Recently, Dental Economics Magazine published its practice
survey. Circore consultants have seen clients hold this survey
up as the gold standard by many of our clients and other dentists
that we meet with. This is the survey that many dentists will
use to compare their practice against.
While the survey is a good starting point to evaluating your
practice it is important to remember that this is a national survey
whose results may not relate well to Wisconsin and the Midwest.
Surveys must rely on the complete honesty of the respondents and
do not always reflect the entire field of dentistry. According
to CircoreÍs Michael Bark, ñI feel that this survey misses some
key statistics that can be used to monitor your practice."
Mike says, ñwhat I found interesting about the survey is some
of the statistics simply do not relate to my experience in Wisconsin.
For example, the survey states that the dentists who produce the
most dentistry and make the most money are located in larger cities.
From what I have seen in my 10 years of helping dental practices
is that doctors located in suburban areas and even rural areas
tend to produce more dentistry and make more money."
Marketing staff at Circore agree. Denise Cawley says that practices
in small towns have less competition and are better able to draw
on small town loyalty. Dentists in smaller towns are often able
to take advantage of less expensive marketing opportunities for
exposure. Dental offices in larger cities need to define themselves
as different from their neighbor to create loyalty. For those
in the cities, more focus on what makes a practice, or individual
dentist unique is of greater importance. Likewise, how a practice
with one dentist markets itself should be very different than
how a multiple practitioner office presents its image.
So what should a dentist do if they want to monitor their practice?
The first place to look is your accountant. If they work with
several dentists the hope would be that they have compiled some
useful statistics that relate to dentists in your area. While
the sample size might not be as large as your area these statistics
benefit from being local and very accurate. In other words, they
may relate better to your practice than a national survey would.
If you work with a firm where a marketing expert and an accountant
work together, all the better. You can tap several experts to
compare your practice to those in your area. They can help you
compare your overall plan to your revenue and results. It is also
important to look at some other statistics such as:
Revenue Per Operatory: This is a great way to assess
if your practice is at or near capacity. According to Michael
Bark, ña well-run practice can produce $250,000 to $300,000 of
dentistry per op. ñ
Total Overhead Percent: Many dentists get caught up in
specific elements of overhead rather than looking at the entire
picture. While most dentists will have similar expenses itÍs fair
to say that no two offices run their offices exactly the same
way. Bark states, ñI prefer to make sure that the total overhead
is in line. If the owner dentist is earning 45% of their collections
they are doing a great job of controlling their overhead."
For more information feel free to call Michael
Bark at Circore Management Services, LLC. We will be posting
our 2006 dental statistics in April.
