Financial Strategy
Your write-off percentage is the share of your fee schedule you give away to stay in network. Most PPO-heavy practices run 20-35%. Past 40%, you're working Fridays for the insurance company. How to calculate it Pull gross production at your full fee schedule and total contractual adjustments for
Practice Management
Most dental practice sales in 2026 are bank-funded. Practice lenders will finance 100% of a healthy practice's purchase price, which is why full seller financing is rare. Where seller financing actually shows up is as a partial note: the seller carries 10% to 30% of the price, and
Practice Management
Buying a dental practice is probably the largest check you'll ever write. Most deals in 2026 are closing between $500K and $1.2M for a solo GP office, and the difference between a good buy and a five-year headache usually comes down to what you verify in the
Practice Management
The headline number a DSO quotes you is not what shows up at closing. A typical deal pays 60 to 80 percent in cash at close, with the remaining 20 to 40 percent split between an earnout and rollover equity. The earnout is the part most sellers understand least, and
Practice Management
Most dentists get their first DSO letter around year 10 of ownership. The right answer isn't yes or no. It's a checklist, because the same offer that's smart at 58 with no associate is a mistake at 45 with a growing practice. Here'
Practice Management
The benchmark: healthy practices convert 60% to 75% of new patient exams into accepted treatment plans, and get 45% to 55% of diagnosed dollars actually scheduled and completed. If you're measuring by case acceptance rate alone and seeing 85%+, you're probably only counting prophys and small
Practice Management
The benchmark for an adult prophylaxis appointment is 45 to 60 minutes of chair time. Well-run practices land near 50 minutes including radiographs and the doctor exam. Pediatric prophies run shorter, usually 30 to 40 minutes. If your hygiene appointments routinely run 70 minutes or more, you're leaving
Practice Management
A productive hygienist generates $1,200-1,800 per day in production in 2026. Below $900 a day, something is broken: the schedule, the fee schedule, or the procedure mix. Above $1,800 usually means a strong perio program or assisted hygiene, not heroics. Quick sanity check: hygiene should produce roughly
Dental Practice Management
AI receptionists handle 80% of routine calls (appointments, insurance, hours) automatically. That frees your front desk for higher-value work. $14K-$39K in annual savings per FTE, plus better patient experience.
Practice Management
Most general dentists see 8-15 patients a day, and the sweet spot for a solo GP with one hygienist sits around 10-12. But the raw count is the wrong thing to optimize. A day with 8 patients and two crowns beats a day with 16 exams that produce $1,900.
Practice Management
Average dental practice turnover runs 25-30% a year. Front desk and dental assistants churn fastest, hygienists a bit slower. Getting below 20% isn't about ping pong tables. It's about fixing the three things that actually make people quit. Here's the math that should scare
Practice Management
The benchmark is 1.5 to 2 assistants per dentist. A solo doc running two columns needs two assistants. Below 1:1, you're leaving production on the table every single day. Here's why the ratio matters more than most staffing numbers. Your assistant is the only