If you see constant finger-pointing and blame shifting in your practice, then you know there’s a problem. However, finger-pointing in a dental practice is rarely the real problem. Usually, it’s a symptom of something deeper: lack of clarity around ownership and accountability. What happens is that when
Dental school taught you how to diagnose. How to treatment plan. How to deliver excellent clinical care. What it didn’t teach you is everything else that comes with the keys to your own practice.
As we discussed in the previous Data Snapshot, periodontal disease is on the rise, and in order to best serve our communities, we must pay attention to the breakdown of hygiene visits. Your Perio Visit Percentage is how you accomplish that, because it measures the percentage of total hygiene visits in a given period that are periodontal therapy or maintenance appointments compared to prophylaxis visits.
Your team just finished a great appointment. The patient’s happy, the work went well, and then the bib comes off… and so does everything else. They grab their jacket, check their phone, and suddenly they’re halfway out the door with a vague promise to call back about scheduling.
We work with dentists all over the country, and there’s a common problem we run into over and over: “I know my practice is profitable, but there’s no money in my bank account.” The underlying problem is that there’s a great deal of confusion around cash flow, and in order to have a Better Practice and a Better
Somewhere in your supply closet, there’s a box of something that expires in 2047. Right next to it: nothing. Because you’re completely out of the thing you actually needed this morning. And if your first instinct is to order triple so this doesn’t happen again, you’ve got an even bigger problem. You need a better system.
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
There’s a moment that hits a lot of practice owners somewhere in the middle of their career. You’ve built something real. The practice is running. The income is there. And yet something shifts—quietly, almost without warning—and you start asking questions you never had time for before. Why am I doing this? Is this what I want? Is there more to it?
In your practice, culture is everything, but it may be more fragile than you realize. You’re only as strong as your weakest link, so a single bad hire can erode that culture, frustrate your team, and cost your practice far more than the time it would have taken to hire right the first time. It may sound
Most practice owners don’t see the breakdown coming. Not because the signs weren’t there—but because they were easy to explain away. Cash flow’s a little tight? Busy month, it’ll sort itself out. Overhead climbing? We’re growing, that’s normal.
