Most dentists I talk to are no strangers to hard work. You put in long days, pour your energy into your team and your patients — but at the end of the month, the numbers just don’t add up the way they should. You feel the effort, but you don’t always see the reward. A key to gaining control of profitability in your practice is understanding the number of days you work for free.
It might sound like a joke, but I promise you — this is a real, measurable problem that shows up in your bottom line. Every time you absorb write-offs, whether they are elective or insurance related, you chip away at your revenue. Stack those losses together, and the reality is… there are entire days on your calendar where you’re generating zero real income for yourself or your practice. The good news? Once you start tracking this, you can fix it. Reducing how many days you work for free is one of the fastest ways to create more profitability — without adding more hours, more patients, or more stress.
Too many dentists aren’t aware of this metric, but you can calculate how many days you’re working for free with three simple steps:
- Calculate your Gross Production per Day
(Take your total annual gross production and divide it by the number of days you work each year.)
- Calculate your Total Annual Write-Offs
(This includes insurance adjustments, discounts, and any other production you never actually collect.)
- Divide your Total Write-Offs by your Gross Production per Day
What you’re left with is the number of days each year that you’re working solely to pay off your write-offs. This number has been steadily growing over the past few years, so getting a handle on it is more important than ever.
It all starts with calculating that number, because then you have a decision to make: are you okay with the number of days you’re working for free? We call this the ACT Effort Quotient, and if the number feels fair and comfortable, then you’ve found your sweet spot. If it’s too high, then it’s time to get started managing your profit margin with some of our impactful tools.
