# patients per day

[DrTacoElf]

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Hey dentists was wondering how many patients you would see in an ideal day in order to be profitable yet maintain high standards.

How many crowns/endo/fillings

Here is what i was thinking
8am-5pm
Morning - 1 endo, 2 crowns, 1 filling
Afternoon - 2 filings, 1 crown, 2 something else (emergency?)

How long should 1 filling take?
How long should 1 crown take?
What about a root canal?

Thanks!

 

[Dr.SpongeBobDDS]

Dr.TacoElf, (great name by the way) Have you not shadowed a dentist? That might raise a few eyebrows come interview time. Just a thought. 🙂

 

[no2thdk999]

Hey dentists was wondering how many patients you would see in an ideal day in order to be profitable yet maintain high standards.

How many crowns/endo/fillings

Here is what i was thinking
8am-5pm
Morning - 1 endo, 2 crowns, 1 filling
Afternoon - 2 filings, 1 crown, 2 something else (emergency?)

How long should 1 filling take?
How long should 1 crown take?
What about a root canal?

Thanks!

DTE

The ideal day you see 2 patients.

AM -- Prep #3-14 & 19-30 for veneers
PM -- Deliver the above for the patient you prepped two weeks ago
5PM cash check for $28,000, take wife out for Big Mac and supersize fries.

A filling can take anywhere from 5 minutes for the post endo access fill to 2.5 hours for the nervous gagger with a mouth the size of a dime that you can't get numb who needs a deep MOD on # 17. I usually allow 30 minutes for the first surface and 15 for each additional surface or tooth.

I allow 90 minutes for a crown or two and usually finish early, but don't like to feel rushed.

A root canal I schedule 90 minutes and usually finish early.( but I don't do molars)

JMHO
Rob

 

[c132]

HELL NO_____ NO MOLARS gonna be done in my office either, IF I EVER get out of school.

My school is retarted about pts. SOme teachers will only let me schd. 1 pt. per morning, then 1 in the afternoon. I hate this cause I can usually do a couple of fillings in 45 minutes or so and then they will NOT let you leave, but make you shadow some other joe.

I HATE PERIO!

 

[DrJeff]

Dr.TacoElf, (great name by the way) Have you not shadowed a dentist? That might raise a few eyebrows come interview time. Just a thought. 🙂

Okay, here was my day today:

8-9 Emergency patient, broken ML cusp #14 did the crown prep, impression and temp + 2 hygiene checks in that hour

9-10 Chairside hard reline of a maxillary complete denture/ mandibular RPD and concurrent scaling of the patient's remaining 8 teeth + 1 hygiene check

10-10:30 Recement permant crown #18

10:30 -11 #A MO amalgam, open + seal #'s 3,30 + 1 hygiene check

11-12 Endo + core build up #5

12-1 #30, #31 B composites + 1 hygiene check + fill out charts from the AM

1-2 Lunch with my partner and another GP in my town

2-4 Emergency "reconstruction" including removal of loose bridge #4-7, endo's #'s 4 and 7, post placement and recementing the bridge with build up material (patient informed that we're likely making a new bridge in the near future, but this way she can goto her daughter's wedding this weekend + 4 hygiene checks

4-5 Root tip extraction #13 with subsequent flap rotation to close the sinus perforation 😱 😡

5-5:15 fill out afternoon charts, look at tommorrow's schedule

That's about an "average " day, somedays I'll see more patients (i.e. more 30 to 45 minute "filling" visits), somedays less (i.e. 90-120 minute endo/crown + bridge visits). Each full day will typically have abour 10 hygiene checks to fit in throughout the day too. Today I never really felt pressed for time, just a nice comfortable day with enough time to also fit in reading the paper in the AM, and flipping through the mail i the afternoon, as well as talking with the contractors that are going to be starting the addition to my office in the next few weeks. 😀

 

[dentaltom]

Dr. Jeff

On a scale of 1 to 10. Can you rate how much you love being a dentist?

 

[DrJeff]

Dr. Jeff

On a scale of 1 to 10. Can you rate how much you love being a dentist?

