-
CycleTrack and SDN are teaming up to make medical school admissions more transparent and accessible! Read the announcement to learn how we’re supporting the future of CycleTrack’s free application-tracking tools .
Over head of your practice
Started by PFM
Get help with your application
Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.
The average overhead for a gp practice is around 60%, but I have seen practices with overheads of 42% and even a practice with an 82% overhead.
With specialties, it depends on the specialty. I do believe that endo has a very, very low overhead (why they make so much money with less patients) and I believe Ortho would be towards the high end of overhead percentages. Perio and prosths would be in the middle. I would also guess that pedo would be towards the top of high overheads (again, like ortho, due to the high # of patients seen everyday by the docs).
With specialties, it depends on the specialty. I do believe that endo has a very, very low overhead (why they make so much money with less patients) and I believe Ortho would be towards the high end of overhead percentages. Perio and prosths would be in the middle. I would also guess that pedo would be towards the top of high overheads (again, like ortho, due to the high # of patients seen everyday by the docs).
H
HermeytheElf
Most practice management companies preach that you(the general dentist) should be shooting for a net of 40% of your gross. Since this is an ideal, assume that the average is going to be less than that...so yeah, overhead is alot. Thankfully, gross is alot too...Dental Economics says that the average(50th percentile) dentist in a large town brought home $232,000 last year.
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Average overhead for general practice probably varies by region. I'd say that 70% is a common number (60% is ideal) for overhead. However, many many GPs have a higher overhead, such as 80% (or even higher!).
Overhead absolutely varies by specialty. Endo has low overhead because there are very few employees. Ortho has a ton of employees and therefore a high overhead. Employee salaries typically take the biggest chunk of gross practice income.
Overhead absolutely varies by specialty. Endo has low overhead because there are very few employees. Ortho has a ton of employees and therefore a high overhead. Employee salaries typically take the biggest chunk of gross practice income.
Just curious, Hermey, do you have a source for this number? I have looked, but all I can find are numbers around $180,000. It would be useful to have for when people go on and on about how the average dentist makes $120,000 a year.
I think that (probably due to the fact that we never learn how to properly run a business) there is a ton of waste (usually due to bad employees, buying too many unneccessary, expensive toys, and too many materials for procedures hardly ever done or never performed by the doctors but you will save 5%!).
H
HermeytheElf
Dental Economics, December 2006. It's part of their 2006 Practice Survey...pretty interesting numbers on fees, procedure mix, collections...it's even broken down by percentiles and size of the city where the practice is located.
Thanks a ton. My new mission is to find this "dental economics" and have a good sit down and read.
H
HermeytheElf
http://de.pennnet.com/
You probably need to register to view the online version of the magazine, but I think registration is free.
Can overhead ever be too low?!
Only if you aren't generating any revenue. If you're office is generating 100k a year, then it's too low. If you are generating 500k and have that overhead, then congrats!
Don't believe everything you read, especially in DE. Come on smart guys, you should know this already. The DE surveys are only of dentists who read DE and bother to answer the survey. Very small amount of practicing dentists in the country. Most(like me) would not answer this survey(too busy) or give accurate info (no ones business).
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
H
HermeytheElf
Nonresponse is a problem with any survey, it's not limited to surveys done by DE. Surveys, like any other statistical tool, inherently carry some bias but that doesn't mean we should completely ignore the results...they just need to be taken with a grain of salt. This one was meant to give a general idea of what the trends in salaries among dentists practicing in different sized localities...which it did.
And what's with the shot at DE? They consistently publish good articles by respected practitioners and practice management consultants.
