, order accuracy, kitchen execution, and operational flow.

Dentistry is now beginning to move through a similar operational evolution. Not on the clinical side of care, where provider expertise and patient relationships remain critical, but on the operational side of the business, where communication, documentation, workflow efficiency, and patient experience increasingly determine scalability.

AI is not replacing that operational model. It is accelerating it.

Practices now have access to tools that can automate repetitive workflows, improve visibility, reduce administrative burden, support provider calibration, and create more operational consistency than ever before. That is where the long-term advantage is beginning to emerge.

dental front desk

The Future of Dentistry Will Belong to Operationally Intelligent Practices

The real competitive advantage in AI will not come from simply adopting new tools.

It will come from effectively operationalizing them.

Because eventually the question may no longer be: “Should practices adopt AI?”

It becomes: “What operational disadvantages exist if they don’t?”

As AI continues to improve workflow efficiency, documentation, patient communication, provider calibration, and operational consistency, organizations implementing these systems early will gain advantages that become difficult to replicate later.

Not because AI replaces clinical excellence. But because it allows great teams to operate more effectively.

The practices that teach how to operationalize technology effectively will create more efficient teams, stronger patient experiences, and more sustainable growth models over the long term.

The future of dentistry will belong to operationally intelligent practices.


DEO Operations Intensive in Dallas, Texas

, one theme stood out in our three-hour session on the 

Growth isn’t limited by demand. It’s limited by execution.

, we explored how leading DSOs are transforming their 

 to improve collections, reduce Days Sales Outstanding (DSO), and turn operations into a profit driver.

This isn’t about producing more dentistry.

getting paid faster and more consistently for the work you’ve already done

Most practices still scale collections the same way:

Manual RCM workflows—eligibility checks, claim submission, payment posting—create bottlenecks that:

High-performing organizations remove it by shifting to 

Manual effort = cost centerAutomated workflows = profit center

Case Study: Espire Dental’s Lean RCM Model

One of the most talked-about moments from the session came when Jim shared how Espire Dental operates its revenue cycle:

39 locations.6 people managing insurance RCM.

That’s a fraction of what most DSOs require.

Instead of staffing each location, Espire:

Leveraged AI-driven RCM tools via open APIs

The result is a highly efficient, scalable model.

But the real impact shows up in one metric:

 — the average number of days it takes a practice to collect payment after services are completed.

In an industry where many practices operate at 30–60+ days, this level of performance dramatically improves 

cash flow, working capital, and profitability

This is what happens when RCM shifts from a cost center to a 

DSO Benchmarks: Where Most Practices Stand

Audience polling during the session revealed the current reality:

Every additional day in DSO (Days Sales Outstanding—the time it takes to collect revenue after treatment) represents:

Reducing DSO is one of the fastest ways to improve 

financial performance without increasing production

Revenue Recovery vs. Credit Card Fee Optimization

Another key discussion centered on a common misconception in dental finance:

What matters more, lower credit card fees or better collections?

Fee optimization may improve margins by ~2%

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