What percentage of dental practice is hygiene?
What is base pay plus commission?
How many hygiene appointments are there in a year?
Why does the hygienist opt for the path of least resistance?
What is a good amount of production for a hygienist?
What gets monitored, gets managed?
What do practice owners lack in knowledge?
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Hygiene Production: 5 Simple Ways to Give It a Boost
Last updated on April 2nd, 2021 at 01:31 pm. If we “all” know: That 25-30% of a dental practice’s production should be coming from hygiene, and
Five ways to increase hygiene production | Dental Economics
Using the Hygiene Maximizer, you can increase annual hygiene production by $100,000 to $200,000 per hygienist. It has been proven in hundreds of practices and can be implemented almost anywhere.
Can dental hygiene affect profitability?
If dentists are performing a high volume of large fillings with very few comprehensive treatment plans, hygiene may start carrying production. This can have a significant negative effect on the profitability of a practice.
Is prophy after prophy profitable?
Prophy after prophy will keep a hygiene department busy but not necessarily profitable. Being perio-aware and performing higher-level services—including periodontal therapy and adjuncts such as laser therapy, fluoride, and appropriate radiographs—are all necessary components for healthy hygiene production.
How much does a hygienist make a week?
Income: If the average hygienist produces, let’s say, $1,300 a day and you’ve been in practice ten years, you should have ten days of hygiene a week (at least). That’s $13,000 a week, over $50,000 a month and $650,000 a year (with two weeks off mind you), before you even pick up a handpiece. For most doctors this would at least cover basic monthly expenses.
What happens if you don't keep a recall statistic?
If you don’t keep a recall statistic, heavy new patient flow or a busy perio program can actually mask the fact that you’re losing patients off recall. Why? Well, hygiene’s full so no one’s looking. This “numbers of recall patients” is the number that should be growing at least one day a week per year.
How to communicate with a dental hygienist?
Craft the message in your staff meeting so that every staff member is excited about it. New patients should be briefed on this message when you meet them for the first time. And it should be repeated in one form or another at every relevant contact point – e.g. when your hygienist is scheduling their next appointment. The message could be something like “it’s important to us to maintain your oral health and prevent future dental problems; that’s why regular hygiene visits are critical.” Obviously it can be said in a less dry and boring way than this, but you get the general idea.
How many new patients are needed a month for hygiene?
And keep in mind, to add one day of hygiene a week every year only requires 30 new patients a month with proper retention strategies. For more info see the video from our COO Jeff Blumberg below. You could add even more with a more aggressive growth and new patient strategy.
What is a good hygienist?
The hygienist responsible should be, in addition to a good clinician, a good “people person” and educator. You want them on top of educating patients on home care as well as assisting with case acceptance. Ideally, you want these qualities in all of your hygienists.
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Is there production to be done with new patients?
Sure there’s production to be done with new patients, but most of us find plenty in hygiene as well. The more patients on the hygiene schedule the more potential treatment you have to present (and potentially perform).
How to stop thinking of dental hygienist?
Dentists need to stop thinking of the dental hygienist as an interruption, and quit putting off going to the hygiene room as long as they possibly can. Throughout the day, dentists should be prepared to meet with the hygienist after she has completed the five-stage examination and educated the patient on treatment possibilities. The meeting should occur outside the treatment room and last one or two minutes. When meeting regularly with their hygienists, doctors become more focused, understand the patient's situation, and are well-positioned to sow the "seeds" planted by the hygienist about potential treatment. This enhanced doctor-hygienist communication will have a dynamic effect on hygiene production and dentistry referred back to the dentist from the hygiene department.
Why is dental hygiene important?
The Hygiene Maximizer principles described above will immediately set your practice on a growth path as well as create more value for patients .
How much can a hygiene maximizer increase?
Using the Hygiene Maximizer, you can increase annual hygiene production by $100,000 to $200,000 per hygienist. It has been proven in hundreds of practices and can be implemented almost anywhere. Five of the principles of the Hygiene Maximizer are listed below.
Why is it important to have a hygiene appointment?
Each hygiene appointment represents an opportunity to build stronger relationship with the patient. Patients value coming to a practice where they are valued and appreciated. A strong focus on at-home home care can be an effective way to build even greater trust between hygienist and patients.
What is in office dispensing?
In-office dispensing is an opportunity to make specific recommendations to patients and have the product available for immediate purchase. This not only acts as a convenience factor for patients, but also increases practice production and contributes to higher hygiene department production.
What is a hygiene maximizer?
The Hygiene Maximizer has a series of protocols that include learning a specific number of personal items about the patient, building the relationship with common interests (such as family, interests, hobbies), etc. Each hygiene appointment represents an opportunity to build stronger relationship with the patient.
How many patients does a hygienist treat?
In a typical scenario, the hygienist will treat seven or eight patients in a given day, providing prophylaxis and basic ancillary services, such as bitewings. While this may be appropriate, it is not utilizing the hygiene area to its full potential by providing comprehensive and outstanding care for patients.
What is production rate?
The Production Rate Calculator computes the length, area, volume or generic units that can be processed, produced or consumed over a period of time base on a constant rate. It also computes the amount of time needed to process, produce or consume a total length, area, volume or number of generic unit based on a total number and a constant rate.
How much milk does a herd of Jersey cows produce in 12 weeks?
At a constant rate, your herd will produce 5,880 gallons of milk in 12 weeks.
How is concrete produced?
Concrete is produced by the cubic yard. Milk is produced by gallon or liter. Corn is produced by the bushel and oil by the barrel. This calculator handles 23 different units of volume and their interaction with time.
How much corn can you harvest in 12 hours?
