When the time comes to meet with a denturist, some people have certain expectations. One of those expectations is that the denturist will provide a free consultation to discuss your case. Many denture clinics offer a free consultation but our clinic does not have this practice, and we wanted to provide an explanation of why we charge a consultation fee for prospective new patients.
1. Our patients are our first priority. As we had been providing denture services to the public of Greater Vancouver since 1958, we have numerous patients who are paying us to handle their denture needs. Every hour of our working day is spent researching and providing the best way to help our patients reach their agendas. When we stop what we are doing to make time for an initial consultation, we have less time to focus on our current patient’s cases. As a result, it is only fair to charge new clients for our time to discuss what their case is about because the time that we spend with a new person, who is not our patient, would have been spent helping someone else, and that someone else already pays for our time. The patients of this clinic are our primary priority and as a result, we have to focus our time and resources to ensure our patients receive the majority of our attention. While we would like to help as many people as possible, our patients come first.
2. Free consultations are usually sales pitches. The “free consultation” offered by some other providers is frequently going to be an opportunity for the provider to sell the services to the client. It is highly unlikely that you will discuss the in-depth specifics of your case or what you actually want to accomplish during such free consultation, due to the simple fact of the provider trying to get your business. Our initial consultations are intended to truly address your issues, discuss the facts of your case, and spend anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour in person. During such consultation, there is paperwork, intraoral exam, denturist’s and assistant’s clinical chair time, and an effort to provide you with all the available options addressing your particular case. Selecting the right provider for your dental needs is an important process that we do not take lightly. We are not trying to sell our services to you during our initial consultation but rather provide you with all possible solutions and necessary information in order for you to come to an informed decision.
3. Lastly, following our in-depth, initial consultation you will get access to decades of our knowledge and experience, as well as possible personal referrals to our network of dentists, oral surgeons, and other specialists, with whom we are working within a collaborative team environment. Frequently there will be coordination of treatment plans, dental history, and such between the providers, thus lots of time on our behalf will be required before we even start with the treatment. We provide you with our valuable time and nothing of value is free.
