The 5 Numbers Every Dentist Must Know
Insights from Schwartz Consulting Group
Many dentists measure success by how busy the practice feels. A full schedule, a productive team, and steady patient flow can create the impression that the practice is performing well financially.
However, a busy practice is not always a profitable one.
Understanding a few key financial metrics can provide valuable insight into how a practice is truly performing. When dentists consistently track these numbers, they gain the clarity needed to make better operational decisions and strengthen long-term profitability.
Many of the operational systems that influence these numbers are discussed in our article on Dental Practice Consulting: Systems That Help Dental Practices Grow, Improve Efficiency, and Increase Profitability, which explains the systems that support strong dental practice performance.
Why Profitability Metrics Matter
Running a successful dental practice requires balancing patient care with effective business management.
Without clear visibility into financial performance, it can be difficult to identify operational issues that may be limiting profitability.
Many practices review financial results only at the end of the month or year. While those reports are important, practices that monitor a few core performance metrics consistently are often better positioned to make timely adjustments and maintain financial stability.
Why Profitability Metrics Matter
Running a successful dental practice requires balancing patient care with effective business management.
Without clear visibility into financial performance, it can be difficult to identify operational issues that may be limiting profitability.
Many practices review financial results only at the end of the month or year. While those reports are important, practices that monitor a few core performance metrics consistently are often better positioned to make timely adjustments and maintain financial stability.
Five Numbers Every Dentist Should Understand
While many financial metrics can be useful, several key indicators provide particularly valuable insight into the operational health and profitability of a dental practice.
Total Overhead Percentage
Overhead represents the percentage of collections required to operate the practice. This includes expenses such as team compensation, dental supplies, laboratory costs, facility expenses, and administrative costs. Monitoring overhead helps dentists evaluate how efficiently the practice is operating and whether expenses are aligned with production levels.
In many practices, rising overhead is not caused by excessive spending but by inconsistent production systems. When scheduling efficiency and case acceptance improve, overhead percentages often stabilize because production becomes more predictable.
Payroll and Team Compensation
eam compensation is typically one of the largest expenses in a dental practice. Many practices evaluate payroll by comparing team compensation to overall collections. Monitoring this percentage helps ensure that staffing levels remain appropriate for the practice’s production.
Across many practices, payroll percentages often rise when production becomes inconsistent. When scheduling systems and treatment acceptance improve, team compensation ratios frequently return to healthier levels without reducing staff or compensation.
Ranges:
- Gross staff salaries 16-24 percent
- Total compensation 29-34 percent (With shortages of great staff certain regions are slightly higher)
Case Acceptance
Case acceptance reflects how frequently patients move forward with recommended treatment. A useful way to evaluate case acceptance is by comparing the dollars presented to the dollars accepted. In many successful practices, approximately 50 percent of diagnosed treatment is accepted, and around 8 out of 10 patients schedule Phase One treatment before leaving the office. Case acceptance plays a major role in practice profitability and is explored further in our article The #1 Reason Dental Practices Struggle With Case Acceptance.
Case acceptance is rarely a financial issue alone. In many practices, the primary challenge is how treatment is communicated and how confident patients feel about moving forward with care.
Hygiene Productivity and Scheduling
The hygiene department plays a central role in patient retention, preventive care, and early diagnosis of treatment needs. A well-structured hygiene schedule often maintains approximately seven hours of patient care within an eight-hour day per hygienist, allowing time for new patient exams, periodontal therapy, and other necessary procedures. This balance helps maintain both strong preventive care and consistent patient flow.
n many practices, hygiene schedules appear full but are not always structured to support comprehensive care. Simply filling appointment times does not always create opportunities for diagnosis or treatment.
Practices that prioritize patients who require ongoing care, periodontal treatment, or diagnostic evaluation often give the doctor greater opportunity to identify and address clinical needs. When hygiene scheduling supports both preventive care and diagnosis, practices frequently see improvements in patient health outcomes and overall production.
