Quality Over Quantity

The end of the year is upon us, and what a year it has been. Undoubtedly, economic factors made 2024 challenging for all dentists, but as we relax with family and friends during the holiday season, it's a good time to reflect back on what worked and what didn't and consider what we could do to improve our practices in the coming year. That's where Inside Dentistry's annual "Trends in Dentistry" article comes in. Each year, we conduct extensive surveys on many aspects of dental practice and present the data to our readers to help them keep their fingers on the pulse of what others are doing in the profession. As you'll learn in the article, many dentists are reevaluating their strategies for profitability and growth. Popular approaches include acquiring new technology, providing more flexible patient payment options, and increasing patient volume.

I'd like to address this last approach. Increasing patient volume can certainly make a practice more profitable, but it can also burn you out. Many dentists claim that they are already too busy, but the real question is: are you just busy or are you also profitable? I advise dentists to evaluate how they are spending their time during their workdays. If you're only delivering basic care, then no matter how many hours you're working, you're limiting your value. I don't think that dentists should be working 5 days a week. You can get just as much done in 4 days, and you're fresher. Working less time but taking on more complex cases can increase your profitability. As dentists progress in their careers, they should be doing more and more complex dentistry. Immerse yourself in CE and always pursue more than the minimum. Learn to do porcelain veneers, place and restore implants, and perform full-mouth reconstructions. These procedures bring in significantly more revenue for your time spent. Obviously, you need to deliver the care that your patients need, that's part of our obligation as caregivers, but if you're only doing fillings all day every day, you'll never take your practice to the next level.

When you take on more complex dentistry, you aren't increasing your patient volume, you're increasing your volume per patient, and that leads to greater profits without burnout. If you want a more profitable practice, continue to invest in your education-it's money well spent!

Robert C. Margeas, DDS
Editor-in-Chief, Inside Dentistry
Private Practice, Des Moines, Iowa
Adjunct Professor • Department of Operative Dentistry
University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa
robert.margeas@conexiant.com