The pattern every cosmetic clinic knows
An enquiry arrives at half past ten at night. It says: how much are veneers. Reception replies in the morning with a warm paragraph inviting them in for a consultation. Nothing comes back. Two days later, the same thing from someone else.
Practices treat this as a sales problem and try to solve it with faster replies and better phone scripts. It is not a sales problem. It is a site that did not answer the only question the patient came with, so the patient used the enquiry form as a price list and moved on the moment the reply avoided the number.
What the silence actually is
Three different people send that message and they look identical in the inbox.
The patient with a budget nowhere near the work. Someone imagining a smile makeover costs a few hundred. Nothing you say converts them, and every hour spent on them is unpaid.
The comparer. Already has two quotes and wants a third figure. If you answer with an invitation instead of a number, they assume you are expensive and stop replying.
The genuine case waiting for permission. Wants to know they are in the right range before spending an evening thinking about it. This is the patient you lose most often, and the one worth the most.
Hidden prices lose all three. Published prices lose the first one before they ever email, and convert the other two.
The objection, taken seriously
"Every case is different, so we cannot publish a price." That is true and it is not an argument for silence. It is an argument for publishing the shape of the price rather than a single number.
A from-price with what it includes. The number of appointments. What moves the figure: how many units, whether extractions or grafting are needed, whether a temporary phase is involved, laboratory choices. And an honest sentence saying the final figure comes from the clinical assessment, because it does.
That is more informative than a flat number and it is defensible. A patient reading it learns whether they are in the right room.
What goes on each treatment page
- A from-price, stated as a from, not as a promise.
- What is included: consultation, scans or imaging, the temporary phase, review appointments, the guarantee or warranty terms if you offer one.
- What is not included, said plainly, because that is where trust is won or lost.
- The number of visits and the rough timeline.
- A monthly finance figure with your lender's representative example, exactly as they supply it.
- What the consultation costs, and whether it is redeemable against treatment.
Where you promote credit, the wording is regulated. In the UK, consumer credit promotion sits under financial services rules and practices usually act through an authorised route with their lender; in the US, disclosure requirements attach to advertised financing terms. Get the copy from your finance partner and have it checked. Nothing here is legal advice.
Say what the ranges depend on, in patient language
A single implant, a bridge on implants and a full arch are three different orders of cost, and most people do not know which one they need. A short plain paragraph explaining what each is used for, with its from-price, does more qualifying work than any enquiry form.
Then give the price a next step
A price with no route is a dead end. Under each figure goes a bookable consultation, in person or by video, with a short intake form that asks what they want changed and invites two photographs from their own phone. Now the enquiry that arrives is from someone who has read the number, accepted it, and told you what they want.
Keep the numbers editable
From-prices move, and finance examples move whenever the lender changes terms. If the figures are hard-coded into pages, they go stale and the site quotes last year. Held as editable records, the practice updates one field and every page that shows that treatment updates with it. That includes the representative example, which should exist in exactly one place.
What is left of the enquiries
You will still get emails asking the price, and they will be different. They will say: I have read that a full arch starts at this figure and I want to talk about whether I am a candidate. That is a consultation, not a price request, and it converts.
Where this sits
From-prices with finance on every treatment page, editable by the practice, with a bookable consultation under each one, is a standard part of a cosmetic dentistry and implant clinic website, and price transparency runs through the rest of our dental practice websites too. Packages are on pricing. Publishing the number does not lose you the case. It loses you the enquiry that was never a case, which is the point.