Missed appointments can be a common frustration for medical practices, especially dental offices. While most patients understand the importance of showing up for their scheduled visits, a small number of patients—often referred to as serial offenders—routinely fail to attend, even when they claim to be in pain. This not only disrupts the practice's schedule and finances but can also negatively affect the patient's health. In this post, we’ll explore how missed appointments impact dental practices, examine how the Pareto Principle applies to this issue, and discuss strategies to help reduce no-shows, including my own "same day only" designation for habitual offenders.

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