Will you do your own hygiene work?

[dds2016]

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Just curious. Do you think it is more cost effective to do your own hygiene work? It might give you more time to build a patient doctor relationship etc.
What are your opinions?

 

[LeoDDS]

No. If you want to clean teeth, save yourself tons of $$ and time and go to hygiene school.

 

[tinman831]

If you're thinking about starting up your own practice and don't have a very large patient base initially, hiring hygienists might not be the wisest investment. Once you have established a larger clientèle', then you can start thinking about focusing your energy on more profitable endeavors.

 

[gryffindor]

What tinman said. If you're not busy, better to do your own hygiene to keep the overhead down. Less staff = less overhead.

 

[li1p0ptart]

Hygienists can make you LOADS of money, once you can afford them.

 

[dentaldentist]

Just curious. Do you think it is more cost effective to do your own hygiene work? It might give you more time to build a patient doctor relationship etc.
What are your opinions?

I plan to have a hygentist or two and will only do hygiene occassionally myself, but I did shadow a dentist a couple of times several years ago that ran a large office (10 operatories between 2 detnists) and they had no hygentists. They had probably about 8 dental assistants that set up and prepped each patient and they would run (literally) between patients. It was a crazy office, but they made a ton of money. They were both super fast and efficient and they said that hygentists cost too much and were too slow. It was hectic and not the kind of practice I want to run, but it was interesting to see. For most of us, I think having a hygentist or two is the way to go, but you can certainly still be successful if you decide to do the hygiene work yourself.

 

[dds2016]

I agree with all of you. I was just curious because hygienists in my area of California make 400 dollars a day. That is a lot of cash.

 

[jackbauer!]

Hygienists can make you LOADS of money, once you can afford them.

Really? Dentists I've spoken with have told me that they really don't make all that much money with hygiene; however, it is necessary to keep patients walking through the door.

jb!🙂

 

[OceanDMD]

I plan to have a hygentist or two and will only do hygiene occassionally myself, but I did shadow a dentist a couple of times several years ago that ran a large office (10 operatories between 2 detnists) and they had no hygentists. They had probably about 8 dental assistants that set up and prepped each patient and they would run (literally) between patients. It was a crazy office, but they made a ton of money. They were both super fast and efficient and they said that hygentists cost too much and were too slow. It was hectic and not the kind of practice I want to run, but it was interesting to see. For most of us, I think having a hygentist or two is the way to go, but you can certainly still be successful if you decide to do the hygiene work yourself.

This sounds like a little scary to me. Regardless of how fast you are, a cleaning, exam, probing, bwx takes time. They are also all procedures (with the exception of radiographs) that must be done by the dentist. Its one thing to load up 4 chairs and jump from room to room, but I would be a little concerned about the quality and how thorough things are done. I can't understand as a patient why you would want/feel comfortable being treated this way.

As far as cleaning, I often do an initial cleaning on my new patients if I can't get them in with hygiene within the month. We are a busy practice, but sometimes these little things help to build relationships with patients. If you think as a dentist that you are too good to clean teeth then your head is already up your arse.

 

[desert rat]

When we first started our dental practice we did our own cleanings because there were a shortage of hugienists. The ones we had in town were premadonas. Now we have too many hygeinists and the work for a much much lower salary and don't have bad attitudes. Whe have three now.

I love having a hygienist because it frees up my time for more productive procedures, and I hate cleaning teeth. Alot of dentists just live in areas where they can't get a hygienist or in a state where they can't do anesthesia or much else.