Between 40% and 50% of adults over 30 have some form of periodontal disease, and that rate increases as patients age, so it’s more important than ever to ensure we’re serving our patients well by providing better hygiene care. To do so, there are two metrics you need to track: Perio Diagnostic Percentage and Perio Acceptance Percentage.
Perio Diagnostic Percentage measures how many of your adult hygiene patients are being diagnosed with periodontal disease relative to the total number of patients seen. For example, if you see 10 hygiene patients and 3 are diagnosed with a 4000 code, your diagnostic percentage is 30%.
Perio Acceptance Percentage has a narrower focus, as it measures the percentage of patients diagnosed with perio disease who accept and begin the recommended treatment. If you take those 3 patients who were diagnosed and all 3 say yes to treatment, then your acceptance percentage is 100%. Ideally, you want this to be above 85%.
Both metrics have a huge impact on your practice and your ability to treat patients:
- High diagnostic rates show that you’re identifying and documenting disease instead of defaulting all patients to a routine prophy.
- High acceptance rates indicate that you have patients who trust your team and understand the importance of treating perio disease.
The higher these numbers are, the more you’ll see stable health in patients, improved long-term retention, and increased revenue for the practice.
You can make an impact on these metrics with a few simple strategies:
- Define your Optimal Standards of Care for periodontal evaluation.
- Train the team to present perio findings consistently, using patient-friendly language and visuals that build value.
- Standardize what healthy looks like.
The incredible thing about improving these metrics is that by providing better care to your patients, you’ll naturally achieve better profitability!