Today was about a 9.5 , if it had been a day with a bunch of "behaviorally challenged" pedo patients, intermixed amongst some PITA's then I might say it was a 4 😱

Overall, day in and day out, I wouldn't trade jobs with anyone (okay maybe Tiger Woods 😀 )

 

[Dr.BadVibes]

Today was about a 9.5 , if it had been a day with a bunch of "behaviorally challenged" pedo patients, intermixed amongst some PITA's then I might say it was a 4 😱

Overall, day in and day out, I wouldn't trade jobs with anyone (okay maybe Tiger Woods 😀 )

How bout Hugh Hefner? Would you trade jobs with him?

 

[DrJeff]

How bout Hugh Hefner? Would you trade job with him?

Let's see, Tiger, age 25, Fiancee Elin Nordegrin, worth about a gazillion dollars and just about to take delivery of a 170 foot or so yacht (lots of time left to "play")

Hugh, age early 70's, the Playboy empire, woth about half a gazillion dollars, likely Viagra user 😉 , a really cool house in LA. (not as much time left to "play")

Advantage Tiger. I'd guess that I'd also consider trading jobs with Tom Brady too, but Tiger still has the advantage in my book

 

[Dr.BadVibes]

Let's see, Tiger, age 25, Fiancee Elin Nordegrin, worth about a gazillion dollars and just about to take delivery of a 170 foot or so yacht (lots of time left to "play")

Hugh, age early 70's, the Playboy empire, woth about half a gazillion dollars, likely Viagra user 😉 , a really cool house in LA. (not as much time left to "play")

Advantage Tiger. I'd guess that I'd also consider trading jobs with Tom Brady too, but Tiger still has the advantage in my book

I didnt mean to trade bodies....I meant to trade jobs...

 

[DrJeff]

I didnt mean to trade bodies....I meant to trade jobs...

I still think that I'd take Tiger's "job" or Tom Brady's "job" over Hugh's, but then again I love to be moving non stop at full throttle all day 😉

 

[DrRob]

This my day from someone who did not by a practice - or buy into a practice - just walked into an office and started from scratch 14 months ago.

px 1. Recall Exam / 2 units of scaling
px 2. mobl composite # 19
Px 3. O composite 18
px 4. OL composite 2, OB composite 31
Lunch
px 5 MO composite 14
Px 6 dobl composite S and T
px 7 mobl composite 31
px 8 check healing/alveoloplasty
px 9 emergency examination - will see her tommorrow for exo's

I do not have any hygienists yet as I am still trying to build a reliable px base

 

[DrTacoElf]

Dr.TacoElf, (great name by the way) Have you not shadowed a dentist? That might raise a few eyebrows come interview time. Just a thought. 🙂

I certainly have but only for 30hrs (and it wasn't full 8 hour days at a time) so far, i'm trying to setup more shadowing.

 

[DrTacoElf]

Jackpot 😀

just called like 10 dentists and i'm shadowing one for like 8 hours scheduled so far. This will be 2 general dentistry FFS practices so far. I want to shadow endo next and then medicaid/HMO general.

 

[Dr.SpongeBobDDS]

I certainly have but only for 30hrs (and it wasn't full 8 hour days at a time) so far, i'm trying to setup more shadowing.

Totally understandable. BTW, I wouldn't knock myself out shadowing either if you don't have the time or once you feel you don't need it anymore. At this point there is only so much you can learn from the experience. 🙂

 

[Dr.SpongeBobDDS]

Drs. Rob, Jeff and No2thDK, are you all just starting out your practices? Would you like to be busier or are you comfortable with the pace of your practice? I ask because both of the dentists I shadowed easily saw ~15-20+ pts/day, not including those who were just in for a prophy. They weren't mills by any stretch of the imagination, but it seems they were quite a bit busier than you all. I had just assumed that most established practices would see that many pts/day. Is 15-20 pts/day outside the realm of the ordinary?

 

[DrRob]

I am just starting from scratch - I was not given any patients. I just walked in one day and started seeing people from city on - call emergencies and started building a practice.

I would like to be busier - I would like to have a hygienist soon - but I am doing ok.

 

[toothcaries]

I am just starting from scratch - I was not given any patients. I just walked in one day and started seeing people from city on - call emergencies and started building a practice.

