No-show cost calculator

Estimate the production your office loses each year from appointments that are missed and never refilled, and what a lower no-show rate would recover.

Your numbers

Currency

Scheduled appointments per week

Current no-show rate (no-shows and same-day cancellations you could not refill)

Share of no-show slots you refill the same day

Average production per appointment

Weeks open per year

Optional: target no-show rate

Your estimate

Fill in all fields to see your estimate.

You will see:

Production lost per year and per month
No-shows and unfilled slots per year
Production recovered at your target rate, if you add one

Assumptions

Each unfilled slot loses the average production per appointment. Real missed appointments can be worth more or less than average.
Staff and overhead costs are fixed and are not added. The result is lost production, not lost profit.
Lowering the no-show rate does not change how many appointments are booked.
The calculator says nothing about how to reach the target rate. That is up to your practice.

What published studies say

Published no-show rates vary widely by setting, and none covers general private practice in the US or Canada, so none is used as a default.

Pediatric academic dental clinic, Buffalo NY: 14.3% no-shows; adolescents aged 12 to 17 had the highest rate, 24% (PMC, 2025). Read the source
Children and adolescents in public oral health service, Helsinki, Finland, 2006 to 2020: no-shows fell over the period and rose with age (PMC, 2025). Read the source
Pediatric dental clinic, India: about half of patients missed appointments (PMC, 2018). Read the source
A Cochrane review (2013 update) found moderate-quality evidence that text reminders improved attendance at healthcare appointments compared with no reminders. Read the source

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