Profitability is crucial for the long-term success of any dental practice, but the path to profitability is often misunderstood by practice owners. So, let’s take a look at the truth behind 3 of the most popular profitability myths.

Myth #1: Cost cutting is the key to surviving economic uncertainty.

While it’s important to be responsible about spending in your office, the truth is that cost cutting in most practices doesn’t yield a big result. When practice owners impulsively reach to trim team benefits or eliminate patient perks, the result is damage to key relationship and therefore poorer practice performance. Counterintuitively, it takes far less effort for most practices to increase productivity and efficiency than it does to even slightly reduce expenses.

Truth: Invest in yourself to grow your profitability in good times and bad.

In lieu of cost cutting, consider expanding your skill set and offering higher dollar procedures to your patients. Identify procedures that are a good fit for you and your team and commit to integrating them into your workflow. One of the easiest to incorporate is clear aligner therapy. With high patient demand and great support from aligner manufacturers, clear aligners offer a tremendous boost to your productivity per hour.    

Myth #2: Go big or go home.

Many practices are upset with the impact of insurance reimbursements on the profitability of the practice, and rightfully so. Shrinking reimbursements are causing financial strain for teams and the problem has been worsening in recent years. Out of frustration, many practice owners consider dropping participation in all plans with a “go big or go home” mindset.

While big moves can sometimes pay off, sudden shifts like this can cause extreme disruption in patient flow. Going out of network may be right for some practices, but it also requires a significant change in marketing strategy, patient retention strategy, and possibly even your long-term practice vision.

Truth: Change, big or small, requires systems to succeed.

At The Team Training Institute, we prefer to make small, strategic changes and ensure that systems are in place to help everything run smoothly. In the case of insurance reimbursements, we would look at a handful of key metrics to determine whether it’s appropriate to drop a given PPO. If so, we’d put systems in place to keep the office profitable through the change.

While dentists are often looking for big, fundamental changes within their practice to save costs and improve profitability, we’ve found that it's not always the massive changes that have the most impact. We like to say, “small hinges swing big doors.” The trick is being able to identify the small things that are right for your practice and doing them well.

Myth #3: Everyone must work harder to build a more profitable business.

We hear a lot of talk right now that dentists are overworked, unhappy, and unprofitable. We hear the same thing from hygienists. Many hygiene providers feel disrespected, underpaid, and undervalued. Simultaneously, it’s becoming more expensive to operate a dental office, creating tension with teams.

It's easy to slip into the thinking that everyone must stretch themselves further to succeed as a practice, but every day we see the opposite. When dentists and hygienists find a better daily rhythm, they are able to achieve record productivity numbers without an added workload.

Truth: A well-planned organizational chart is the key to avoiding burnout.

Clearly defining roles and responsibilities not only reduces stress for the owner-doctor, it reduces burnout and frustration across the team. When everyone understands their role and there’s a clear chain of command, conflicts are resolved more quickly and the office can maintain a sense of harmony.

While it may seem counter-intuitive, increased delegation and greater utilization of the team actually increases job satisfaction. Most team members are eager to grow their skills, advance their careers, and do work that is more meaningful to them. By extending special projects to them and allowing them to flex their creativity and leadership, their passion for their job is reinvigorated.

Doctors can and should delegate more to capable team members. If team members aren’t capable of taking on additional responsibilities right now, be willing to invest in the training to get them there, one new skill at a time.

How to Build a More Profitable Practice

It may seem like cost cutting, sweeping changes in your practice, or putting more hours in will yield you the financial results you’re looking for, but don’t buy into these myths. Better profitability comes from increasing production, narrowing your focus to the right practiced growth strategies, and better utilizing your team.

Want to see how we can help? Schedule a quick 10-minute call with one of our team members and we’ll share our recommendations.

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