I would like to be busier - I would like to have a hygienist soon - but I am doing ok.

how large of a staff did u start off with?
how many ops do u operate out of...?


it takes big cajones to open a stratch office...

i planned to build from stratch..
...yet the closer and closer i get..i start noticing that mine may not be big enough.

keep us updated.

 

[DrRob]

Ok - Here's the full story - I met a dentist who wanted to start a clinic in our city - that would have multiple dentists working with a cost sharing relationship. When I finished school this clinic wasn't built yet - so I started working in his old small office alone - with no staff and no investment. I hired an assistant after 5 months of working alone.

Since then the new office is built and we have moved. Now we just need to find other dentists and get the cost sharing agreement set up as of now I just take a percentage of collection, much like an associate; however, I am not an associate because I pay my own assistant and I do not see his px, unless there is an emerg and he is not there.

I'm not sure that this was the most financially rewarding start to my career, but I can see potential and he is a great mentor; so right now its worth it.

However, HOLT dental set up my friend in milwaukee and he is doing very good after only 8 months.

 

[DrJeff]

Drs. Rob, Jeff and No2thDK, are you all just starting out your practices? Would you like to be busier or are you comfortable with the pace of your practice? I ask because both of the dentists I shadowed easily saw ~15-20+ pts/day, not including those who were just in for a prophy. They weren't mills by any stretch of the imagination, but it seems they were quite a bit busier than you all. I had just assumed that most established practices would see that many pts/day. Is 15-20 pts/day outside the realm of the ordinary?

I'm 7 years out of school, and 3 years into my practice (joined my partner whose been in practice for 13 years). This is the second practice for me, the other was 2 years, and then I did a 2 year GPR. I've done the whole 15 to 20 patients per day thing, and frankly it wasn't what I wanted to do. I like the 10 to 15 volume, simply because it gives me the time to talk with my patients, and do things like I want to, while keeping my sanity. That being said, I'll still typically have one day a week that gets scheduled as my "crazy day" where I'm running 2 rooms fully booked all day, but I'm thinking of phasing that out and keeping with my current preferred schedule of 1 room fully booked and my emergency room about 25% booked.

If you've got the rooms, the patients, and desire, go crazy and see 20+ people a day. I just know, that I'm in a much better mood(and my wife will vouch for this) when I get home in the evening when I've seen 10 to 15 a day.

 

[no2thdk999]

Would you like to be busier or are you comfortable with the pace of your practice? I ask because both of the dentists I shadowed easily saw ~15-20+ pts/day, not including those who were just in for a prophy. They weren't mills by any stretch of the imagination, but it seems they were quite a bit busier than you all. I had just assumed that most established practices would see that many pts/day. Is 15-20 pts/day outside the realm of the ordinary?

It has never been my goal to be busier. I would like to be more productive. If you can diagnose, treatment plan, and educate the patient to accept more comprehensive dentistry you can be productive but not busy. If that makes any sense.

That being said there is an hour next Monday where I have SEVEN people on my schedule and FOUR hygiene checks.

JMHO
Rob

 

[DrJeff]

That being said there is an hour next Monday where I have SEVEN people on my schedule and FOUR hygiene checks.

JMHO
Rob

Did you do that to yourself, or did your front desk person do what mine does from time to time?? 😉 😀

Here's how that discussion with my front desk would go about that situation:

Me: "Ummm, B (both of my front desk ladies have names that begin with b), what are you trying to do to me here/ (pointing to the schedule)

B: "But Doctor J, your only doing 4 amalgams on Mrs. Smith, an endo on #2 on Mr. Jones, Cementing the 8 veneers on Mrs. X, and Mrs. Y's 14 unit bridge is loose and she has a wedding that starts 10 minutes after her scheduled appoinment time, and then the last one is little Johnny Devilchild who your just doing 2 pulptomies and stainless steel crowns, I figured I squeeze him in there since your finger has finally healed up from where he bit it off last week when he was in. Then those 4 hygeine checks, those are simple, afterall you barely even sit doen to look at them. Plus, Dr. J, you're the greatest dentist ever and you can do it! 😀 "

Me: "Okay B, I guess you're right" 🙄

LOL!