September often catches dental practices off guard. Vacations end, routines shift, and suddenly, hygiene schedules are half-empty. But it doesn’t have to be your slowest month.
Why patient volume typically declines in September
Dental practices face a predictable slump as families navigate new school schedules and recover from summer vacations. Steven J. Anderson, founder of the Total Patient Service Institute, noted that practice owners call him every year with the same concern: “Our September’s not looking so good.”
Adjusting to summer vacations and back-to-school schedules
Summer vacations create a ripple effect that extends well into the fall. Dental teams return from time off without having built the schedule adequately. In the meantime, patients adjust their routines to accommodate new school commitments.
Parents juggle drop-offs, pick-ups, and extracurricular activities, pushing dental appointments to the bottom of their priority list. Scheduling consistency suffers, as parents rebook hygiene visits and hold off on optional treatments.
Reduced appointments during election years
Presidential election cycles add another layer of complexity to September’s struggles. While this year isn’t an election year, midterms are coming in 2026, and the next presidential election will be here before we know it. Anderson explained, “When there’s uncertainty, then many times there’s reluctance to go out and to spend.”
Families facing economic concerns tend to postpone elective procedures and non-urgent dental care. The combination of typical factors and election-year hesitation creates what Anderson calls a perfect storm for reduced production. Taking proactive steps can help your practice avoid it.
Use August to prepare with a team planning session
Leading practices start planning their “Super September” strategy in early August, bringing the entire team together to brainstorm creative solutions before the slow month arrives. Anderson recommends holding an “idea factory” meeting. It’s a focused brainstorming session designed to generate momentum and buy-in from every team member.
Brainstorm 21 promotional ideas
Anderson insists teams should “Come up with at least 21 ideas on how to make September a banner production month.” Why 21? The high target forces creativity and prevents teams from settling for obvious solutions. “Quantity produces quality. You’ll come up with more quality ideas if you have 21 ideas to choose from,” he explained.
During brainstorming, avoid evaluating or critiquing suggestions. Capture all 21 ideas on a whiteboard, shared Google Doc, or within your Rectangle Health team workspace. Categorize them by patient segment, effort level, or required resources. Then, vote as a team to select the top three to five to move forward.
Turn your ideas into campaigns with defined owners
Once your team generates its list, select the most feasible campaigns and assign team members to champion each initiative. Create a mini-calendar mapping out patient outreach efforts and in-office execution dates. Remember to include:
- Week 1: Launch a text and email campaign to working parents promoting after-school appointments
- Week 2: Host an in-office “Crown Day” for patients with incomplete treatments
- Week 3: Run social posts and send postcards promoting whitening offers
- Week 4: Partner with a local school to offer free screenings
If you’re already a Practice Management BridgeⓇ user, use Bridge Engagement’s automated messaging and scheduling tools to simplify this process.
And to increase your chances of success, ensure each initiative has clear ownership, achievable deadlines, and measurable goals.
Match campaigns to specific patient needs
Generic promotions to your entire patient base yield weaker results than customized outreach. To boost success, target patient segments with tailored messages addressing their unique situations.
Encourage visits from uninsured patients
Patients without dental insurance often delay care due to cost concerns. Consider creating a “No Insurance, No Problem” promotion offering limited-time packages or simplified pricing on specific procedures.
For example, offer a $99 cleaning, x-ray, and exam bundle and promote it through targeted text and email messages. Or use Practice Management Bridge’s patient communication tools to reach uninsured patients flagged in your database as inactive or non-members of dental plans.
The key is making a relevant, direct offer — Anderson suggests something like, “If you don’t have insurance, no problem. In September, here’s a special opportunity to come in.”
Revisit cases with incomplete treatment
Many patients have diagnosed treatments that they haven’t scheduled. Anderson recommends hosting days like “Crown Day” or “Clear Aligner Day,” targeting patients with unscheduled work.
Send patients a text or email informing them about the promotion and its details. Pairing a specific date with an incentive helps fill the schedule fast. Some practices, according to Anderson, even added extra days due to overwhelming interest.
Reach out to teachers, parents, and seniors
Segment your outreach to each audience. For example:
- Parents: Send a “Back-to-School, Back-to-You” email campaign offering parents appointments during school hours when juggling kids’ schedules isn’t an issue. For weekend availability, consider hosting a family-friendly event complete with kid-friendly activities or even a rented bounce house, letting parents receive treatment while their children are safely entertained.
- Teachers: Promote a “Teacher Appreciation Week” with after-hours slots and whitening discounts for busy, often underpaid educators. Using your internal database, reach out directly to educators with personalized text or phone messages.
- Seniors: Identify patients over 60 who haven’t had a visit in six months and call with a tailored message, such as a fall hygiene tune-up or implant consult special. Personal outreach builds trust and helps seniors feel valued, especially if they’ve delayed care during the summer months.
Bridge™ Engagement’s filtering capabilities allow you to quickly segment your patient database and send targeted messages to each group, turning what could be hours of manual work into minutes of strategic outreach.
Improve practice operations to support growth
With your campaigns in motion, now’s the time to make sure your daily operations can support the added interest and turn it into actual appointments. And while external campaigns attract patients, internal processes determine whether your practice capitalizes on current patient interest. By making a few operational adjustments, you can improve follow-up, scheduling, and same-day opportunities during slower months.
