Getting the Most Profit out of a Dentist's Schedule

According to Tim Sawyer, president of Crystal Clear Digital Marketing, prioritizing the right procedures in a dental practice is key to being profitable. In order to do that, dentists need to ask themselves what they can competitively offer in their market — whether that’s Botox, Invisalign or sleep treatments. Then, dentists need to fill their schedules with those higher-profit-margin procedures or treatments.

Interview Transcript (slightly modified for readability)

“How should a dentist set up their calendar to drive profit? First of all, they need to have calendar density. I think part of it is understanding the best use of the dentist’s time.

As a dentist, and depending on the type of the dental practice, someone comes in for a teeth cleaning, you’ve got to check their teeth. But in terms of attracting patients and then utilizing scheduling, if a dentist is trying to drive profit in other areas besides checking teeth after a cleaning or doing fillings — the blocking and tackling that needs to happen in a dental practice – the first thing they need to do is say, ‘What can we offer in our marketplace and be competitive in?’ Whether it’s Invisalign or cosmetic dentistry, whatever it is.

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You and I were talking off-camera about sleep treatments, and in some cases, you have dentists now very successfully offering treatments in the face, whether it’s Botox or other fillers. And so, the highest and best use of that dentist’s time is doing those treatments and procedures that offer highest revenue.

That starts first from a defining standpoint of saying, ‘What can we do that we can reasonably compete for in this marketplace?’ And then it’s putting a marketing strategy in place to attract that type of patient to the practice.

From the inside, a practice manager is typically very good at the logistics. In other words, moving people around. The key is, ‘Who do we want to see? What’s going to be the most profitable?’ And then go put processes in place to attract those people to the practice. And then fill that dentist’s calendar with the most profitable procedures. In other words, maximizing the highest and best use of his time.”