Send one closure email to your whole patient list as soon as the closure is on the calendar, ideally a day or more ahead. For Open Dental practices, Flex Blast in Flex makes that few-minute task: open a saved closure template, choose who should hear from you, and send. Holiday break, team training day, or a storm in the forecast, patients get the news early with time to plan, and your team skips the last-minute scramble: patients at a locked door, a voicemail backlog, and days of rebooking catch-up.
Most practices have a plan for the day-to-day: patient intake, insurance questions, a strong hygiene schedule. Closures are different. Holidays are planned months in advance, yet notifying patients and rescheduling can still sneak up on you the week before. Weather gives a day or two of warning, and it’s easy to wait and see until it feels too late to send anything.
When the day itself is anything but calm, a simple closure plan brings:
Getting there takes two things: a closure email saved in Flex, and one person to send it.
Here is how a holiday closure often unfolds without a plan:
The Sticky Note: “Call & reschedule patients during holiday” has been stuck to a monitor for three weeks.
The Realization: Two days before the closure, someone asks, “Wait, did we ever let patients know?”
The Voicemail Marathon: the front office team calls down the schedule between check-ins, and most calls go to voicemail.
The Locked Door: a patient who missed the message drives in anyway, and the first call after the holiday is an apology.
The Catch-Up: the team comes back to a full inbox and a week of rebooking.
Preparation is what turns a closure into a pause instead of a scramble.
Here is how a scheduled office closure often can unfold without a plan:
The Calendar: the office is closed the day after a holiday, but a notice has not gone out.
The Front Office Team: spends the day before calling down the schedule, leaving voicemail after voicemail.
The Patient: misses the voicemail, drives in the next morning, and finds a locked door.
No one did anything wrong. This is what happens when the notice waits for someone to get to it.
The kindest thing you can do before a closure is tell patients early.
Calling works for a handful of appointments. A full day, or a week, is a different story.
|
What to Consider |
Calling down the schedule |
One closure email |
|
Who hears first |
Whoever picks up |
All patients at the same time |
|
Team time needed |
Grows with every appointment |
About the same for 1- patients or 500 |
|
Message consistency |
Changes from call to call |
The same clear note for everyone |
|
Room for details |
A short voicemail |
Reopening date, rescheduling, and how to reach you |
Flex Blast gives your team one place to send a single email to a large group of patients. You can start from a ready-made template or create your own, choose your whole patient list or narrow it down for a targeted approach, add a subject line and send.
Because Flex Blast lives right alongside the rest of your patient communication in Flex, there is no separate tool to log in to and no spreadsheet to export. Save your holiday and weather closure templates now, and each notice is a few clicks from your patients’ inboxes.
Patients want the essentials, and they want them fast. A strong closure email includes:
Getting closure-ready takes less than an hour, and you can do it this week:
Email works best when you have at least a day’s notice. For same-day changes, like closing early as a storm moves in, Part 2 of this series covers texting patients with the Advanced Patient List. Part 3 covers Flex Mobile, for the mornings your team needs to reschedule the day from home.
When the next closure lands on your calendar, will your patients hear from you first? See how Flex Blast fits into your practice’s day. Book a Demo.
How far in advance should a dental office tell patients about a closure?
For holidays, a week or more ahead is ideal. For weather, send your email as soon as the closure is confirmed, ideally the afternoon before, so patients see it before their appointment day.
How do dental offices notify patients about holiday closures?
Send a closure email a week or more ahead so patients have time to plan, and update your holiday hours on your website and voicemail. For more seasonal prep, see Holiday Rush: A Survival Guide Using Flex.
What should a dental office closure email say?
Lead with the closure date, then share when you reopen, what happens to the patient’s appointment, and the easiest way to rebook, like a button to book online. End with a warm note.
Who should be included in a closure notification?
It depends on the type of closure. A holiday closure may be worth sharing with your whole patient list, while a single weather day may only affect the patients scheduled that day. Flex Blast lets you send to all patients at once or narrow the list with filters, like patients with an upcoming appointment, so every notice reaches the right people.
Does having a closure plan really matter?
Yes. With a plan in place, your team isn’t scrambling, patients hear the news in time, and rescheduling stays simple, so one closed day doesn’t turn into a week of catch-up.