A patient can understand exactly why they need treatment, want to move forward, and still pause when they see the cost.
That does not always mean they are saying no to care.
Sometimes they are asking a different question:
“How am I going to pay for this?”
That is where Open Dental patient financing can help.
With Buy Now, Pay Later through Affirm and Klarna inside FlexPayments, eligible patients can explore financing options that allow them to spread treatment costs over time instead of paying the full amount upfront.
For Open Dental practices, that creates another payment option at one of the most important moments in the patient journey: when a patient is deciding whether they can move forward with recommended care.
Buy Now, Pay Later, commonly called BNPL, is a financing option that allows eligible patients to divide the cost of dental treatment into payments over time.
For practices using Open Dental and FlexPayments, BNPL through Affirm and Klarna can be presented alongside other payment options during the treatment and checkout workflow.
The patient can review available financing options and decide whether one works for them.
The important distinction is this:
The practice can offer more flexibility without becoming the lender.
That means the dental team does not have to create and manually manage every repayment arrangement themselves.
Dental treatment can create an uncomfortable mismatch.
The clinical need may be immediate.
The financial impact may feel immediate too.
A patient may hear that they need a crown, implant, root canal, or larger restorative plan and think:
The diagnosis has not changed.
The patient’s financial reality has entered the conversation.
That is why flexible payment options matter.
They give patients another way to think about the cost of care without changing the care itself.
A large treatment total can be difficult to absorb all at once.
BNPL gives eligible patients the option to consider repayment over time instead of asking themselves whether they can cover the entire amount that day.
That changes the question from:
“Can I afford this today?”
to:
“Is there a payment option that works for me?”
That is a very different decision.
Not every patient wants to pay the same way.
Some may prefer:
Giving patients multiple choices puts more control in their hands.
The goal is not to direct every patient toward financing.
The goal is to make sure financing is visible when it could help.
Money conversations can be uncomfortable for patients and dental teams.
When financing only appears after a patient objects to cost, it can feel like a rescue tactic.
When it is presented as one of several normal payment options, the conversation changes.
Instead of:
“Is the price too high?”
the team can say:
“Here are the different ways you can take care of your balance.”
That feels more neutral, more respectful, and easier for everyone.
For Open Dental practices using Flex, treatment plans created in Open Dental can flow into the Flex treatment presentation workflow.
The patient can review:
Instead of discussing treatment in Open Dental and then sending the patient off to a completely separate system to figure out financing, Flex helps keep those steps connected.
That matters because financing should not create another disconnected workflow for the front desk.
Open Dental remains the practice management foundation.
Flex helps extend the payment and treatment experience around it.
Not only after the patient says treatment is too expensive.
That is one of the most important adoption lessons for practices.
If financing is mentioned only after a patient objects to the cost, it can feel like an afterthought.
A better approach is to make payment options part of the standard treatment presentation.
For example:
“Here is the treatment Dr. Smith recommended, your estimated portion, and the payment options we have available.”
Then show the choices.
Pay in full.
Card.
Payment plan.
Affirm.
Klarna.
The patient can decide what works best.
Keep it simple.
Your team does not need a financing pitch.
Try:
“We have several payment options available, including financing through Affirm and Klarna if you’d rather spread the cost over time.”
Or:
“If paying the full balance today isn’t ideal, we can show you some financing options.”
That is enough.
You are not telling the patient what they should choose.
You are simply making sure they know their options.
Because you cannot tell from looking at someone how they want to pay.
Age does not tell you.
Income does not tell you.
Insurance status does not tell you.
Treatment size does not tell you.
A patient who could pay in full may still prefer financing.
Another patient may prefer a card.
Another may want to use HSA funds.
The cleanest workflow is to present the options consistently and let the patient decide.
No.
That is one of the biggest differences between BNPL and an in-house payment plan.
With an in-house plan, the practice may need to:
With Affirm and Klarna, the financing relationship is handled through the financing provider.
That means the practice can offer flexibility without taking on all of the administrative work of managing repayment itself.
FlexPayments is designed around Open Dental practices.
Buy Now, Pay Later through Affirm and Klarna can be presented during the treatment and payment workflow alongside other options.
That helps the practice move from:
Diagnosis in Open Dental → treatment presentation → payment choice → scheduled care
with fewer disconnected steps.
For the patient, it means more choice.
For the team, it means a cleaner process.
By that point, the patient may already be mentally walking away from the treatment.
Introduce payment choices earlier.
Financing should be one option among several, not something reserved for “problem” cases.
Your team does not need to become lending experts.
Explain what is available and let the patient review the provider’s options.
This may be the biggest adoption problem of all.
If the feature is available but the team rarely mentions it, patients cannot use it.
A payment option only helps when patients know it exists.
Patients should not have to answer these two questions the same way:
“Do I want the treatment?”
and
“Can I pay the entire balance today?”
Those are different questions.
Buy Now, Pay Later gives eligible patients another way to answer the second one.
Sometimes that additional flexibility is enough to help a patient move forward with care they already know they need.
Learn how Buy Now, Pay Later works with FlexPayments for Open Dental practices.
Open Dental patient financing refers to payment options available to patients at practices using Open Dental. With FlexPayments, practices can offer Buy Now, Pay Later through Affirm and Klarna alongside other payment choices.
Yes. Open Dental practices using FlexPayments can offer Buy Now, Pay Later through Affirm and Klarna within the Flex treatment and payment workflow.
Yes. Eligible patients can access Affirm and Klarna financing through FlexPayments when the practice has Buy Now, Pay Later enabled.
No. The financing relationship is handled through the financing provider rather than as an in-house repayment plan managed by the dental practice.
BNPL can help when cost is the primary barrier preventing a patient who wants treatment from moving forward.