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How much dentists owning their own practice earn on average?


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11 hours ago, Rlucas said:

2nd year out of dental school, bought a old run down dental practice that collected 840,000 with 400,000 in profit. One dentists, 1 hygenist, 7 operatories, accepting all insurances and medicaid/medicare dental insurance. End of year 2, new practice collected 960,000, profit after servicing 720,000 loan for practice, cash flow money, and new equipment loans was 420,000 working 48 weeks 28 to 32 hours a week. End of 3rd year out of dental school. Collections 1.15 million, profit 510,000. I also invested 130,000 back into the business buying cbct, implant equipment, updating practice, new dental lights, dental chairs and autoclave. If I had not reinvested this money, I could have cleared 640,000 profit.  4th year projections. Collections of 1.3 to 1.4 million, profit 700,000 to 800,000. 

I cut chair time down by 2 weeks from what the previous owner worked during the first year, cut another 2 weeks of chair time out during 3rd year, will cut another 2 weeks of chair time down during year 4.  As I practice I continue to get faster and the business more efficient. I will continue to cut chairtime down until I see a year that I profit less than the previous year.

Important to note that you're in the States. This is a Canadian forum.

How much of that 1.3-1.4 million is doctor production? Because you're crazy fast/efficient/high-billing if you still only have the 1 hygienist. I top out at $60-65k a month at 28 hours a week, and I am in a very busy practice. That said, I'm not in the States like you are.

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In small town north central ..east, lol.  We pay a lot in taxes but there is a great company called tooth and coin that help give us every legal avenue to decrease are large tax burden. But paying a lot in taxes is a good problem to have at the end of the day. But state taxes are insane, some new tax for something else just to allow them to find a way to tax more.

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Hygiene only brings in about 15% of collections because we see a lot of low paying medicaid patients.  On average in the states industry standard averages for general dental practice is 600,000- 700,000 collections, 60 to 65% overhead, hygiene accounts for 25% of practice collections.  The way we cracked our nut is by focusing on both ends of the business spectrum.  Cutting overhead, and increasing collections.  Previous owner ran overhead about 58% to 60%.  We got overhead down to around 45% while servicing the practice loan, after loan is paid off we should have overhead close to 35%.  Old Dr. paid 6,000 a year for 6 att old phones.  We have 3 lines and use ip phone through vonage, we pay 125/month, we found cheaper dental labs in the states that did higher quality work and cut our lab bill by a lot compared to his.  We looked at every single cost besides employees and either used different cheaper companies, or negotiated lower prices with all.  We try to do this with ever expense except payroll every 6 months.  We can use expanded functions dental assistant.  They can place temp crowns, permanent crowns, adjust dentures, place dentures, place partials, do fillings after dentist drill.  Our dentist only does what the dentist can do.  Most everything else we try to let other staff do to increase efficiency.  We also save a fortune by avoiding henry schien, patterson, and benco. We use net32, darby dental, ebay, or amazon dental to purchase equal or better quality dental materials and instruments.  We contact smaller vendors after a new model comes out and offer 50 to 60% less for the new unused last year model.  They often sale to us super cheap just to get it off their shelfs.  We saved 4,000 on a new autoclav, 40,000 on a new vatech CBCT unit, and on and on.  This reduces our overhead a lot.

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Cleanup, also if you run more than 1 hygienist you are losing money.  Each hygiene exam takes 5 to 10 mins.  Our hygienist sees patients for 30min and 45 min app. depending on what insurance pays.  But say its 30 mins, so in every hour that is 10 to 20 mins of doctors time spent on very low cost production.  It only leaves 50-40 mins an hour for the dentist to perform the high value procedures, like full mouth extractions, dentures, root canals, implants.  If you run 2 hygienists you cut your high production time per hour down leaving only 30 mins.  Add to it that we use an EFDA to complete fillings after dentist inject and drills, EFDA sutures after dentist injects and extracts, EFDA places temp crown after dentist completes crown prep, EFDAs can insert dentures, partials, permanent crowns, adjust dentures, repair dentures.  So it does help us to be very efficient with time.

