average size of dental practice

[dente per dente]

what is the average size of a (general) dental practice?

for the purposes of this question we can use #of dentists, and #of chairs.

other freebies may be included, like #of additional staff (other than assistants, i'm assuming it should be one assistant for each room per shift), sq. ft. of office or anything else that would show the "size" of a practice.

the reason i ask is because my only exposure to dentistry is an office with 2 dentists (only 1 at a time), and the more i read stuff on SDN and other sites it seems like this is very much the exception.

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[DrJeff]

My practice is 2 docs (3.5 days per week each)
- 4 hygienists (2 full time, 1 about 75% of full time and 1 50% of full time) - a total of 104 hrs/week of hygiene time
- 3 assistants
- 1 receptionist
- 1 "billing coordinator" - she's also an RDA so sometime she'll put the gloves on and hop in the assistant's chair when needed
- 1 office manager
- 8 operatories
- 2700 sq. ft of floor space
- Just under 6000 active patients (atleast 2 visits - of non emergency nature in the last 2 years)

 

[sarah_bellum]

Thanks, Jeff.

 

[My3kGT]

Jeff; Thanks for the insight.

When you say 3.5 days per week are the other 1.5 days devoted to activities like case planning, talking to equipment and supply salesmen, general office paperwork and business related duties, continuing education and the like, or do you just get to play some golf? In other words, what is your ratio of chair time to administrative time?

 

[charlestweed]

My practice is 2 docs (3.5 days per week each)
- 4 hygienists (2 full time, 1 about 75% of full time and 1 50% of full time) - a total of 104 hrs/week of hygiene time
- 3 assistants
- 1 receptionist
- 1 "billing coordinator" - she's also an RDA so sometime she'll put the gloves on and hop in the assistant's chair when needed
- 1 office manager
- 8 operatories
- 2700 sq. ft of floor space
- Just under 6000 active patients (atleast 2 visits - of non emergency nature in the last 2 years)

Wow, this is a very large busy practice. Most dentists I know have much smaller practices with only 3-4 operatories.

My sister’s GP office has:
-1 doc (Tues-Sat….4-6 hours/day). No hygienist
-1 periodontist (my wife) and 1 orthodontist (me). 4 days/month for perio and 1 day/month for ortho.
-1 receptionist and 1 dental assistant.
-3 operatories (plumbed for 4)
-1200 square foot

 

[DrJeff]

Jeff; Thanks for the insight.

When you say 3.5 days per week are the other 1.5 days devoted to activities like case planning, talking to equipment and supply salesmen, general office paperwork and business related duties, continuing education and the like, or do you just get to play some golf? In other words, what is your ratio of chair time to administrative time?

I do my darnedest, and have been pretty successful, at keep my butt out of the office during those 1.5 days a week, and my partner does so too.

Most of the behind the scenes stuff, we're able to get taken care of either during the work week, at lunchtime, or in the 10 to 30 minutes tops aftre the last patient leaves the chair for the day. Occassionally if some big administrative things are happening (such as proposals for new employee health insurance plans, retirement account changes, large capital purchase presentations from manufacturers reps, etc( we'll use or 1/2 day (Friday for both of us) and get things taken care of Friday afternoon.

 

[DrJeff]

Wow, this is a very large busy practice. Most dentists I know have much smaller practices with only 3-4 operatories.

My sister’s GP office has:
-1 doc (Tues-Sat….4-6 hours/day). No hygienist
-1 periodontist (my wife) and 1 orthodontist (me). 4 days/month for perio and 1 day/month for ortho.
-1 receptionist and 1 dental assistant.
-3 operatories (plumbed for 4)
-1200 square foot

If you double the stats from your sisters office, you can see that proportionally we're pretty close (hygiene excluded).

We're actually in the next 6 or so months likely going to be looking to add probably another 20 or so hours of hygiene per week the way that things are going. If we continue to extrapolate out the numbers for our practice, the addition of a potential 3rd GP and likely a few more operatories is starting to "regularly" pop up on the 5 year or so radar.

 

[Dental916]

what exactly do the hygienists do? Prophys and SRPs?

 

[OffAngleHatchet]

what exactly do the hygienists do? Prophys and SRPs?

If they get their way, everything you can do but YOU get to be held liable for all their screwups!

 

[DrJeff]

If they get their way, everything you can do but YOU get to be held liable for all their screwups!

My crew does the prophies, scalings, sealants, and the occasional radiographic triage of a patient if either me or my partner's regular chairs are filled and their happens to be an available hygiene chair and a hygienist with a cancellation/no show patient.

Having interacted with ALOT of hygienists over the years both as an employer and in dental political situations, the hygienists that I've encountered generally speaking aren't exactly jumping up and down at the chance to pick up the handpiece and cut some teeth and/or pick up the forceps and yank a few. Most of them actually are quite comfortable in their practicing situation where they function with a nice level of pay, a solid amout of professional respect and in many cases(depending on the Doc they work for) a high degree of autonomy. In my practice atleast, my partner and I can't even get our 4 hygienists(all in the late 30's/early 40's) to show any interest in taking the courses to be able to administer local anesthesia.

I strongly feel that the entire concept of an ADHP is nothing that dentists need to fear. Sure there will be some hygenists and/or folks looking to skirt the system and bypass dental school in favor of the ADHP option, but in general, especially of political folks think that an ADHP is the answer to acces to care situations, I sincerely feel that they'll have a rude awakening with the limited numbers of ADHP's start and the expense associated with educating/regulating and then atleast in a public health setting FINANCIALLLY SUBSIDIZING them starts.

 

[shaq3482001]

Hi Dr. Jeff,

Looks like you have a successful and thriving practice. Do you mind sharing how you got your practice to what it is today? I am going to be attending dental school next year, and aside from being a competent dentist, I know that in order to run a successful practice, you must be business savy. Do you have any advice or books you would recommend that would help me better prepare in starting and running a successful practice one day? Thanks!

 

[OceanDMD]

Hi Dr. Jeff,

Looks like you have a successful and thriving practice. Do you mind sharing how you got your practice to what it is today? I am going to be attending dental school next year, and aside from being a competent dentist, I know that in order to run a successful practice, you must be business savy. Do you have any advice or books you would recommend that would help me better prepare in starting and running a successful practice one day? Thanks!

If he told you, he'd have to kill you.😉

 

[Daurang]

Hi Dr. Jeff,

Do you have any advice or books you would recommend that would help me better prepare in starting and running a successful practice one day? Thanks!

Here's a start:

Read "The Millionaire Next Door." Avoid "Rich Dad Poor Dad."

 

[My3kGT]

Dr. Jeff;

This is all good information. I'm curious about your dental hygienists. I assume that if you work a 3.5 day week so do they. I have no idea what the going rate for hygienists is, but do you pay them a flat $X per year, $X per hour, $X per patient or some other compensation formula? Do they work exclusively for you or are they free to earn some extra money elsewhere the "off" 1.5 days?

Go Patriots!