How to get more orthodontic patients comes down to a path with four stages: someone finds you, requests a consult, shows up, and starts treatment. Most practices with flat starts aren't short of interest. They lose cases at one stage they haven't measured. This guide walks the path in order, with the fix for each stage and the numbers that show where cases leak.
Where new orthodontic patients come from
New patients reach an orthodontist through three doors:
- Search. People type what they want and where. "Orthodontist near me" gets 246,000 searches a month, "invisalign near me" 60,500 and "braces near me" 40,500 (Google Ads Keyword Planner data via DataForSEO, US, 12-month average to Sep 2026).
- Referrals. General and pediatric dentists send patients, and parents tell other parents.
- Direct and brand channels. Aligner brand locators, social media, school and community presence.
The AAO tells parents they don't need a dentist's referral (opens in a new tab) to book a check-up, and it says 1 in 3 orthodontic patients are adults (opens in a new tab), who mostly find providers on their own. Both point the same way: many new patients will find you on their own, through search. Work the stages below in order: there's no point paying for more traffic if consults go unanswered.
Local search and the Maps result
"Near me" searches are decided on the map. Google says it ranks local results on relevance, distance and prominence (opens in a new tab), and that there's no way to pay for a better local ranking.
Steps
- Complete your Business Profile. Categories, hours (including holiday hours), services, photos and a link to your consult page. Google's guidelines say your business name should reflect your real-world name (opens in a new tab), so don't add "Invisalign" or "Braces" to it.
- Create profiles for each orthodontist. Google allows public-facing practitioners their own profile at the practice location, which helps when parents search a doctor's name after a referral.
- Build a steady review history. Ask every finishing patient, the same way, on the same day. Google's policy bars incentives for reviews and selectively soliciting positive ones (opens in a new tab).
- Reply to reviews without confirming the reviewer is a patient. Thank them generally and take any complaint offline.
- Match your website to your profile. Same name, address, phone and hours, and a page for each treatment your profile lists. Our guide to orthodontic website pages covers the structure.
Want to know which of these is holding you back? A free audit can find where consults are lost: it scores your website, SEO, Google listing, AI visibility, social and ads, and lists your top five fixes.
Answering cost and payment questions up front
Cost is the question behind most orthodontic searches. If your site dodges it, patients go to a site that doesn't.
Steps
- Explain what drives the fee. The AAO says cost depends on the type, complexity and duration of treatment (opens in a new tab). Write a braces cost page and an aligner cost page around those drivers.
- Explain insurance. The AAO tells patients to check lifetime maximums, age limits and network rules. Say which plans you file with and what patients should ask their insurer.
- Show your payment plans. Down payment, monthly options and whether plans are interest-free.
- Say what the consult includes. Records, X-rays if needed, a written estimate.
- Put a consult form on every cost page.
Building referrals from general dentists
Referrals are earned through care and communication, not marketing spend.
Steps
- Send a consult letter after every new patient. Findings, plan and next steps, within days of the visit.
- Update at milestones. Start, mid-treatment, debond.
- Return the patient. The ADA code says specialists should return referred patients to the referring dentist (opens in a new tab) when treatment ends, unless the patient prefers otherwise (Section 2.B).
- Make referring easy. A direct phone line and a secure way to send records. Sharing records with another provider for treatment doesn't make them your business associate; HIPAA's definition of business associate (opens in a new tab) excludes a health care provider receiving disclosures about the patient's treatment.
- Teach, don't pay. Short educational sessions for dental teams on when to refer build trust.
What not to do
Never pay, gift or otherwise reward referrals. The HHS Office of Inspector General explains that the Anti-Kickback Statute (opens in a new tab) makes it a crime to pay for referrals of patients covered by federal health care programs, and that remuneration includes anything of value. Separate rules limit gifts to Medicare and Medicaid patients themselves to nominal value (opens in a new tab) ($15 per item, $75 a year). State laws can apply to all payers, including private insurance and self-pay patients. The AAO's ethics code (opens in a new tab) also bars members from giving or receiving rebates or split fees for referring patients.
This is general information, not legal advice — confirm with counsel before starting any referral program.
For a deeper playbook on specialist referrals, see referral marketing for specialists.
Consult follow-up and case acceptance
This stage costs almost nothing to fix, and it's where cases quietly slip when nobody owns follow-up.
Steps
- Reply to every request the same business day, by the channel the patient chose: call back a phone request, email an email request.
- Offer a specific time, not "when works for you?"
- Confirm the visit with what to bring and how long it takes.
- At the consult, give a written estimate and payment options, so families can decide without a second visit.
- Keep a pending-start list. Everyone who had a consult but hasn't started, with a named staff member and a follow-up date.
- Follow up once or twice, then stop. Persistence helps; pressure hurts.
Hypothetical arithmetic (fictional practice): in one quarter, 120 consult requests produce 80 consults held and 44 starts. Requests to consults held is 67%; consults held to starts is 55%. If the practice confirmed every request the same day and lifted consults held to 100, the same 55% would yield 55 starts with no extra marketing.
The example shows why measurement matters: the fix there is follow-up, not more ads.
Measuring starts by source
Track these numbers monthly, by source (Google search, Maps, referral by dentist name, social, ads, other):
| Metric | What it reveals |
|---|---|
| Consult requests | Whether marketing is reaching people |
| Time to first reply | Whether requests are being worked |
| Consults held | Whether follow-up and scheduling work |
| Starts | Whether the consult converts |
| Pending starts | Revenue waiting on a decision |
Ask "How did you hear about us?" on every form and at every first visit, and record the referring dentist's name.
Common mistakes when trying to get more orthodontic patients
- Judging channels on clicks or "leads" instead of starts.
- Buying more ads while consult requests wait a day or more for a reply.
- Hiding cost information until the consult.
- Rewarding referring offices with gifts.
- Never contacting patients on the pending-start list.
Where Medfy fits
Medfy doesn't book consults or answer phones; your team does. What it provides, as part of the $349/month base plan, is the visibility: a patient CRM and inbox that collects every form and message in one access-controlled place, first-party analytics that count calls, forms and bookings by source, and a weekly brief by email showing what changed. For more ways to fill the top of the path, see our orthodontic marketing ideas, the broader guide to patient acquisition strategies, and the orthodontic marketing hub.
Frequently asked questions
How do orthodontists increase case starts?
Find where cases are lost before spending more. Measure consult requests, consults held and starts by source each month. If requests are low, work on local search and cost pages. If consults aren't held, reply faster and confirm visits. If consults don't convert, give written estimates and payment options at the visit and follow up with everyone who hasn't started.
How fast should an orthodontic office follow up on a consult request?
The same business day, by the channel the patient used. A parent who filled in a form at lunch may be comparing several practices that same afternoon. Offer a specific time slot rather than asking when they're free, confirm the visit with what to bring, and log the reply so you can track response time as a monthly metric.
Do free consults increase orthodontic starts?
Not on their own. The AAO notes that most of its members offer low-cost or free initial consultations, so patients often expect one. What moves starts is what happens around the consult: a fast reply, a clear explanation of cost, a written estimate with payment options and a consistent follow-up. If you advertise a free consult, state its conditions clearly.