DENTAL CONSULTING FAQS
Why Hire a Dental Consultant?
Find answers to dental consulting FAQs. Dental practice consulting is very specific to individual practices. These are all very high level responses but Contact Us to get answers about your specific practice. Explore topics like benefits, costs, and tips for running a successful dental practice.
What do dental consultants do?
Dental consultants provide objective perspectives and specialized knowledge. Doctors sometimes do not have time to focus on all aspects of running a dental practice. Many dentists rely on team members to run the business practices for them. Dental consultants work side by side with dentists and their team members on administrative and clinical duties to streamline and optimize operations.
Dental consultants can help improve efficiency and productivity, team management, financial planning, and financial management, insurance management and billing, marketing strategies, patient case acceptance and treatment planning, hygiene department productivity and service offerings, and more…
Next Level Consultants coaches are passionate about finding what makes practices tick. We love working with doctors to find out where their vision and passions lie. We help doctors find a renewed sense of purpose and passion within their business, focusing on team dynamics, leadership development, and clinical and operational productivity. Not only making business more profitable but also restoring a level of work/life balance doctors are looking for, with less stress knowing their practice is optimized.
Why hire a dental practice consultant?
Hiring a dental consultant can provide you with pragmatic and objective solutions. Dental practice consultants consider all factors related to the success of your dental practice and help you develop a plan of action that moves the needle forward, taking into account your vision and goals for the future.
Hiring a dental consultant allows you to collaborate with another experienced dental industry professional. Working together as a trusted partner dental consultants can help you develop the best possible outcomes within your dental practice and with your best interest in mind.
Practice owners work with coaches to develop a productive and healthy team. A dental practice coach/consultant helps boost a dentist's confidence and security. If a doctor is planning new endeavors or thinking about creating a future of financial freedom and independence, consultants provide that extra oversight and accountability to take them to the next level.
Running a successful business and maintaining a healthy work-life balance is challenging. Having a dental practice consultant to bounce ideas off of or talk to about stressors can be invaluable in any practice owner's journey.
How long is a dental consulting contract?
Next Level Consultants takes a customized boutique-style approach to dental practice consulting. We tailor our services and recommendations to your specific goals and opportunities. The goal is – help you grow and run your practice in a way that aligns with your vision. We want to support you every step of the way. Dental consultants can work with practices from the startup phase through the growth phase to eventual exit planning and transition for the next owner/doctor.
Many clients find it most beneficial to work with a consultant on a long-term and ongoing basis to develop a longstanding relationship with that doctor and their team. Doctors and team members confide in and trust their coach/consultant, partnering with them as a reliable source of knowledge and information.
Each year we work with practice owners, our practices see an average of 15-20% year over year growth. When you partner with Next Level Consultants and develop efficiency in your practice, you maximize profitability year over year while enhancing the patient's experience.
What is the return on investment when hiring a dental consultant?
To gain a return on investment with a dental consultant, doctors must be serious about partnering with someone to help them. They must also be honest with themself and willing to do the hard work necessary to affect change and get results.
Doctors often hire consultants expecting increased profits, changes to happen, and a bright new path forward, but deep down, they aren't willing to make any changes and take action. Dental consultants can be an invaluable partner and resource, but after all, it's still the doctor's practice. It's up to the doctor to lead and implement best practices holding their teams accountable.
The return on investment when hiring a dental consultant is heavily dependent on the actions taken within a practice rather than the advice given. Next Level Consultants' coaches work hard to inspire and educate the practice owner as well as team members to take the actions needed to improve the practice. We provide resources, tools, and systems that can significantly impact a practice and move the needle forward. However, those tools, systems, and resources will fall short if not implemented properly.
Working with a consultant is a relationship as much as a business partnership. For a true return on investment, a doctor must value that relationship, nurture the relationship, and respect it. On day one of signing a proposal with Next Level Consultants we are excited, ready to jump in, roll up our sleeves, and work alongside you and your team.
