If you've ever bought a gift certificate for someone, you'll remember that you paid for it before the business from which you bought it gave the certificate to you.  Gift certificates, then, allow businesses to get their money up front rather than have to wait until the customer comes in to buy.

You can do the exact same thing with your dental practice. Not only will it improve your cash flow, but gift certificate recipients will love having the ability to choose from services that are prepaid!

Popular cosmetic dentistry procedures are great candidates for gift certificates. Maybe your patient Sally Jones wants to have her teeth made whiter, or get a veneer for a tooth that was damaged in an accident. Rather than have to save her own money to pay for these procedures, Sally can drop hints to her parents or boyfriend about how much she'd like to have these things done and include the information that your office give gift certificates.

From Sally's perspective, receiving a gift certificate seems nicer than being handed the cash. And from your perspective…well, Sally could always fall in love with a new outfit in the store window and spend her cash somewhere else. When she gets it in the form of a certiicate, she has to spend it with you!