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Do patients want more time in the chair? Determining the right appointment length is a careful balancing act that prioritises patient experience above all else. By Angela Tufvesson
In an age of high patient expectations, how long dental practitioners spend with patients is becoming a defining measure of quality care. The recent ‘Patient Experiences’ report by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reveals almost 90 per cent of Australians report their dental practitioners spend enough time with them—more than medical specialists, nurses and GPs. And yet, NAB’s latest Health Insights Report, published in 2025, found many people want longer appointment times with healthcare professionals, including dentists.
These findings raise an important question for the profession: how can dental practitioners give patients enough time while maintaining the operational efficiency required to keep practices running smoothly?
Delivering comprehensive care
Dental coach Susie Raso from The Dental Concierge says most practices have a baseline of set appointment times for common procedures like fillings, crowns and root canal treatment, which are adjusted to suit each patient’s needs.
She notes a growing trend of practices scheduling longer comprehensive exams for new patients or people with complex dental health needs. “A lot of dental practices like to take time with their patients, especially in the beginning,” Raso explains.
It’s an approach favoured by Dr Sam Zein, a senior dentist at Cambridge City Dental in Perth, which employs two dentists and four support staff. New patient examinations, as well as scale and clean appointments for existing patients, are usually allocated 45 minutes.
“I tend to give ample time so that I don’t run out of time and make the next patient wait,” Dr Zein explains. “Most patients request to have as much of their treatment performed in one visit as possible, regardless of the length of the appointment.”
For people with higher dental care requirements, Dr Toni Surace, managing director of Momentum Management and principal dentist at Smile N Co on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, advocates for a “comprehensive care model” based on their forecasted needs over the next 10 years.
“What we recommend initially is a one-hour comprehensive examination, with no cleaning done at that time,” she says. “The patient might have had an experience of lots of fillings or they’ve got a few broken teeth and want to talk about aesthetics or implants. Much of that time is going to be spent talking to them, listening to them and getting to know them as a person.”
Human and tech support
Technology is making it easier for dentists to balance thorough care with operational efficiency. Dr Surace says tools like AI-powered medical transcriber Heidi Health can reduce note taking and overall appointment times. Simple tech can track how long different procedures take and schedule future appointments based on each dentist’s average, rather than using a blanket time for every patient.
When somebody’s been working side by side for so long with a dentist, they really understand how that dentist operates, and the dentist develops a lot of trust in them.
Susie Raso, dental coach, The Dental Concierge
With modern digital scanning technology, Raso says dentists can perform comprehensive pre-screening, simulate treatment outcomes and show patients their results, which helps to streamline appointments and increase treatment acceptance.
Dr Zein says new developments help to optimise care, with crowns now able to be scanned, milled and inserted in one visit. “Technology has its place and can help with performing certain procedures in a single visit rather than traditionally taking two visits to complete.”
Support to streamline appointments and enhance a dentist’s workflow can also come from staff like dental hygienists and assistants. “When somebody’s been working side by side for so long with a dentist, they really understand how that dentist operates, and the dentist develops a lot of trust in them,” Raso explains.
However, Dr Zein, who has 35 years’ experience in dentistry, cautions that for practices where a dentist has performed hygiene care for many years, it can be difficult to change established protocols as patients are often reluctant to adapt.
Focus on the patient experience
Ultimately, Drs Zein and Surace and Ms Raso agree that whether dentists need to spend the same or more time with patients depends on the overall experience they’re delivering. Devoting more time to getting to know people, explaining complicated procedures and carefully answering questions can improve patient satisfaction.
Dr Zein says “building trust between the practitioner and the patient” is crucial. “Keeping the patient involved throughout the entire decision-making process and having good communication skills so that the patient understands the treatment is important,” he says.
Indeed, the NAB health insights report found patients highly value being listened to by their health practitioners; they want to be taken seriously, heard and understood. It revealed that Australians felt increasingly heard by dentists, placing them above GPs and hospitals, but below physiotherapists and optometrists.
“Patients want somebody who communicates well, who they can trust and who tells them from start to finish exactly what the treatment is going to be. It’s about making them feel important and welcome,” Raso says, citing the example of a full-mouth rehabilitation procedure. “The patient could go half a day in the dental chair, so communication is huge.”
Dr Surace believes meaningful relationship building is at the heart of patient satisfaction, highlighting that it’s perhaps not a question of how long dentists spend with patients, but how that time is divided between clinical care and personal connection. “I believe people want longer appointment times for relationship building and getting to know their clinicians, and quicker appointment times for the actual clinical work. So the more efficient you can be with the clinical work, the happier the patient’s going to be,” she says. “Taking time to build a loyal relationship is what patients value —that’s what’s going to make the difference.”
