Do we need to run a credit check?

Not for an in-house scheduled plan, because you are collecting on a card the patient authorises rather than extending regulated credit. Check your local rules before advertising any plan as finance.

Can a patient pay off a plan early?

Yes. Take the remaining balance as a single payment and the schedule closes.

Can we combine a plan with an insurance estimate?

Yes. Collect the estimated patient portion on a plan and invoice any adjustment once the claim settles.

Dental practices

Dental patient payment plans: collecting large treatment balances over time

Updated 10 September 2026 · 7 min read

A dental payment plan splits a treatment balance into scheduled card payments the patient authorises once. It converts a balance the patient might delay into treatment they accept today. Enterprise Pay Gateway runs the schedule on your own Stripe account, retries failed payments automatically, and charges a monthly subscription plus a platform fee of 0.20%–0.75% on top of Stripe's processing rate.

The real reason treatment gets declined

Most patients who decline a crown or an implant are not rejecting the clinical advice. They are reacting to a four-figure number presented all at once at the front desk.

Presenting the same figure as a monthly amount over six or twelve months changes the conversation entirely, and it is the single highest-impact change a practice can make to case acceptance.

How dental payment software structures a plan

Take a deposit on the day, then schedule the remainder across equal payments. Six months covers most restorative work; orthodontic cases usually run twelve to twenty-four.

Keep the plan attached to the patient's ledger so the remaining balance is visible at every visit. A plan the front desk cannot see is a plan nobody chases.

Handling the payments that fail

Cards expire mid-plan. The plan should retry automatically, email the patient a link to update the card, and flag the account in your dashboard rather than quietly stopping.

Silent failures are how practices discover six months later that a plan stopped collecting in month two.

In-house plans versus third-party finance

Third-party patient finance transfers the credit risk away from you and charges a merchant discount for it, often a double-digit percentage. In-house plans keep the full fee but keep the risk.

Enterprise Pay Gateway is software, not a lender. An in-house plan through the platform is simply your own scheduled card collection, so you keep the clinical and credit relationship with the patient.

Frequently asked

Do we need to run a credit check?: Not for an in-house scheduled plan, because you are collecting on a card the patient authorises rather than extending regulated credit. Check your local rules before advertising any plan as finance.
Can a patient pay off a plan early?: Yes. Take the remaining balance as a single payment and the schedule closes.
Can we combine a plan with an insurance estimate?: Yes. Collect the estimated patient portion on a plan and invoice any adjustment once the claim settles.

Start taking payments for your dental practices

Create a free account, connect payments through Stripe, and take your first payment the same day. Enterprise Pay Gateway is software, not a bank or lender — Stripe processes payments under your own Stripe agreement and pays out to your bank.

Start free See pricing