The Dental Production Myth

We see you out there. Rollin’ through each day

You have been told to strap on their roller skates and pack that schedule from sun up to sun down, racing from room to room. I’m here to tell you that this philosophy is baloney.

TRANSCRIPTION

Want to make more money in your dental practice next year? You just need to see more patients every day! And work Saturdays! And hire three more hygienists! And if you believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn that you might be interested in.

Hi, I’m Xaña Winans, CEO and founder of Golden Proportions Marketing, one of the best dental marketing companies in the US. Today, I want to talk to you about the dental production myth. Many dentists – maybe even you – have long been taught that the secret to success is effort. They have been told to strap on their roller skates and pack that schedule from sun up to sun down, racing from room to room. I’m here to tell you that this philosophy is baloney.

Many of you tell me that your favorite part of dentistry is the relationships you have with your patients. You love earning the trust of a phobic patient, and you really love when you can change somebody’s life with a smile makeover. Tell me, how on earth can you accomplish that when you’re racing from room to room to complete 25-30 hygiene checks a day, seeing a half dozen new patients and completing one filling at a time?

Okay, maybe you can do it in your 20’s and early 30’s, but it’s just not sustainable. That kind of schedule will eventually break your spirit for dentistry and quite likely an ankle on those roller skates. How do I know? Because those are the calls we get from exhausted dentists, every single day. They have learned that quantity over quality is a zero sum game.

The secret to achieving your production targets – without roller skates – is to set a daily production goal. Let’s say your monthly production goal is $100,000 and you work 4 days a week, or 18 days in an average month. That breaks out to a daily production goal of $5,555. You have two hygienists seeing 8 patients a day, but let’s be safe and assume only 6 show up per hygienist. At an average visit value of $175, those two producers have just generated $2,100 towards your goal. That means your front desk now needs to schedule $3,455 for you. That amount could be generated by doing around 17 fillings (that’s a brutal day), or if scheduled correctly, it’s just 2 crowns and a root canal.

What day sounds better to you? What day sounds like you’ll have time for lunch, a CE webinar and maybe even time to really talk to your patients and ask about their lives? If you schedule to your production goal each day, don’t panic if your schedule feels “empty.” As long as you schedule to goal, you’ll nail your monthly production goal and finally be able to hang up your roller skates for good – or at least until your kids ask to take them to the roller rink.

To learn more about dental KPIs, what to track and how to set your goals, download our free guide, “Transform Your Dental Practice By Tracking These 8 KPIs” Or, schedule a call with one of our dental marketing strategists to help get your practice back on track. Thanks for watching!