Review the schedule during daily team meetings
Anderson emphasizes the importance of replacing traditional morning huddles with “opportunity meetings.” The distinction matters: Huddles focus on logistics, while opportunity meetings identify chances for same-day treatment.
During meetings, teams identify hygiene patients with pending treatments and new patients who may be open to additional services. They also assess whether emergency visits could lead to more complete care. “Do your chart prep and really focus on how you can take advantage of existing opportunities,” Anderson advised.
Follow up more than once
Email campaigns and mailers are great, but they won’t fill the schedule on their own. To maximize your marketing efforts, personal follow-up is your best bet.
“You can get up to six times better return if you follow that initiative with a phone call or text messages directly to individual patients,” Anderson shared. Aim for at least 10 follow-up texts or calls per day, especially to patients with unscheduled treatments.
Practice Management Bridge’s SMS and email integrations let you automate part of this process, while still allowing for personalized messages. Build follow-up activities into your outreach timeline rather than treating them as an afterthought.
Monitor activity and outcomes
To ensure your team maximizes its outreach efforts, track every interaction using your practice management software or a shared spreadsheet. Remember to include columns for patient name, date contacted, method (text, email, call), result (left message, scheduled, declined), and next steps.
Anderson recommends a simple manual system where staff log each patient contact and its result. Use a shared Google Sheet, whiteboard tracker, or RH’s built-in reporting system to log each patient touchpoint. Include ‘Contacted,’ ‘Pending,’ and ‘Scheduled’ columns, and assign daily goals like 15 outbound texts per staff member. “You can’t control the result. You can control the activity,” he explained.
Without tracking, teams often overestimate their efforts. Daily goals for outbound contacts keep everyone accountable and reveal which approaches generate the best returns. Tracking your outbound efforts will show you what’s working — and what isn’t.
Refresh conversations with returning patients
In addition to optimizing same-day opportunities, your team can also make the most of hygiene visits by refreshing how you engage with returning patients. Practices often miss opportunities to discuss comprehensive treatment with long-term patients during routine appointments. Anderson suggests using “conversion exams,” which are strategic conversations that help uncover patient goals and potential barriers to care.
Ask about long-term oral health goals
During hygiene visits with established patients, Anderson suggests opening new dialogue: “Five years from today, 10 years from today, as we look forward and you and I are sitting together at your regular hygiene appointment, can you share with me what you would want the health and the appearance of your mouth to be like?” The question shifts focus from immediate needs to long-term vision.
These conversations often reveal treatment opportunities patients hadn’t previously considered and lead to scheduling previously diagnosed work. Anderson recommends “three of these conversations per hygienist per day in September instead of just two” as a way to counteract the typical September slump.
Explore what’s preventing progress
After establishing the patient’s goals, directly address any obstacles. Ask the patient: “Tell me what’s standing in the way of moving in that direction.”
Understanding patient barriers like finances, time, or fear allows your practice to address them through payment plans, flexible scheduling, or education. The conversation positions your practice as a partner in helping patients achieve their goals.
Strengthen relationships through education and outreach
Beyond individual conversations, September also offers larger community touchpoints your practice can use for awareness and visibility. Awareness campaigns and back-to-school timing create opportunities to expand your community presence while filling your schedule. Educational initiatives position your practice as a trusted health resource while creating additional reasons for patients to visit.
Offer oral cancer screenings during health awareness month
Stand Up to Cancer month provides a timely hook for patient education and highlights the importance of cancer screenings. “Most patients are not aware that oral cancer is more widespread than cervical cancer and melanoma combined. And the best defense against oral cancer is early detection,” Anderson shared.
Partner with schools or local organizations
Back-to-school season opens doors for community partnerships. Schedule informational sessions or drop-in events about dental health to create visibility among families and caregivers, while providing valuable education. “Many practices do this well — they’ll go into the schools, into the classroom, do a special course, do a special presentation about dentistry and dental care,” he said.
Use teeth whitening as a way to attract more appointments
One effective way to pair outreach with practice growth? Offer popular services like teeth whitening in a way that supports both patient engagement and your bottom line.
Teeth whitening remains dentistry’s most requested service, yet Anderson says, “The average practice only whitens one and a half smiles a month.” To attract more appointments, tap into this underutilized service while supporting community causes.
Donate a portion of the proceeds to a local charity
Anderson’s Smiles for Life Foundation has used whitening promotions to raise over $51 million for children’s and dental-related charitable projects worldwide. Consider adapting this model locally, choosing a community charity to benefit from the proceeds. Adding a charitable component makes the initiative more meaningful while generating positive publicity for your practice.
Offer whitening as a new patient incentive
Rather than traditional discounts, consider bundling teeth whitening services with a first-time comprehensive exam and cleaning. For example, send a direct mailer or social ad offering “$50 Whitening with New Patient Visit ($150 value)” to specific ZIP codes with lower new-patient conversion rates. Use Rectangle Health’s data filters to identify high-potential inactive patients.
Plan now to avoid an empty schedule later
What’s the secret to September success? Planning ahead. Start your team planning session now, brainstorm at least 21 ideas, and build campaigns that address patient needs. By boosting your productivity in September, you can create momentum that carries through the holidays and into the new year.