Smile Now, Pay Later. The new financing for dental clinics

Smiling becomes easier to afford. 

How to grow a practice nowadays? While providing amazing care treatments, the financial barriers between recommended treatments and patient acceptance have become increasingly challenging to overcome and have the patients to not to complain.

Dental procedures are significant investments for patients. Even with insurance coverage, out-of-pocket expenses can reach thousands of euros, dollars (or your currency), creating hesitation at a critical decision point. This hesitation often results in postponed care, scaled-back treatment plans, or patients simply walking away.

Let us present you  the Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) financing model for dental.

The Modern Dental Practice Challenge

The cost of delivering quality care continues to rise, and, patients are increasingly price-sensitive, even as insurance coverage remains limited and sometimes confusing.

Let's look at some numbers:

This is just the beginning of a BIG! business problem. Dentists (and we do know this), have invested heavily in machinery, diagnostic tools, IT, Compliance, diagnosing conditions and creating optimal treatment plans, and in the end they only see a significant percentage of patients saying yes to treatment plans. The problem leads to revenue loss but also impacts patient outcomes leading to a lose-lose case.

The real problem lies that traditional solutions have fallen short and insurance coverage haven't kept pace with treatment costs. Also we understand the insurer perspective, and due to the risk increase and inflation, most patients are actually under-insured. In-house payment plans are not a solution either since they create administrative burden and financial risk and at some point have restrictive approval requirements by licensing entities, and providers (credit institutions) exclude many patients who do not have proper credit ratings. 

The consequence is a significant disconnect between what dentists recommend and what patients actually complete, leaving potential practice revenue unrealized and optimal patient care undelivered.

Let's then explain what is Buy-Now-Pay-Later financing in dental practices, and why patients love it.

Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) represents a fundamental change in healthcare financing. Unlike traditional financing models that function essentially as healthcare credit cards, BNPL creates a seamless, patient-friendly payment experience designed specifically for the dental context. Due to the regulation like Germany restrains this technique many times from being applied, but health tech & fintechs such as CW1 have found a way to go around legislation and provide patients with this.  


How BNPL makes an advantage in the Dental Setting

The Psychological Advantage

The BNPL model leverages important principles from behavioral economics that traditional financing misses. For example:

How BNPL Differs from Traditional Options

The final result is a financing approach that feels new and refreshed and more like the convenient payment experiences patients enjoy in other aspects of their lives.

Benefits for your Practice

The strategic implementation of BNPL financing delivers measurable impact across multiple dimensions of your practice. Our analysis of dental practices implementing the CW1 BNPL solution shows consistent improvements in key performance indicators:

Revenue Acceleration

• 36% average increase in monthly production within the first quarter after implementation
• 41% higher average case value as patients opt for comprehensive treatment rather than phased or minimal approaches
• 24% reduction in treatment plan downgrades when BNPL is presented as part of the treatment consultation
• 2.3x higher acceptance rate for treatment plans exceeding 2,500€

The impact is particularly noticeable for high-value services like implants, full-mouth reconstruction, orthodontics, and cosmetic procedures—areas where practices typically experience the highest patient financial hesitation.

Cash Flow Enhancement

• Payment within 48 hours of treatment completion, regardless of patient payment schedule
• Elimination of A/R aging issues related to patient payment plans
• 92% reduction in collection activities required from practice staff
• 28% decrease in insurance dependency as patient-direct payment becomes more feasible

This cash flow improvement carries substantial operational value beyond the direct revenue impact, reducing financing costs, improving planning capability, and allowing practices to invest in growth with greater confidence.

Patient Acquisition and Retention Impact

These metrics demonstrate that financing solutions don't just facilitate individual treatment acceptance—they fundamentally strengthen the patient-practice relationship over time.

Competitive Differentiation

The data is clear and shows that a strategic implementation of patient-friendly financing doesn't just remove barriers and it actively drives practice growth across multiple dimensions. With the right approach, financing becomes less about helping patients afford care and more about accelerating practice performance in a measurable, sustainable way.

Implementing this in your practice is not hard, but definitely a game changer. Through the exhaustive network of nortb and CW1 we manage to help you change your practice and make it more efficient.

Interested in finding out more? reach out to us here

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