Dental Insurance Shouldn’t Be an Obstacle
Most dental offices, when a new patient calls, have a standard set of intake questions. Chief among them: what insurance do you have? It seems like a reasonable starting point. But Dr. Matthew Carlston, a Colorado-based dentist who has been with Comfort Dental for 22 years, describes a different approach, and it has significant implications for both patient access and practice volume.
“We never ask what dental insurance you have,” Dr. Carlston said in a recent podcast interview. “What we say is, ‘when can you be here?'” That shift in language represents something deeper than a scripted phone greeting. It reflects a structural commitment to accessibility that shapes every aspect of how Comfort Dental practices operate.
Barriers to Care Are a Business and Ethics Problem
When patients have to clear an insurance verification hurdle before they can even schedule, some of them do not make it past that step. They call back later, or they do not call back at all. The dental need does not disappear. It just goes unaddressed.
For practices operating on a traditional fee-for-service model with narrow insurance participation, this kind of attrition may be an acceptable cost. But for Comfort Dental, whose growth model depends on high new patient volume, every unnecessary barrier represents a failure, both of mission and of business logic.
As Dr. Carlston explained, the philosophy is built around removing friction: “We don’t want to create barriers to patients. When can you be here? How soon can we take care of you? That is what we want to do.” That orientation pushes the organization toward broad insurance acceptance, flexible payment structures, and front-desk interactions designed to move patients toward care rather than away from it.
Comfort Dental is in-network with more than 18 insurance companies, including Medicaid. That breadth is intentional. It means that the vast majority of patients who call looking for an appointment can be accommodated, not redirected. It also means that the patient population Comfort Dental serves looks different from that of many private practices. Dr. Carlston described the typical Comfort Dental patient base as ranging from patients experiencing financial hardship to working-class and lower-middle-class families, with representation across income levels. Notably, their Cherry Creek location, serving Denver’s most affluent community, is also their highest-producing office. Accessibility does not mean exclusivity in either direction.
What Affordable Pricing Does for Clinical Culture
There is a clinical dimension to this accessibility model that deserves attention. When a practice’s pricing structure is designed to be genuinely accessible, it changes what happens in the treatment room.
Doctors who are not pressuring patients toward high-cost procedures in order to keep the lights on are free to practice conservatively. Dr. Carlston described this explicitly: “When you’ve got a large patient population, you’re able to be conservative in your treatment planning. That incipient lesion, I don’t need to do that today. We’re going to watch it for six months.” A dentist practicing at a Comfort Dental location is not doing a root canal because it is the only way to meet a revenue target for the month. They are recommending it because it is clinically indicated. That distinction matters for patient outcomes and for the long-term trust that brings patients back year after year.
Dr. Carlston also pointed out that the organization does a significant amount of free dentistry. Without production quotas and with a stable patient base generating strong revenue, individual doctors can absorb the cost of charitable care without threatening the financial health of the practice. For many dentists who entered the profession motivated by a genuine desire to help people, this is exactly the kind of practice they envisioned and have struggled to build elsewhere.
Patients Who Come Back
The “when can you be here” philosophy does more than drive new patient volume. It builds loyalty. Patients who experience an appointment process that is frictionless, a front desk that is warm rather than transactional, and a provider who listens to their chief complaint before ordering a full series of X-rays are patients who return. They tell their families. They leave reviews. They become the recall base that keeps a practice’s schedule full years before the marketing budget would have gotten them there.
Start Practicing the Way You Intended
For dental professionals who entered the field wanting to provide genuinely accessible care without compromising clinical standards or financial stability, the Comfort Dental model is worth a close look. The North Boulder location is part of an organization that has built its reputation on being easy to reach, easy to afford, and consistently good. To learn more about joining the team, visit comfortdentalfranchise.com.