3 Ways Dental Assistants Build Patient Loyalty

Dental assistants play a vital role in fostering patient loyalty. Often the first and last contact, they shape the entire patient experience. Beyond clinical support, they communicate, comfort, and educate, subtly fostering trust and rapport that encourages return visits. Their crucial contributions are vital for cultivating a loyal patient base.

At DentalMAX Solutions, we recognize how essential your dental team is to patient retention—and we build marketing strategies that highlight their value. From showcasing staff in your online content to designing workflows that enhance patient experience, we help practices turn great care into lasting loyalty. Let’s elevate your team’s impact and grow your practice together.

Dental assistants can keep patients coming back to the dental office. Some might say it’s a superpower! And there are numbers to back up these statements.

According to DANB and the DALE Foundation’s Financial Impact of Dental Assistants on the Dental Practice research results, 94% of dentists, dental office managers, and other dental leaders agreed that dental assistants help improve patient retention. There’s also evidence that practices with higher dental assistant pay have better patient retention, likely because those assistants stay with the practice longer and patients get comfortable with them over time. On the flip side, practices with high dental assistant turnover may have a more challenging time retaining patients — in addition to facing lower patient volume and productivity.

Below are three specific ways dental assistants help to retain patients.

Building trust

Each day, dental assistants prioritize building trust with patients and making them feel comfortable. You do this by talking and listening to patients before, during, and after the appointment. You answer patients’ questions, hear and validate their concerns, and empathize with their experiences. Sometimes, you’ll even hold their hand if they’re seeking comfort. Overall, dental assistants’ efforts can help patients agree to and feel good about pursuing the dentist-recommended treatment. With you by their side, patients often feel reassured everything will be OK.

“The best thing about being a dental assistant is creating a trusting relationship with an apprehensive patient — so that the next time they come in, they are all smiles and seemingly happy to be back,” shares Janaya. “Dental assistants can change mindsets so that patients have a better experience at the dentist’s office.”

Making patients feel important

As dental assistants know, everybody in the dental office likes to feel appreciated and special. Dental patients are no exception.

Because you spend so much time talking and listening to patients, dental assistants are in the perfect position to reassure patients they’re the dental team’s priority. We’ve heard that simply remembering little details about the patient, such as their children’s names, can reinforce to patients that they’re significant.

“People like to feel special, and they like knowing that you listen to them,” agrees Lara. “They can tell this when you remember something they mentioned during their last appointment — maybe a vacation they were excited about taking, a new baby they were expecting, or a wedding they were planning to attend.”

Providing education

Last, but certainly not least, dental assistants contribute to patient retention by serving as a resource for patients. In fact, dental assistants consider educating patients to be among the most important things they do.

Sharing information about oral healthcare and answering patients’ questions can benefit patients in many ways. For example, knowledgeable patients are less likely to feel anxious about visiting the dental office and may be less inclined to avoid it. Additionally, they are more likely to accept dentist-recommended treatment, practice good oral-hygiene habits at home, and return to the dental office for follow-up care.

Deborah agrees that sharing knowledge is power, and that dental assistants are well equipped for the task. “We must educate! We must help patients understand their oral healthcare situation, how to reverse bad habits, and why they may need that expensive treatment.

Pay is always a hot topic in any profession, including among dental assistants. Fair and competitive wages allow employees to have a higher quality of life, take care of loved ones, and feel valued by their employers. Unfortunately, some dental assistants do not feel fairly compensated and choose to pursue new opportunities because of it.

A new report from DANB and the DALE Foundation, the Financial Impact of Dental Assistants on the Dental Practice, helps illustrate the downsides of this turnover — and how raising pay for dental assistants can benefit the entire practice.

Staff retention

When dental assistants are well compensated, they’re more likely to stay with their practices. According to DANB’s 2024 Dental Assistants Salary and Satisfaction Survey, insufficient pay was the top reason dental assistants leave their jobs or the profession altogether. This can quickly become costly for practices. DANB and the DALE Foundation’s newest research found that the average at-risk revenue of an open dental assistant position is more than $21,000 over the course of the role’s vacancy. If the position stayed open for a full year, a practice could potentially lose out on nearly $110,000 in revenue.

Offering wage increases, therefore, can be an effective strategy for retaining and motivating dental assistants. Consider this: The latest salary survey also showed that Certified Dental Assistants who are “very satisfied” with their jobs earned $6 more per hour than those who are “very dissatisfied.” Additionally, 80% of all dental assistants reported that salary is “very important” to them.

Patient retention

It is usually more expensive for dental practices to find new patients than it is to retain existing ones. Providing dental care that is both high quality and affordable is key to keeping patients coming back. But it’s also imperative to create a comfortable, positive experience for them. Dental assistants are hugely beneficial to this. In fact, 94% of dental leaders agree that dental assistants help improve patient retention.

Friendliness and strong communication are core skills for assistants, which can help build trust with patients and ease any fears or concerns they have. This also makes patients want to return to a dental office — they enjoy seeing the same friendly faces every time they visit. But practices can lose this effect when they have high turnover on the dental assisting team. When efforts are made to keep dental assistants satisfied with their job and compensation, it can help practices keep patients for years to come.

Higher productivity

Ultimately, it’s easier to maintain a full dental staff when everyone feels well compensated, which maximizes productivity. When practices don’t have enough, or any, dental assistants, it leads to a heavier workload on the rest of the staff and prevents the team from working as efficiently as possible. According to research, more than half of reassigned tasks are delegated to another dental assistant. About one-quarter of reassigned tasks are taken on by the dentist, the role with the highest labor cost.

A full staff streamlines the office workflow. Each person can focus on their own job responsibilities, keeping the office moving like a well-oiled machine. This allows practices to see more patients, keep the schedule on track, and minimize wait times while maintaining a high quality of care. In other words, it helps practices earn more revenue.

To see how much revenue you can save by increasing dental assistant wages, try out the Dental Assistant Pay and Financial Impact Calculator. Just type in your practice’s data and a pay increase percentage, and you’ll get a customized calculation.

Ready to elevate your dental practice beyond routine care? At DentalMAX Solutions, we help you turn everyday interactions into lasting loyalty. Let’s showcase the value of your team and grow your practice—together. Call 561-777-2439 to explore strategies that can help you avoid common pitfalls, or find us on Instagram!

Reference: [https://www.danb.org/news-blog/detail/blog/dental-assistants-improve-patient-retention]