Jun 3, 2026 · 35 min · 11 segments
Dental insurance may not be the retention tool most practices think it is. In this episode of The Extraction Podcast, Kyle Bergman sits down with Paul Lowry, co-founder of Dental Menu, to unpack what…
Paul LowryGuest
Kyle BergmanHost
You-- I noticed in doing some research that you have a ton of educational content, specifically contrasting discount plans and membership plans.
What, in your experience, do most practices still get wrong about the difference between the two?
They can help you attract new patients, but they're really conversion and retention tools.
If they have insurance, it's like, "Hey, here's what your insurance will cover," and you go through that, and then when it comes time to pre-appoint, it's like, "Kyle, do you wanna come back?" And you're like, "For your exam, cleaning, X-rays, your insurance covers it at 100%." You're like, "Yes." So the pre-appointment rate on the insurance patients when we were doing all this new patient marketing was in the mid-80% range, was really good.
The problem is, is if you don't have dental insurance, you come in, it's like, "Hey, Kyle, sorry you're in pain.
You need this treatment plan, and it's like $4,000." You're like, "Wow, that's a lot of money." And so most offices have their own in-house plan, but most of the time they're structured as a discount plan, almost like a Groupon or a coupon.
It's 500 bucks, gives you two cleanings, two exams a year, a set of X-rays, 20% off your treatment." So you're, you're already in the place of business.
So you buy that, you get the 20% off your treatment discount, and then you leave.
You may come back for that second cleaning, but what we see is people don't buy that plan right at 365 days 'cause nothing hurts.
And so we'll look for something to get a better deal on it, but it doesn't mean that we're gonna always go there.
It's, we do a lot of skiing in Utah, so you wanna buy a season pass and commit to a resort, or do you wanna buy a two for one and we're gonna bounce around to different resorts, getting the deals and, and, you know, go to a bunch of places? So if you want the one-and-done patient, you wanna market, they're gonna come in, they're in pain, and you wanna convert that treatment, you're gonna do discounts, right? You're gonna sell these one-off plans.
But if you really wanna convert 'em long term, you've gotta get 'em onto your season pass, so to speak, onto your membership plan, so that they're always coming to your place of business.
You-- I noticed in doing some research that you have a ton of educational content, specifically contrasting discount plans and membership plans.
What, in your experience, do most practices still get wrong about the difference between the two?
They can help you attract new patients, but they're really conversion and retention tools.
If they have insurance, it's like, "Hey, here's what your insurance will cover," and you go through that, and then when it comes time to pre-appoint, it's like, "Kyle, do you wanna come back?" And you're like, "For your exam, cleaning, X-rays, your insurance covers it at 100%." You're like, "Yes." So the pre-appointment rate on the insurance patients when we were doing all this new patient marketing was in the mid-80% range, was really good.
The problem is, is if you don't have dental insurance, you come in, it's like, "Hey, Kyle, sorry you're in pain.
You need this treatment plan, and it's like $4,000." You're like, "Wow, that's a lot of money." And so most offices have their own in-house plan, but most of the time they're structured as a discount plan, almost like a Groupon or a coupon.
It's 500 bucks, gives you two cleanings, two exams a year, a set of X-rays, 20% off your treatment." So you're, you're already in the place of business.
So you buy that, you get the 20% off your treatment discount, and then you leave.
You may come back for that second cleaning, but what we see is people don't buy that plan right at 365 days 'cause nothing hurts.
And so we'll look for something to get a better deal on it, but it doesn't mean that we're gonna always go there.
It's, we do a lot of skiing in Utah, so you wanna buy a season pass and commit to a resort, or do you wanna buy a two for one and we're gonna bounce around to different resorts, getting the deals and, and, you know, go to a bunch of places? So if you want the one-and-done patient, you wanna market, they're gonna come in, they're in pain, and you wanna convert that treatment, you're gonna do discounts, right? You're gonna sell these one-off plans.
But if you really wanna convert 'em long term, you've gotta get 'em onto your season pass, so to speak, onto your membership plan, so that they're always coming to your place of business.
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