The short answer: it depends on who is calling. A missed call from an existing patient confirming a time usually costs little. A missed call from a new patient, or from someone in pain who books elsewhere, can cost a patient for years. Work it out as: missed calls × share from new patients × share who would have booked × what a new patient is worth to you in their first year.
The figures you will see quoted
Dental call studies point the same way, even if the exact numbers differ. DenteMax, a dental PPO network, reports that roughly one in three calls to dental offices goes unanswered during busy hours, and that few new patients leave a voicemail. Peerlogic found a 38% unanswered rate across 4,280 calls to 26 practices, and in a separate case study of a 26-practice group only about a quarter of new-patient calls turned into appointments.
On value, a widely quoted analysis of more than 12,500 practices by Sikka Software put a new patient's value at about $4,220. That figure is from 2016, it measures production rather than profit, and it covers years of visits, not one.
Treat all of these as signals, not facts about your clinic. Several come from companies that sell phone software, and practices vary a lot. Your own phone report is the only number that matters.
Work out your own number in four steps
- Missed calls per month. Most phone systems show answered and missed calls by hour. Pull the last four weeks.
- Share from new patients. Check missed numbers against your patient list. Numbers you don't recognise are a fair stand-in for new patients.
- Share who would have booked. Use your own booking rate for new-patient calls that your team does answer. If you don't track it, ask your front desk for an honest estimate.
- First-year value of a new patient. Average first-year production per new patient, from your practice software. First-year is more honest than lifetime figures, because not every patient stays.
Monthly cost of missed calls = missed calls × new-patient share × booking rate × first-year value. Then knock off the share who call back later, which your call log will also show.
A worked example, with made-up numbers
These numbers are invented to show the method. Use yours instead.
- 80 missed calls a month, and 30% are from numbers not on your patient list: 24 likely new patients.
- Your team books half of the new-patient calls it answers: 12 patients who would probably have booked.
- Your average first-year production per new patient is $600: $7,200 a month in first-year production at risk.
- Your call log shows half of those callers ring back later: about $3,600 a month actually lost.
Even after cautious assumptions, the number is usually large enough to justify fixing the problem. And if it isn't, you have learned that your phones are not where the money is.
Which missed calls matter most
- New patients. They are comparing practices, and the first one to answer often wins.
- People in pain. A cracked tooth or toothache won't wait for a call back. These callers usually book wherever someone picks up.
- Reschedules and cancellations. A missed call here can mean an empty chair you could have filled.
Look at when the misses happen, too. Lunch, the first hour of the day, closing time and after hours are the usual gaps.
What you can do about it
There is no single right fix. Some clinics shift breaks so the phone is always covered. Some add a call-back routine, online booking, or a live answering service. Others add an AI receptionist for overflow and after-hours calls. We compare the costs in AI receptionist, answering service or another hire.
Want a quick estimate? Our missed-call calculator works it out in your browser and sends nothing anywhere.
The bottom line
Don't let an industry average decide for you. Four weeks of your own call data will tell you whether missed calls are costing you a little or a lot, and which hours to fix first.
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