Appointment scheduling depends on the number of chairs and oral health professionals working in a clinic. A day is usually divided into 10- or 15-minute blocks. Shorter blocks allow more flexibility than longer ones and make it easier to customize scheduling to individual patients’ needs. Appointments are scheduled for the number of blocks required to complete procedures.

In many clinics, patients who need restorative treatment are scheduled for a restorative appointment, and the dentist decides on the day of the visit which tooth or teeth to restore. This decision may be based on symptoms that the patient is having that day, the severity and size of cavities present, the time available and the number of patients waiting to be seen, or any combination of these factors. However, this system is not recommended because it is inefficient in the following ways:

• Dental assistants cannot set up in advance
• The patient does not know what the co-payment will be
• Quadrant dentistry is almost impossible to provide, unless every patient is given a long appointment

A better way to schedule appointments is to develop a detailed treatment plan for each patient that lists the services to be provided and the order in which they will be performed. At the completion of each visit, the dentist or hygienist can estimate the number of blocks needed for the next appointment, including the time needed to set up, clean, and disinfect the operatory, and can use the clinic’s routing slip to inform the receptionist about the treatment plan.

Following is a sample treatment plan as written on a routing slip that a patient would present to the receptionist for scheduling of future appointment upon the completion of the first visit:

“Next Visit (NV), ops 3-MOD, 4-DO and 5-O, 3 blocks, DDS,” or “NV 28-O and 29-O, 2 blocks, EFDA.”

This detail informs the patient of exactly what is planned for the next visit (which is important if he or she is paying out-of-pocket for any portion of the care) and allows the receptionist to determine the length of the future appointments and whether to schedule the patient with a dental hygienist, dental assistant, or dentist.

As the number of chairs and oral health professionals increase, so does the complexity of scheduling. An efficient appointment system keeps all the chairs filled throughout the day, without making patients wait or forcing staff to rush. There is no single best way to schedule appointments. The clinic may want to consult with a practice-management specialist or with experienced staff before setting up its system.

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