Dental practice benchmarking guide

A benchmark only helps when your number is calculated the same way as the figure you compare it with.

Updated Sep 29, 2026

How to compare fairly

1. Compare with yourself first. Use the trailing 12 months against the 12 months before that. Your own trend removes the differences in location, specialty and payer mix that muddy national comparisons.
2. Match the definition. Collections are not production, and gross production is not adjusted production. Check what a published figure is a share of before you compare.
3. Match the peer group. Specialty, region, practice size and whether associates are on payroll all change what is normal.
4. Prefer medians and quartiles. A few very large practices can pull an average far from the typical office.
5. Track monthly, act quarterly. Single months are noisy. Look for a trend that holds for a quarter before you change anything.

What to benchmark and how to calculate it

Collections and collection rate

Collections are the money actually received in the period—patient and insurance payments, less refunds. Use your practice management collections report and reconcile it to bank deposits.

Collection rate is collections divided by adjusted production, where adjusted production is gross production minus PPO write-offs and other contractual adjustments. Use 12 months so timing differences even out.

A long-cited rule of thumb from Dental Economics is collecting 99% of production over a year (Takacs, 1997). Today it is usually applied to adjusted production.

Overhead

Overhead is total operating costs divided by collections. Leave out owner pay, owner perks and personal expenses, and note one-time costs separately. Break it into staff, facility, supplies, lab, marketing and admin so you can see which line is moving. The overhead calculator does the math, and the overhead review checklist walks through each category.

Staff cost

Staff cost is wages plus payroll taxes, benefits and retirement contributions for the team, divided by collections. Report associate dentist pay on its own line, because a practice with associates will look very different from a solo office. For individual roles, compare hourly rates with local market data as well as with national figures.

Hygiene production

Hygiene production per day is hygiene production divided by the days each hygienist worked. Decide whether doctor exam fees count toward hygiene and apply that rule every month. Track hygiene's share of total production too, since a falling share can mean recall is slipping.

New patients

Count new patients per month—first visits by people who have not been seen before. Decide whether emergency-only visits count, and track new patients by source so marketing spend can be tied to results. Pair it with call conversion: new-patient calls that end in a booked appointment.

No-shows and cancellations

No-show rate is missed appointments without notice divided by scheduled appointments. Track short-notice cancellations separately, and split both by provider and appointment type. Hygiene and new-patient no-shows usually need different fixes.

Accounts receivable

A/R ratio is total accounts receivable divided by average monthly production. Also track the share of A/R aged over 60 and over 90 days, split between insurance and patient balances.

The same Dental Economics article set targets of an A/R ratio of 1.0 and no more than 20% of receivables aged 60 days or more (Takacs, 1997).

National reference points

A national figure is a weak target on its own: specialty, location, payer mix and practice age all move what a normal number looks like. Your own year-over-year trend is the stronger benchmark. When we publish national figures from our own data, they appear on the benchmarks page with their sample size.

A monthly benchmarking routine

1. On the same day each month, export collections, adjusted production, A/R aging, new patients and appointment outcomes from practice management.
2. Update the trailing 12-month figures for each metric above.
3. Compare each with the same period last year, and flag anything that moved in the wrong direction for three months in a row.
4. Pick one flagged metric, name an owner and set a target date.
5. Once a year, run the full overhead review and the staffing audit.