A dental appointment reminder email has five lines that do work and everything else is decoration: the practice name in the subject, the date and time in the first sentence, one pre-visit instruction, a confirmation question, and the route to move the appointment without phoning. The sample below is the email variant from the free reminder template on this site, and each line is there for a reason the evidence supports: the Cochrane 2013 review measured attendance rising from approximately 67.8% to 78.6% with messaging reminders, and Dantas et al. 2018 name high lead time as a main determinant of no-shows, which is why the email goes out days ahead rather than the morning of.
The sample, line by line
Subject: your hygiene visit at Oak Street Dental on Thursday. Body: Hello, this is a reminder that your hygiene appointment is on Thursday 12 March at 10:00 with our hygienist. Please arrive ten minutes early for the medical history form and bring your insurance card. Reply CONFIRM to this email to let us know you are coming. If you need to move it, use the link below or call the practice on the number at the foot of this email. Thank you. The practice name, the date and the pre-visit line are the specifics the practice supplies; the structure is the template's.
Why the confirmation question comes before the cancellation route
The reply is the point. An email that ends on the cancellation link invites a cancellation; one that asks for a confirmation first and offers the move second gets a filed reply from most patients and a rescheduled slot from the rest, both of which the front desk can act on. The silence is the short list to phone, which is a fraction of the diary rather than all of it.
When the email goes out, and what follows it
Days ahead, so the patient can move and the slot can be refilled from the recall list; then a shorter text the day before. The free template on this site takes the lead time and the touches as inputs and prints the messages a week that schedule produces and the hours it would take by hand; Recallvia Pro sends the email under the practice name and records the reply against the appointment.
Questions people ask about dental appointment reminder email sample
Can I copy this dental reminder email sample?
Yes. It is on this page and in the free template pack on this site, with the text variant and the missed-appointment follow-up beside it. Replace the practice name, the date and the pre-visit line with your own.
Should the email include the cost of a missed appointment?
Not in the reminder. A charge policy belongs in the practice's terms and on the booking confirmation; the reminder's job is the reply, and a warning in it lowers the reply rate without raising attendance.
When should the email go, if a text also goes?
The email carries the link and the practice hours, so send it first when the booking is made and the text in the days before the visit. The free template on this site sets the lead time for each.