Dentaltown February 2022 - 52

" During my first complete
year working with one fulltime
associate ... I was able
to double my past net, while
a first-year dentist earned a
salary almost as high as mine
had been the previous year. "
Two providers working split schedules allowed
us to schedule patients over lunchtime, plus work
10-hour days Monday through Friday and Saturday
from 8 a.m. until noon. This increased availability
attracted additional new patients. Expensive high-tech
items are more affordable when used 54 hours per week,
52 weeks a year, providing a significant additional group
advantage. (In addition to two providers, total hours
increased from 1,536 [32 hours a week for 48 weeks]
to 2,808 [54 hours a week for 52 weeks].)
Two caveats: Because I enjoyed a tremendously
busy practice, my associate was fully booked from his
first day. In addition, especially in multiple-provider
offices, excellent teamwork and communication fostered
by frequent staff meetings became paramount. We
held a two-hour whole team meeting once a month,
plus three one-hour monthly meetings involving
only hygiene, chairside and front-office personnel,
respectively. An annual all-day session with catered
lunch was held in a hotel conference room to avoid
phone calls and door-knock disruptions. Having an
entire uninterrupted day available allowed us to deal
with not only the urgent but also the important-to not
just put out fires but also focus on long-term planning
and value clarification projects in a continuous effort
to become our best selves.
Pragmatically, if one desires to reduce chair hours,
having an associate is essential to provide staff with full
52 FEBRUARY 2022 // dentaltown.com
employment and to allow patients to obtain routine care
conveniently while receiving emergency treatment in a
timeous manner. Expanded hours are also imperative to
enable the 40-hour week of very lucrative hygiene our
office enjoyed. This topic forms the second leg of our
less-work, more-joy, greater-net triumvirate.
2
Expanded hygiene
Days when dental offices could tolerate
unprofitable hygiene, if such times ever existed,
are no longer extant. Our office benefitted from expanded
hygiene-featuring two fully equipped treatment rooms
and a full-time chairside assistant dedicated entirely
to hygiene-for 30 years. Two rooms and another
employee? Why bother? Because treating 12 patients a
day versus the customary eight created an instant 50%
productivity boost.
Renumerations for our hygienist, her assistant and
one front-office employee primarily dedicated to hygiene
scheduling were commission-based, so the harder they
worked, the higher their income-just like me. There's
quite a motivational difference between whiling away an
hour of open time at full pay and wasting 60 minutes
while making nothing. Also, the liberating awareness
that our hygiene team could control their incomes mean
unfilled time became an anachronism.
The first month we implemented this reimbursement
method, productivity increased by 25% on top of the
50% already achieved through expanded hygiene. It
never declined.
We determined the percent of production paid as
salary by dividing last year's W-2 wages by total hygiene
productivity. A hypothetical $60,000 take-home pay
from $180,000 produced means ($60,000 ÷ $180,000 =)
33% of future hygiene productivity will be paid as salary.
I used production in fairness because hygiene cannot
influence collections.
The frequent contention between hygienists and
dentists is unprofessional, unpleasant and unprofitable.
Cutting through cross-accusations and heated rhetoric,
I believe the source of much distress is meager profits,
because too many practices lose money on hygiene, while
hygienists often feel underpaid and underappreciated.
A viable solution must involve enhancing revenue for
both parties, as expanded hygiene does.
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Dentaltown February 2022

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