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9 hours ago, Rlucas said:

Cleanup, also if you run more than 1 hygienist you are losing money.  Each hygiene exam takes 5 to 10 mins.  Our hygienist sees patients for 30min and 45 min app. depending on what insurance pays.  But say its 30 mins, so in every hour that is 10 to 20 mins of doctors time spent on very low cost production.  It only leaves 50-40 mins an hour for the dentist to perform the high value procedures, like full mouth extractions, dentures, root canals, implants.  If you run 2 hygienists you cut your high production time per hour down leaving only 30 mins.  Add to it that we use an EFDA to complete fillings after dentist inject and drills, EFDA sutures after dentist injects and extracts, EFDA places temp crown after dentist completes crown prep, EFDAs can insert dentures, partials, permanent crowns, adjust dentures, repair dentures.  So it does help us to be very efficient with time.

That is a very different landscape. Our hygienists are booked for an hour and do at least 45 minutes of scaling (3 units). This leaves enough time for bitewings, a proper recall, etc. Our hygienists would flip shit if they only had 45 minutes for an adult. They will squeeze kids into 30 minute appointments.

Also I'm not sure how it is in Western Canada but we do not have EFDA's and other mid-level type providers in Ontario except for restorative hygienists which are few and far in-between. They can restore, make/place temp crowns, cement permanent crowns, but they definitely can't suture. 

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6 hours ago, JohnGrisham said:

US seems very very different than Canada, and not nearly as applicable. 

Here, more hygenists you have, more money you are making. Hygenists here BRING in money, and more than earn their pay in majority of settings.  

Based on people's experiences, it seems like the US is more lucrative than Canada (add the value of the dollar and its even more lucrative). But I'm not sure how many people have moved countries over it. 

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Cleanup, hygenist make the most money on payroll other than the dentist. I'm the states they make 28 to 40 per hour depending on location and how many hygienist are looking for a job.  

I look at the hygenist just like the dentist. I want the hygenist doing only what a hygienist can do. So they do cleanings and srps. Have you thought about having a dental assistant who are paid much less than the hygenist do all the xrays? Have the dental assistant get the pt from the waiting room. Confirm payment has been made, confirm all paperwork has been filled, then the assistants take all the needed xrays before or after the cleaning.  Also have the assistant prep hygenist room and clean re prep after patient. This frees up a lot of time and allows for increased hygienist efficiency and production.  

By utilizing a dental assistant in this way you can shave off 10 to 15 minutes of hygenist time for each patient. If hygenist bring in the bulk of collections in canada, you should definitely be able to increase your bottom line by utilizing a dental assistant to bounce back and forth between 2 hygienists.  Just a thought.

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5 hours ago, Rlucas said:

Cleanup, hygenist make the most money on payroll other than the dentist. I'm the states they make 28 to 40 per hour depending on location and how many hygienist are looking for a job.  

I look at the hygenist just like the dentist. I want the hygenist doing only what a hygienist can do. So they do cleanings and srps. Have you thought about having a dental assistant who are paid much less than the hygenist do all the xrays? Have the dental assistant get the pt from the waiting room. Confirm payment has been made, confirm all paperwork has been filled, then the assistants take all the needed xrays before or after the cleaning.  Also have the assistant prep hygenist room and clean re prep after patient. This frees up a lot of time and allows for increased hygienist efficiency and production.  

By utilizing a dental assistant in this way you can shave off 10 to 15 minutes of hygenist time for each patient. If hygenist bring in the bulk of collections in canada, you should definitely be able to increase your bottom line by utilizing a dental assistant to bounce back and forth between 2 hygienists.  Just a thought.

Our entire office shares the workload. We have 7 hygiene going some days. If a hygienist is running behind, we have floating assistants available to take bite wings and seat patients. Our open chair time is very low even in a very large office. 

That said I think the discussion is going on a bit of a tangent given that this is a forum for Canadian dental students and pre-dents, not American practicing dentists or owners. I’m here because I’m a moderator and an instructor at a school, otherwise I wouldn’t be here really. We do appreciate your input but I think your discussion is better mediated on a place like DentalTown.

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20 hours ago, cleanup said:

Ignoring how ironically cynical your own comment is, is this a serious sentiment? I'm genuinely curious why you feel that way, given my history here.

This probably comes from someone who has to do with @Steins;Gate or himself, with 400K job offers eagerly waiting for him till he FINISHES school lol

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