Studies have shown that around 72 million adults in the U.S. do not have dental insurance, representing 27% of the adult population. For dental practices offering an in-house membership program, there is a sizeable group of patients who may be looking for another way to access and pay for care.
Building that membership base can be an important part of growing the practice, but the way you manage 50 members may not work particularly well when you have 500. More members bring more administration into the day, and at some point the processes that once felt manageable can start taking up more of your team’s time than you expected.
If growth is part of the plan, your membership software needs to be able to grow with you without turning a successful program into an administrative headache.
How does membership growth affect your team's workload?
When a membership program is relatively small, it is often possible to absorb much of the administration into the working day. As enrollment increases, any extra steps within that process are repeated more often, which is when small inefficiencies can start becoming noticeable.
This is particularly relevant when membership software operates separately from the practice management system. If your team has to move between platforms to find information or manually keep records aligned, the amount of work involved is likely to increase alongside the membership base.
Read and write integrations can help by allowing membership software to work with the practice management systems your team already uses. Plan Forward integrates with leading dental PMS platforms so office managers don’t have to build their own processes for moving information between systems.
For a growing practice, that connection becomes increasingly useful because the team can continue working within familiar systems while the membership program develops in the background.
Will your membership workflows hold up as you grow?
When you are looking at software for a growing practice, it helps to think about the work involved rather than simply comparing what each platform can do.
Consider how your team manages a membership from the point at which a patient enrols and what happens as that membership continues. If each stage requires somebody to remember a workaround or complete an additional manual task, those processes can become difficult to sustain at scale.
A good workflow should take pressure off the people managing the program. As membership increases, the software should absorb many of the additional tasks rather than passing it straight through to the front desk as more administration.
As the practice grows and adds hygiene columns or associate doctors, who are potentially paid on commission, so a software platform like Plan Forward’s can help track Production by Provider for compensation purposes. Getting the team aligned & supportive of membership requires ensuring that these folks are compensated for membership patients as they are for regular patients.
This is also why it is worth involving the people who actually manage memberships when evaluating software. An office manager may notice a workflow issue during a demonstration that would be easy to miss when looking at a feature list.
Can your membership software adapt as your plans change?
As a practice grows, you may find that the membership program you started with needs some attention. Perhaps the original pricing no longer makes sense for the practice or you are considering a different plan for a particular group of patients.
Making those changes becomes much easier when the software gives you room to develop the program without having to rebuild it every time your needs change.
For practices starting from scratch, Plan Forward provides guidance during plan creation and pricing configuration. That support gives the team somewhere to turn while working through the decisions involved in setting up a program and can remain useful as the offering develops over time.
The ability to make changes without creating a complicated internal project is particularly valuable in a growing practice, where there is usually already plenty competing for the attention of the people making those decisions.
How easy is the software for your team to use?
As responsibilities change within a growing practice, membership administration may no longer sit with the same person who originally set up the program. New front-desk employees may need access to the platform and existing team members may start taking on different parts of the membership workflow.
If the software is difficult to learn, every change within the team creates another training requirement for the office manager. An intuitive platform makes it easier to share responsibility because people can find their way around without needing somebody beside them for every task.
Plan Forward provides hands-on assistance and has an AI support agent built into the dashboard, so users can find help while they are working in the platform.
For the person responsible for running the practice, that can mean fewer interruptions when somebody needs to know how the software works.
How easy is it to migrate from your current membership software?
A growing membership base can make changing software feel increasingly difficult because there is more information to move and more at stake if the transition goes badly.
That concern can leave practices working with a platform long after it has stopped meeting their needs. If you are reaching that point, it is worth finding out how much of the migration the new provider will manage before assuming the move will create months of additional work.
Plan Forward supports importing members from other membership software platforms, allowing an established program to move across without requiring the practice to start again.
Knowing that the migration has been planned for as part of the platform can give decision makers a clearer picture of what changing providers would actually involve.
What should a growing dental practice look for in membership software?
When your membership program is growing, the software supporting it should give you room to continue in that direction without requiring more manual administration every time another group of patients enrols.
For decision makers, the useful measure is how well the platform will support the practice as it develops. That means looking closely at the workflows your team will use every day and considering if these will change with membership, and then working with the software vendors team to streamline the process.
Plan Forward has been built specifically around dental membership programs, with the integrations and support needed to help practices manage growth without allowing membership administration to take over the day.
Why do leading dental practices and DSOs choose the #1 dental membership plan software?
Plan Forward has been ranked the #1 Dental Membership Plan Software of 2026 by Gitnux, earning the highest overall score across features, ease of use and value.
Built by people who understand the realities of dental practice operations, our platform helps practices and DSOs manage every stage of their membership program. Smart automation handles billing and renewals, while read-and-write PMS integrations keep data and workflows connected.
With flexible plan options and hands-on support, Plan Forward gives your team what it needs to build a membership program that works for your practice and your patients.
If you’re planning to grow your membership program, book a demo with Plan Forward and see how the platform could fit into the practice you’re building.
Frequently asked questions about dental membership software
What is dental membership software?
Dental membership software helps practices manage the administration behind an in-house membership program. Depending on the platform, this can include setting up plans, managing members and connecting membership information with the practice management system.
Can dental membership software integrate with a practice management system?
Yes, some platforms offer PMS integrations. Plan Forward has read and write integrations with leading dental practice management systems, allowing membership information to work alongside the systems the practice already uses.
Can an existing dental membership program be moved to new software?
Yes. Plan Forward supports importing members from other membership software platforms, which means practices can move an established membership program without rebuilding it from the beginning.
What should a growing dental practice look for in membership software?
Look at how well the software can support your membership workflow as enrollment increases. It should be intuitive for the people using it and flexible enough to accommodate changes to your membership program as the practice develops.
Does Plan Forward provide support for dental practices?
Yes. Plan Forward provides hands-on assistance and also has an AI support agent built into the dashboard, giving users access to help while they are working in the platform.