How to grow your dental practice?
Growing a dental practice involves many things working together simultaneously. For example, do you have a solid team capable of handling and growing the practice? How is your team supporting your current patient base?
Are you actively tracking the practice's performance to show you where you're currently at? Is your team capable of engaging and supporting any new patients? Are you open to offering new services and procedures, and can your team even support a new service? Is your office currently maximizing its schedule? Is the hygiene department diagnosing and presenting new treatments?
Is your front desk team offering flexible payment options? Are you asking for referrals? All these things are questions to ask when planning to grow a dental practice. Dental consultants address all factors when helping doctors to grow their practice. Next Level Consultants coaches specialize in practice growth. Let's find out how we can help grow your practice.
How many patients does a dental hygienist see per day?
One patient per hour is the generalized industry standard. However, timing depends on the level of service provided during a hygiene visit. When hygienists work with patients, the flow is steady as they work on treating the patients, diagnosing, educating, examining, doctor handoff, and front office handoff.
These are all essential steps that need to be fulfilled effectively without cutting corners. To increase hygiene department productivity, consider perio treatment and other services like debridement, scaling, sealants, and whitening.
Educating and serving your patients' needs is more valuable than cramming more patients in shorter periods of time. Work with Next Level Consultants to train, coach, and boost production and revenue in your hygiene department.
How to attract new patients to your dental practice?
There are various ways to get new patients into a dental practice. But the better question is, "How much time and money do you have?" to invest in and attract new patients? Because it can be costly. So the next question should be, "What is the return on investment?" and "Are you tracking the effectiveness of marketing campaigns?"
Successful marketing strategies include targeted mailers, organic social media, paid ads, Google My Business Profile (GMB) optimization, and community involvement, just to name a few. Reach out to discuss how marketing and attracting new patients can be profitable for your dental practice.
Next Level Consultants coaches utilize many strategies to attract new patients, including external and internal marketing programs. When you invest in multiple marketing channels (marketing mix), you typically get the best results. We also have some budget-friendly tactics you can take that are effective at attracting new patients and don't break the bank.
How many new patients per month for a dental practice?
The industry rule of thumb is 20 to 40 new patients a month per doctor. A healthy and active patient base is 1,300 - 1,500 patients for a solo practitioner. Those numbers include patients who have come in for care in the last 18 months.
So, the first thing to consider is whether you lose patients regularly. Tracking hygiene reappointment rates and the practice's pre-appointment rate will give you this answer. The average attrition rate is 10% nationwide.
Next Level Consultants coaches help you track the health of your patient base and give you strategies to continually grow your practice without losing patients. If you're planning on adding a hygienist or an associate dentist and need to attract new patients or just thinking about adding days to the schedule, let's talk about how to get you there.
How to make a dental office more efficient?
Efficiency in a dental office naturally increases production and makes an office more profitable. There are many ways to increase efficiency. We start by asking, "How does the owner(s) want patients to experience their practice, and what level of service do they want to provide them? From there, you can develop a more strategic and customized approach to making daily operations more efficient.
Also, based on your practice's current systems and operation, practice management analytics allow you to plainly see where adjustments can be made. It's important to stay curious when looking at your practice's current operational processes. It's also important to focus on how systems are currently operating within your practice before addressing individual team member's performance.
Next Level Consultants can assist in training teams on new systems and accountability when making new operational practices or standard operating procedures. It's important to track the KPIs ongoingly in order to evaluate efficiency within your practice. We can show you step-by-step ways to implement and establish more efficient systems in a dental practice and also how to monitor and track progress to create a more optimized and efficient practice!
How many dental assistants per dentist?
For the most part, the number of dental assistants depends on the number of patient visits per dentist. But more importantly, you need to factor in what kind of procedures dental assistants are able to conduct as well.