Use the Area over Time function with the Unit Area (uA) equal to 3 acres, the Duration of Production (dU) equal to 20 minutes and the Period of Production (P) equal to 12 hours. At a constant rate, your combine will harvest 108 ac res of corn in 12 hours.
What is the unit of area?
Area is the base unit in many industries. Farmers raise crops by the acre or are. Painters paint square feet, yards or meters. Cloth manufactures produce square yards or square meters of cloth. This calculator handles 12 different units of area and their interaction with time.
What are the units of length?
Many things are produced and consumed by length, and length comes in many units. Small units can be microscopic (e.g. nanometers and angstroms), common units (e.g. feet, meters) and astronomical (e.g. light-years). This calculator automatically handles 25 different length units and their interaction with time.
How long does it take to paint a truck on a highway?
At a constant rate, your truck will paint lines on 32 miles of highway in 8 hours. Working the other direction. You know the length or distance you want to achieve (TL), and you know the rate, which is the Unit Length (uL) over the unit Duration of time (dU). Use the Time for Length function.
How much of a practice salary can be paid to an associate?
This rule states that the salaries for practice owner, associates and staff cannot exceed 45 percent of gross revenues and still maintain practice viability. Paying 20 percent to paraprofessional staff leaves 25 percent for paying owner (s) and associate (s).
What is the rule of 45?
This rule states that the salaries for practice owner, associates and staff cannot exceed 45 percent of gross revenues and still maintain practice viability. Paying 20 percent to paraprofessional staff leaves 25 percent for paying owner (s) and associate (s).
Why do you want to switch to production based compensation?
Let's start at the beginning: You want to switch to production-based compensation because you feel that each associate should be compensated according to his/her thoroughness and dedication. The more hours they work and the more thorough their efforts, the more they will take home, just like any practice owner.
How much do you pay associates if you net 40 percent?
If you net 40 percent, then you may pay 25 percent to associates.
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What percentage of dental practice is hygiene?
The "industry standard" is 30% to 35%; however, the percentage of a practice's production that comes from hygiene will vary, as dentists have different treatment protocols, and their definition of "ideal dentistry" and "ideal hygiene care" will vary. As an example, I have one client who produces $5,000 a day and whose hygienist produces $1,200 a day. Another client produces $2,200 a day and has a hygienist who produces around $1,000 a day.
What is base pay plus commission?
Base pay plus commission seems to be the best and most popular system. This protects the hygienist if the front desk drops the ball on the schedule but also gives the hygienist a reason to go the extra mile. Commission kicks in when production exceeds three times base pay. Also if the day does fall apart, or there's an open hour, the hygienist on base pay can be put to work calling overdue patients or handling other necessary tasks. However, doing so won't fly when a hygienist is paid on commission only.
How many hygiene appointments are there in a year?
Let's do some basic math: Say you're getting 30 new dental patients a month. That's 360 new dental patients in a year, which means a possible 720 hygiene appointments.
Why does the hygienist opt for the path of least resistance?
The team member opts for the path of the least resistance so as not to upset or lose the patient.
What is a good amount of production for a hygienist?
So what is a good amount of production for a hygienist? The answer should be based on what a practice generally delivers and its fee schedule. For example, offices that do scaling and root planing (SRP) on a more frequent basis will have higher hygiene production averages. This, of course, depends on the doctor's viewpoint on what the hygiene department should deliver. So depending on the type of hygiene a practice delivers, I look for what a practice can optimally do based on the type of services it offers.
What gets monitored, gets managed?
What gets monitored, gets managed. It is as simple as that. The only way to monitor what gets done is with daily stats especially for your weak areas. For example, one employee should be specifically responsible for calls to patients who are unscheduled, overdue for re-care or need reactivation. Other staff can and should help in coordination with the accountable employee.
What do practice owners lack in knowledge?
What most practice owners are lack in knowledge is not how to book an appointment, but rather how to be an effective leader. The best systems in the world are useless if the staff do not comply. Good leaders know how to get staff to willingly follow through and comply.
Importance
Clinical/Patient
- You can more easily maintain a patient’s oral health, monitor any restorative work you’ve done and their home care.
- Patients who see you regularly in hygiene and are well educated on home care will (most likely) need less restorative work.
- Theoretically if your patient has better oral health they are less prone to systemic illness con…
- You can more easily maintain a patient’s oral health, monitor any restorative work you’ve done and their home care.
- Patients who see you regularly in hygiene and are well educated on home care will (most likely) need less restorative work.
- Theoretically if your patient has better oral health they are less prone to systemic illness connected issues in the mouth and, potentially, could live longer and healthier lives.
Now, Let’s Look at The Benefits to Your Practice.
- Income: If the average hygienist produces, let’s say, $1,300 a day and you’ve been in practice ten years, you should have ten days of hygiene a week (at least). That’s $13,000 a week, over $50,000 a month and $650,000 a year (with two weeks off mind you), beforeyou even pick up a handpiece. For most doctors this would at least cover basic monthly expenses. And keep in mind, to add on…
Here’s What You Can Do
- 1. Decide:
As the doctor, this starts with you. You have to decide what you want with regards to your hygiene program. And keep in mind that the growth process is not free of “growing pains.” You must be willing put up with this without scrapping the process altogether. - 2. Staff Meeting
Have a staff meeting and cover what you’re looking at long-term for your hygiene program. Don’t just focus on the “numbers.” Stress the importance behind this for patients. Show them the reasons behind why this needs to happen in the office and that this isn’t just some passing “ne…
Summary
- Here’s one I’m pretty certain about: If you make this important to yourself, your staff and your patients, the area should grow. And it’s a good thing. It could actually be one of the better things that happen to your practice! If you have any questions about it, please feel free to email me at [email protected] And again, we have a free e-bookdedicated to how to have a profitable …