What is fee framing in a dental case presentation?
Fee framing is giving the patient a realistic range, low end to high end, before you ever present the actual treatment plan and number. It is one of the most important guardrails against financial surprise, and skipping it is how dentists get ambushed by sticker shock at the worst possible moment. You do not pull the range out of thin air. You base it on reality. Tell the patient that based on other patients you have seen and treated with similar problems, care can range from this to this. Then pause. Let it sink in. Let them react or tell you something. That silence is doing work. Frame the fee early and you walk into the case presentation with the patient already oriented to the size of the decision instead of flinching at it.
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