Practice Management
Whether the non-compete in your associate contract actually holds up depends almost entirely on which state you're in. The clause itself reads the same everywhere. The enforcement doesn't. The three buckets A few states void non-competes outright for most employees: California, North Dakota, and Oklahoma have
Practice Management
Net Promoter Score is one question: "How likely are you to recommend this practice to a friend, 0 to 10?" Score it by taking the percentage who answer 9 or 10 (promoters) and subtracting the percentage who answer 0 through 6 (detractors). The 7s and 8s don'
Practice Management
A productive dental operatory generates $200,000 to $350,000 in collected revenue per year, averaged across every equipped chair in the practice, hygiene included. Below $150,000 per chair, something specific is broken: scheduling, fees, or write-offs. The math Annual collections divided by equipped operatories. A $1M practice with
Financial Strategy
The benchmark: a well-run practice collects 98% or more of net production. Between 96% and 98% you're leaving real money on the table. Below 96%, you have a systems problem, not a patient problem. Measure against net, not gross Collections divided by gross production is a nearly useless
Practice Management
A sustainable new patient acquisition cost for a general dental practice is $150 to $300. Referral-heavy practices get under $100. Practices buying most of their growth through Google Ads in a crowded metro often pay $400 to $600 per patient, and above $500 the return usually goes negative. How to
Financial Strategy
Most associate buy-ins sell a 20% to 49% stake in the first tranche, with a path to 50/50 or full succession written into the agreement. The structure matters more than the headline percentage. Here's how the pieces usually fit. Valuation basis Two common methods: a percentage of
Financial Strategy
Your insurance aging report is the fastest read on whether your billing is healthy or quietly bleeding. Most PMS systems bucket outstanding claims into 0-30, 31-60, 61-90, and 90+ days. Here's what good looks like in each bucket, and what to do when yours doesn't match.
Practice Management
Most staffing questions in a dental office get argued by feel. Front desk staffing shouldn't be one of them, because the math is simple: it's a ratio of admin capacity to patient flow, and when it's off you can see it in your recall
Practice Management
Patient communication software runs $300 to $600 a month for a single location. Weave and Solutionreach sit at the top of that range, NexHealth and RevenueWell land in the middle, and stripped-down reminder tools can come in under $250. Most vendors add a setup fee of $250 to $1,000
Practice Management
Pearl, Overjet, and Denti.AI all sell the same core promise: the software flags decay, calculus, and bone loss on radiographs, the patient sees the overlay, and case acceptance goes up. Vendors report 15-30% lifts in diagnosed treatment. Here's what the math looks like per operatory, and where
Financial Strategy
Every PPO exit conversation starts with the same fear: "I'll lose 30% of my patients and my collections will crater." Here's what the numbers actually look like when practices drop a plan, and why the collections math is usually better than the fear. Start
Financial Strategy
Ask most practice owners what their PPO reimbursement rate is and you'll get a shrug or a guess. That guess is usually high. If you don't know the real number per plan, you're negotiating blind and probably subsidizing your worst contracts with your best