National Dental Plan: Getting Started

Generating a Treatment Plan

Are you generating a treatment plan for all patients that require treatment?

The treatment plan is pivotal in educating a patient in the treatment that they require for their good oral health.

It is highly recommended that a treatment plan is generated for all treatment. There is a misconceived idea that treatment plans are only required for complex or high value treatment. Therefore many patients may not understand the importance to attend to tooth decay or periodontal treatment if they have not been presented with a treatment plan. Within D4Web a treatment plan can be automatically created when the patient’s treatment is charted.

Presenting the Treatment Plan

Presenting a treatment plan is not about selling the treatment but about educating the patient on the importance of the treatment that is required. 

We recommend considering the following as a starting point

• Use Patient Education tools to help explain the issues and plan

• Within the 3D Charting page, use the 3D Skull feature found in the Charting toolbar (coming soon to D4Web)

• Allow for time during appointments to discuss the plan in detail

• When unable to adequately discuss the treatment plan at the appointment

  • Schedule either an additional appointment or phone call with the patient

  • E-mail / Print the Treatment Plan and/or Case Presentation from D4Web

  • E-mail / Print content from the Patient Education tools

Follow up Treatment Plans

It is advisable to follow up with patients that have not accepted treatment plans or completed treatment. It is considered a duty of care to follow up to see if the patient has any questions, concerns, queries or why they decided not to go ahead with the treatment.

We recommend contacting the patient a week after the treatment plan has been presented. A list of patients can be generated from the Treatment Plan Incomplete query.

Generate a Treatment Plan Incomplete Query

Promoting National Dental Plan

Are your patients aware that you have a payment plan available?

Making patients aware of your payment options will help increase treatment acceptance.

We should never make assumptions on whether a patient can and cannot afford treatment.

You may like to consider the following

• Arrange with your Website designer to add the payment options to your website  

• Ensure that the payment plan is printed at the bottom of the treatment plan   

• Attach the NDP Patient brochure to the treatment plan

• Signage is displayed throughout the practice 

Centaur Software offers free consulting and webinars for National Dental Plan customers. 

If you have not yet completed an NDP Consulting session, BOOK NOW.

If you've already completed the NDP Consulting session and want a refresh on how to efficiently use NDP at your practice register for an upcoming NDP Training Refresh webinar, BOOK NOW.