Additional opportunities related to diagnosed treatment are discussed in The Hidden $500,000 Opportunity in Your Dental Practice.
Net Patient Growth
Practice growth is not determined only by production. It is also influenced by the number of patients entering and leaving the practice. One useful way to evaluate this is by measuring net patient growth, which reflects the difference between new patients entering the practice and patients who become inactive or leave. As a general baseline, many healthy practices experience approximately 16 net new patients per month per doctor. This means the practice must bring in at least 16 more patients than it loses each month for every doctor in the practice. This benchmark assumes a stable, established practice, not a startup practice that is still building its patient base. For example, in a typical one-doctor practice supported by two hygienists, this level of patient growth often provides enough new patient flow to maintain healthy hygiene schedules and consistent treatment opportunities for the doctor. When new patient numbers increase significantly—such as 50 to 60 new patients per month—the operational dynamics of the practice begin to change. Higher patient flow may require additional hygiene capacity and may increase the amount of time the doctor spends away from the chair completing exams and consultations.
Many practices focus heavily on attracting new patients but spend far less time tracking patient attrition. When both numbers are monitored consistently, dentists gain a clearer understanding of whether their patient base is truly growing or simply replacing patients who have left.
Experience Matters
Over time, working with dental practices across a wide range of practice models, one pattern appears consistently: many dentists maintain busy schedules and strong production but still struggle to clearly understand why profitability fluctuates from month to month.
In many cases, the challenge is not production but visibility into the operational systems that influence financial performance.
When practices begin consistently tracking a small group of key indicators—such as overhead, payroll percentage, case acceptance, hygiene productivity, and patient growth—they often gain a clearer understanding of how their systems are performing.
This clarity frequently allows practice owners to make small operational adjustments in scheduling, communication, and team alignment that lead to meaningful improvements in both efficiency and long-term profitability.
Key Takeaways for Practice Owners
Many dental practices appear busy but struggle to achieve the level of profitability they expect.
Understanding a small group of key performance metrics can provide valuable insight into the operational health of the practice.
Practices that monitor overhead, payroll percentages, hygiene productivity, case acceptance, and patient growth often gain a clearer picture of how their systems are performing.
When these numbers are reviewed consistently, dentists are better positioned to make informed decisions that strengthen both patient care and long-term practice profitability.
Frequently Asked Questions
What percentage of revenue should a dental practice spend on payroll?
Team compensation varies by practice size and structure, but many practices monitor payroll as a percentage of collections to ensure staffing levels remain aligned with production.
Ranges:
Gross staff salaries 16-24 percent Total compensation 29-34 percent (With shortages of great staff certain regions are slightly higher)
Why is hygiene productivity important for profitability?
Hygiene plays a central role in preventive care and patient retention. Strong hygiene systems often help identify treatment needs earlier and support consistent practice production.
What is a healthy case acceptance rate for dental practices?
Many practices aim for approximately 50 percent of diagnosed treatment being accepted, with around 80 percent of patients scheduling Phase One treatment before leaving the office.
How many new patients should a dental practice gain each month?
While this varies by practice size, many established practices aim for approximately 16 net new patients per month per doctor to maintain healthy long-term growth.
About the Author
Kelly Schwartz is the founder of Schwartz Consulting Group, a dental practice consulting firm that works with dentists and their teams to improve operational systems, strengthen case acceptance, enhance team performance, and support long-term practice growth.
His work focuses on practical implementation—helping dental teams apply proven systems inside real practices rather than relying solely on theory or presentations.
Discover Your Practice’s True Potential
Every dental practice has opportunities for improvement within its systems, scheduling, and patient communication.
If you would like an outside perspective on how your practice is performing, and what may be possible with the right systems in place, schedule a conversation with Schwartz Consulting Group.
During this call, we’ll review your current situation and discuss practical strategies that can help your practice improve efficiency, strengthen case acceptance, and increase profitability.
