Bond-up day, one form missing
A long course of orthodontic treatment involves documents: treatment information, the fee and payment plan agreement, and whatever else your practice requires. They are handed to the family at the consultation. The family is asked to bring them back signed.
On bond-up day, one is missing, or it has been signed by an adult whose relationship to the child is not recorded. Treatment can be delayed while it is sorted, or it goes ahead with a gap in the paperwork.
Aligner cases often add a document of their own, covering what happens with lost aligners or refinements under your terms, and that is the one most often overlooked because it was added to the process later.
Why agreements are incomplete
- Paper forms go home and do not come back.
- Several documents must all be complete.
- Who signed, and in what capacity, is not recorded.
- Checking happens on the day, not before.
- Signed paper must be scanned and filed.
What incomplete agreements cost
Delayed bond-ups. Disputes about fees or terms later in a long treatment, with no clear document to point to. And a gap in your records that your practice would rather not have. Decisions about who may sign and what documents are needed are for your practice and its advisers; we make sure the process follows them.
This matters more in orthodontics than in most dental work because treatment lasts so long. A fee question in the second year of treatment depends on a document signed near the start, and the adult who signed it may not be the one now asking.
The signing process we build
- After the consultation, the documents your practice uses are generated from your templates with the patient's details, treatment option and fee.
- They are sent to the adult or adults your rules require, by email or SMS link, to read and sign on their phone.
- Signers record their name and relationship to the patient, and identity is checked with details you choose.
- Signed documents are saved as PDFs with the signing record and attached to the patient's file.
- Reminders go out if documents are not signed, and questions go to the treatment coordinator.
- A bond-up checklist shows every upcoming bond-up and the status of each document, flagging gaps days before.
| Document status | Shown on bond-up checklist |
|---|---|
| Sent, not signed | Amber, with reminder date |
| Signed | Green, with signer and relationship |
| Signer not as required | Flag for coordinator |
| Not sent | Red |
The content of your documents and the rules about who must sign are decided by your practice and its advisers. We build to them.
Bond-ups with nothing missing
Families sign at home in their own time and can re-read documents later. The coordinator sees any gap well before bond-up. The practice has a clear record of what was agreed and by whom, which matters in a treatment that lasts a long time.
When the plan changes mid-treatment, such as a switch from fixed braces to aligners or an extra phase, a revised agreement goes out through the same route and is linked to the original, so the full history of what was agreed is in one place.
Documents can also be resent easily when a family asks for a copy, for example when a second parent wants to read the fee terms, and the practice can see exactly which version was signed.
Is this your practice?
- Treatment agreements are sometimes missing at bond-up.
- You do not record who signed and their relationship.
- Signed documents are scanned and filed by hand.
- Fee disputes arise without a clear document.