A dental no-show policy states how much notice patients must give to cancel, what happens when they don't, and how repeat no-shows are handled. Record missed visits with CDT code D9986 and late cancellations with D9987 — neither is billable to insurance. Whether you may also charge a fee depends on your written policy, your payer contracts and your state.
By Viktoria Mols, CMO · Published October 30, 2026 · 9 min read
Both are Word files you can edit, with every choice in square brackets. No form, no email required.
The three clauses that do the work, as they appear in the template. Replace the bracketed choices with yours.
Please give us at least [24 / 48] hours’ notice if you need to cancel or reschedule. You can call us at [phone] at any time; outside office hours, [leave a message / our receptionist will take your request].
An appointment missed without notice, or cancelled with less than [24 / 48] hours’ notice, will be recorded in your file. [Optional:] A fee of $[amount] may apply; it is not billed to insurance and is your responsibility. We may waive it for illness, family emergencies, severe weather or other circumstances beyond your control.
After [three] missed appointments or late cancellations within [12] months, we may only be able to offer you same-day appointments when they are available, or we may ask you to find another dental home. If that happens, we will tell you in writing, remain available for dental emergencies for a reasonable period while you find a new dentist, and send copies of your records to your new dentist on request.
The ADA's Current Dental Terminology includes two administrative codes for exactly this situation. D9986 records a missed appointment — the patient did not come and did not tell you. D9987 records a cancelled appointment — most offices use it for cancellations made too late under their policy. Both sit with the other adjunctive general service codes and are still current in CDT 2026.
Their job is documentation. Posting them to the ledger gives you an accurate count of misses per patient, per provider and per appointment type, which is what you need to see a pattern and to apply your policy consistently. They are not for insurance claims: payers generally do not cover missed or cancelled visits, and plan guides we checked list both codes as not covered. Posting the code does not by itself mean you charge anything — that is a separate decision, made by your written policy.
Often yes, but three things decide it, and the code is not one of them:
Practically, many practices treat the fee as leverage they rarely use: it is waived for a first miss and for genuine emergencies, and applied to patients who miss repeatedly. Enforcing it inconsistently is the fastest way to turn a policy into a complaint, so decide in advance who can waive it.
Ending care is allowed, but how you do it matters. The ADA's Principles of Ethics (section 2.F, patient abandonment) say a dentist who has started a course of treatment should not discontinue it without giving the patient adequate notice and the chance to get care from another dentist. In practice that means: notify in writing (certified and regular mail is common), give an effective date — commonly 30 days out — stay available for emergencies until then, and transfer records on request. If the patient is mid-treatment, say so in the letter. The template above follows that structure; have it checked against your state's rules and your malpractice carrier's guidance before you use it.
A policy reduces no-shows only if keeping or changing the appointment is easy. The biggest lever is not the fee but the phone: a patient who calls at 7 p.m. to cancel and reaches voicemail often doesn't call back, and becomes a no-show the next morning. The practical side — reminder cadence, active confirmation, a waitlist that refills openings — is covered in how to reduce dental no-shows.
That is where Dentovox fits. It answers your practice's calls around the clock in English and Spanish, so a patient who wants to cancel or move an appointment at night can do it on the call, with the change written into Dentrix, Open Dental or Eaglesoft and the slot freed for someone else. Text reminders and confirmations are built into every plan but are not sending yet — they switch on when US carrier registration completes — and Dentovox does not run automatic no-show follow-up campaigns. The current status of each capability is on one page.
D9986 is the ADA's administrative code for a missed appointment — the patient did not arrive and did not cancel. It is used to document the miss in the patient's record and ledger. It is not billable to dental insurance, and posting it does not by itself mean a fee is charged.
D9986 records a missed appointment with no notice; D9987 records a cancelled appointment; most offices use it for cancellations made too late under their policy. Tracking them separately shows whether your problem is patients who never call or patients who call too late.
In many cases, if the fee is in a written policy the patient acknowledged in advance, and if your payer contracts and state rules allow it. Fees cannot be billed to insurance, and Medicaid patients are subject to state program rules — check them before charging.
Most practices require 24 or 48 hours. Longer windows protect long appointments better but are harder for patients to meet. Whatever you choose, use the same number in the policy, the reminders and on the phone.
There is no fixed legal number; many policies use three missed appointments in twelve months. If you end the relationship, notify the patient in writing, give an effective date — commonly 30 days — remain available for emergencies until then, and transfer records on request, to reduce the risk of an abandonment claim.
Create an account free — no card — build your receptionist, and hear it handle a call on the spot. Your own number activates when you start a plan.