If we just looked at industry averages, a sole practitioner encounters 3616 visits annually (according to the ADA Health Policy Institute). That count includes hygiene visits. So hygiene aside, a doctor could see anywhere from 2100 - 3200 visits annually. From there, you can determine how many dental assistants you need by looking at your daily visits. So, the generalized industry recommendation is 1 to 1.5 dental assistants per 10 - to 14 patient visits per day.
Dental assistants have varying skill sets, and the types of procedures they can handle differ from practice to practice. States also have various regulations on the kinds of procedures dental assistants are allowed to conduct. These factors can change the industry averages.
The number of dental assistants needed per dentist depends heavily on these factors. At Next Level Consultants, we specialize in helping practices with team design and efficiency to enhance your practice's patient care while also enhancing your team's skill sets and efficiency.
Average dental office production?
Production figures are calculated in dental practices as a generalized indicator to track the performance and health of a practice. A practice's production can vary based on factors, including types of services offered, insurance network mix, and even the area's demographics. Production varies from area to area and from practice to practice. Things like the number of doctors in a practice, the number of hygienists, and the types of procedures performed are all important factors that affect production.
Forecasting a practice's production plans and goals can be calculated based on overhead and adjustment averages, and then you can forecast the practice's financial goals. Use your production numbers to set new goals and financial planning and identify areas for growth.
Working with dental consultants and coaches from Next Level Consultants can help doctors establish a strategic plan to generate a level of production that maintains business operations and then plans for financial success and wellness, securing a future for retirement and growth or expansion.
Average dental practice revenue?
The average dental practice revenue nationally can vary widely. There are many factors that determine a dental practice's revenue. To start: How long has the practice been in business? Where is the practice located? How much competition is in the area? How many providers work in the dental practice?
It all comes down to how many patients are coming in for visits and what procedures are being performed. In a 2022 survey conducted by the ADA, the average practice revenue reported was $757,549. That's an average figure, so remember that some practices make 1M+, and some make 500k - 600k.
Next Level Consultants coaches work with practice owners nationwide to boost their revenue while also lowering expenses. We advise doctors on systems and operations, providing them with proprietary information designed to produce more revenue in a dental practice.
How much does a dentist make owning their own practice?
A dentist who owns their practice can earn anywhere from $200,000 to $400,000 annually. The fact is that practice owners take home roughly 30-40% of the revenue produced. Factors determining how much a doctor can take home include team wage, rent or mortgage, utilities, supplies, equipment, marketing, insurance, and types of procedures conducted.
When considering the value of owning a dental practice, consider these additional benefits that come with ownership: freedom to practice the dentistry you want, flexibility in your schedule, ability to hire your co-workers, and ultimately seeing the patients you want to see.
As an associate dentist, your value is solely based on your ability to produce dentistry and you will receive roughly 30-35% of your personal production. But remember, as a practice owner, you attain additional long-term value based on the asset your practice grows into, and you get to take advantage of business tax incentives. Also, you don't have to be the sole producer; you can hire a hygienist or an associate to make additional revenue within the practice.
How much does it cost to buy a dental practice?
The price of a dental practice that is up for sale depends on how much revenue that practice has historically produced. On average, practices sell for roughly 70% -100% of its annual collections. This calculation is a generalized valuation method based on the anticipated cash flow for the next year. It averages the cash flow from the last few years, but there are other factors that should be considered.
If you just looked at averages. The annual revenue of a dental practice in the U.S. was $757,549 (average across a nationwide 2022 ADA survey), then based on the generalized evaluation method, the average price would fall somewhere around $530,284 - $757,549.
But we know that depending upon many factors practices produce 1M+ while others only produce 500k or less. When buying a dental practice you can get the most accurate appraisal and valuation by working with a buyer's representative from Next Level Consultants. We serve as an advocate for the buyer, helping the doctor purchasing get the best deal possible when approaching practice brokers.
How to buy a dental practice?
