Growth in Dentistry: A Dental Intelligence Podcast 144. Hot Take on New Patients with Miranda Beeson of ACT Dental
Mar 24, 2026
Miranda Beeson, a dental hygienist-turned-practice coach and Director of Education at ACT Dental, helps practices build systems that support lifestyle goals. She argues new patient counts alone mislead. Conversations cover retention versus acquisition, net patient growth and the leaky bucket, annual patient value, reactivation systems, the new-patient hygiene reappointment metric, and designing a repeatable new-patient experience.
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New Patient Count Can Mask Net Patient Loss
- New patient count alone is misleading because you can gain many new patients yet still shrink if you lose more existing patients.
- Miranda calls this the leaky bucket and emphasizes tracking net patient growth (new plus recaptured minus lost).
Use Annual Patient Value To Set New Patient Targets
- Calculate your Annual Patient Value (APV) first to know how many new patients you actually need to hit revenue goals.
- Use last 12 months collections divided by active patients to tell if you're high-volume low-profit or low-volume high-profit and plan accordingly.
Practice Model Shapes Patient Reliability And Growth Needs
- Practice model (high-volume low-profit vs low-volume high-profit) affects cancellation/no-show rates and required new patient volume.
- Higher APV practices tend to have lower cancellations and can rely on fewer new patients for growth.