# The two leaks: how dental practices lose patients | Xona

> Practices lose patients in two places: before they find you, and after. See both leaks and the free first step for each.

Source: https://xonark.com/patient-leakage-funnel/

The two leaks

# Every practice loses patients in two places . Most only see one.

Before a patient ever finds you — and after they’re already yours. Two different leaks, two different fixes. Both start free.

🔍

patients nearby,
searching right now

LEAK 1
never find you

🦷

your
practice

LEAK 2
never come back

?

patients
who stay

[85% of BC clinics we scanned are invisible to AI assistants](/research/canadian-dental-findability/)[~3% of BC clinics offer real-time online booking](/research/canadian-dental-findability/)[$172k recall backlog found inside one clinic’s own software](/recall-recovery/)

Measured, not modeled — from our own scans and one anonymized clinic preview.

Leak 1 · before they’re yours

## Patients who never find you

You never see this leak — no missed call, no cancellation, no trace. The patient asked Google or ChatGPT, got an answer that wasn’t you, and booked there. What hides you:

✕ AI assistants don’t name you

ChatGPT and Gemini answer “dentist near me” every day — by reading websites most clinics’ sites can’t be read.

✕ Your website hides you

Built for human eyes only: no structure, no facts a machine can verify, slow on phones.

✕ Reviews gone quiet

A 4.9★ from 2021 loses to a 4.7★ with fresh reviews this month.

✕ Booking is phone-only

The patient is ready at 9pm. The phone isn’t.

[See your leak — free scan →](/dental-practice-health-snapshot/) [The fix: Xona AEO, from $0](/xona-aeo/)

One minute, public signals only, nothing to connect.

Leak 2 · after they’re yours

## Patients who never come back

The bigger leak — and it’s invisible from outside because it lives inside your practice software. One clinic’s preview found ~2,700 patients past recall worth a conservative $172k in year one. Where it slips:

✕ Calls ring out

Lunch, after-hours, a busy front desk — the patient books wherever someone answers.

✕ No-shows and cancellations

A chair opens and refilling it is a manual scramble.

✕ Recall goes quiet

Overdue hygiene patients sit in the software with nobody chasing them.

✕ Treatment never follows up

Diagnosed work quietly walks out the door.

[See yours — book a demo →](/xona-lps/#demo) [Estimate it free first](/free-dental-leakage-scan/)

Xona LPS reads your practice software and recovers it automatically.

Which one first?

## Both fixes start free. Pick the leak that hurts most.

If new-patient flow feels thin, start with findability. If the schedule has holes — recall, no-shows, unanswered calls — start with LPS. Many clinics run both; they fix different leaks.

[Step 1 Scan free → Findability scan shows Leak 1 in a minute.](/dental-practice-health-snapshot/)[Step 2 Turn on Xona AEO → Free machine-readable layer — typically +30–70 points.](/xona-aeo/)[Step 3 Stop Leak 2 with LPS → Calls, recall, no-shows, open slots — recovered.](/pricing/)