To start buying a dental practice, you first have to find a dental practice for sale that suits your personal and professional needs. Find a practice in an area that you want to live in and the community in which you want to practice dentistry. Evaluate the competition in the area so you know what other practices you will be competing against in that area.
To start, you also need to get pre-approved for a "dental practice" loan. Then, you can submit an LOI (Letter of Intent) to a practice broker when you find a practice you are really interested in buying. The LOI establishes some preliminary terms of agreement and an "intent to purchase." It sets up formalized expectations of how the deal will be conducted on both sides.
The next step is to establish the value of the practice. Best practice is to acquire an independent valuation separate from the broker's assessment. You can do that by working with a reputable buyer's representative from Next Level Consultants.
Next Level Consultants work with doctors to independently and fairly value dental practices, and once the valuation is done, we assist you through the due diligence process. Due diligence allows you to pull the curtain back and see in detail what's going on within the practice you are planning on purchasing.
Once you've discovered the practice's true profit margin and condition of the practice, the negotiations can start taking shape. After the due diligence process, you will clearly understand what the practice you are planning to purchase is worth. Finally, the "Purchase Sale Agreement" is negotiated and written up by lawyers. Both parties agree and sign the agreement. Once that is done, you become a proud dental practice owner.
How to value a dental practice?
Valuing a dental practice is more than just looking at how much revenue the practice has made. That is just the start. There are many factors that should also be considered. By working closely with a dental buyer's representative from Next Level Consultants, you can get a thorough and independent, unbiased dental practice valuation. There are factors to consider and account for that practice brokers often do not consider.
Next Level Consultants buyer's reps look at everything from: the demand for dentistry in the area, the competition analysis, the practice's online presence, the Google reviews, and the age of the practice. If possible, you want to know more about the practice's patient base: How many patients have been in the last 18 months? How many new patients are coming in? One of the biggest factors to consider when valuing a dental practice is the overhead and operational expenses. All these things are weighed and considered when making a fair valuation.
How to start a dental practice?
Starting a dental practice is a very popular way to become a practice owner. The most significant benefit of starting vs. buying, you get to build a brand new practice that looks and feels like home to you. You get to instill foundational principles within the practice from the start.
To start a dental practice, you must have good credit and cash flow. Cash flow means money coming in on a continual basis. Common sources of cash flow include an associate position or a spouse who can help supplement your income during the startup phase.
Generally, doctors will acquire a loan from $600k to $700k+ to build a brand-new practice. Staying on budget during the buildout phase is the most important factor when doing a startup. You do not want to find yourself strapped for cash on opening day without guaranteed patients coming in the door.
Hiring a Next Level Consultants startup coach gives you a playbook plus additional oversight when starting a dental practice. You set yourself up for success and reduce stress throughout the process and on opening day!
How to run a successful dental practice?
There are several things to consider in order to run a successful dental practice. First and foremost, there needs to be an amazing patient experience. Your team has to be able to deliver a level of service that patients want and expect. Patient experience is where everything begins and ends. Success also comes from putting efficient systems in place. Systems are established so that you and your team can provide the best patient experience possible, keeping those patients coming back and telling their friends and family about how great their experience was.
Dental consultants focus on KPIs and systems so that practices can keep their team morale high – making the workday pleasant for everyone working there! In turn, patients also benefit from your team's enthusiasm or appreciation. Develop a positive and productive atmosphere that's inviting and fun. Inspire patients to keep them coming back and accepting treatment plans.
Be diligent in addressing team conflict resolution or miscommunication within your practice. At the end of the day, the feeling the patients get being there speaks louder than words. Keep your existing patients engaged while attracting new ones via marketing strategies and referrals.
Next Level Consultants coaches help doctors focus on ways to attract new patients, while also tracking KPIs. We assist in implementing SOPs and systems that promote a great team culture. Talk to one of our dental consultants about how to drive success in your practice.