Dental Business RX

Reviewing your fee schedule each year has always been a good idea, but this year it's mandatory. With the rising costs of doing business and soaring inflation, you need to raise your fees in order to stay profitable. So, in this episode, Jeff covers the various factors to consider and how to go about raising your fees.   1:59 – When you would typically raise your fees, and why things have changed...

With the rising costs of doing business, it's going to be more important than ever to keep a sharp eye on profitability in the coming years. So in this week's episode, Sabri Blumberg joins Jeff to discuss recent trends in the economic landscape of dentistry and ways to improve profitability going forward.   2:00 – Shifting the focus from total collections to the profit margin 12:35 – Assessing you...

Adding a second (or third or fourth or fifth) practice can be a fantastic opportunity to expand…or it can be a complete nightmare. So, don't end up doubling your stress and overhead with no profit to show for it. Follow these tips from Jeff on how to do it the right way.   1:57 – Are you really ready to add another practice? 6:10 – Time and distance matters with your new location 12:27 – Associate...

Dentistry is a competitive business and marketing is a must, but where do you start? What types of marketing are actually getting results nowadays? In this episode, MGE's Marketing Director Adam Mortimer joins Jeff to discuss the top five ways to market your dental practice.   1:31 – Why you don't want to rely on just one source of new patients 5:56 – How a good word-of-mouth referral campaign dra...

So a patient of yours hasn't been in for a few years and isn't answering your front desk's calls—what should you do? Should you "deactivate" or "purge" their chart? And for that matter, what should you do about the thousands of inactive charts you may have sitting in your practice? Most dentists approach this wrong and it costs them a ton of potential production. So in this episode, Jeff discusses...

When you get busy with patients, it's hard to make time for keeping up with the "business side" of dentistry. So in this episode, Jeff covers how to quickly and effectively handle the important management matters each week and ensure your practice stays on track toward achieving your goals.   1:06 – Why it's important to hold a weekly meeting with your OM 5:44 – The practice statistics you should...

What do you do if your new patient numbers fall off or if you're paying for marketing that isn't getting results? That's what Jeff discusses in this week's episode. Why you're marketing isn't working and how to fix it!   2:22 – Dealing with cancellations 6:56 – Scheduling new patients 15:30 – Determining what's wrong with your marketing 24:45 – Keeping your marketing fresh   The MGE New Patient Wo...

In the dental industry at large, the term "Office Manager" can have a lot of meanings, ranging from a vague "front office person" to a true executive or Chief Operating Officer. So in this episode, Jeff Blumberg discusses the proper role of an Office Manager in a well-organized office and why every practice, no matter how large or small, needs a competent OM.     :55 – Why you absolutely need an O...

Should your staff be aware of your practice's numbers in terms of collections, production, etc? Or should you keep them in the dark? In this episode, Jeff Blumberg discusses which numbers you should share with your team and which you shouldn't, as well as how to keep your team motivated and focused on what really matters: patient care.   :36 – What are the benefits of sharing the "numbers" with yo...

It's been difficult to find good staff lately, and the hygienist position is probably the toughest to fill. This has left a lot of dentists "hygienist-less" recently. Why is this? And what can you do about it? That's what Jeff discusses in this week's episode.   :49 – Why the owner doctor doing their own hygiene is a bad solution 2:46 – The stats: why it's so difficult to find a hygienist currentl...

Special guest Jeff Santone is back to wrap up the six key metrics for assessing the health of your dental practice. In this episode, they focus on your measuring performance at acquiring and retaining patients.   0:44 – What is "call conversion rate" and how do you measure it? 16:52 – How many patients are you losing? Measuring your attrition rate   Download the New Patient Call Log -  https://www...

Special guest Jeff Santone comes on this week to discuss six important metrics for assessing the health of your dental practice and discovering areas where you can improve. In part one, we focus on case acceptance and how much potential production you may be leaving on the table.   0:11 – The 6 metrics you should focus on 2:55 – The best way to measure your case acceptance 6:10 – Value of treatmen...

Curious how you measure up in terms of daily production? Want to know if you have room for improvement? This week we bring on special guest Chris Menkhaus, Senior Consultant at MGE, to discuss how much a general dentist should produce daily and ways to maximize your personal production.   1:27 – How much should a GP produce with bread-and-butter dentistry? 3:30 – What if you're doing high-dollar s...

Do you feel like your payroll is too high? Well, let's get into the numbers and actually calculate it. It is typically the largest expense category in your overhead—especially in this era of high inflation and rising personnel costs—so keeping it under control is vital for profitability. In addition to the numbers, Jeff will also cover the reasons WHY your payroll has gotten too high and how to fi...

Search engine optimization may not be the most exciting topic to discuss, but it's crucially important for any dental practice looking to add more new patients. So we bring on special guest and expert marketer, Dan Brown, to discuss things you can do yourself to improve SEO immediately, as well as what to look out for when hiring an external SEO company.   1:18 – The problem with paid ads nowadays...

We all tend to focus on new patients, new patients, new patients, but how many existing patients are you losing out the back door? It's probably more than you realize. So in this episode, we get into patient retention, recall, and how to calculate the potential of your hygiene department.   0:13 – The cost of new patient acquisition vs patient retention 7:27 – The Hygiene Formula: Assessing the he...

Bringing on an associate can be a great thing for practice growth. But it can also become a disaster if you haven't structured it properly. So, in this episode, Jeff Blumberg dives into the most common associate models and some guidelines for structuring the compensation plans for each.   1:51 – Three common models for utilizing an associate 3:31 – The Traditional Associate Model 5:20 – The Produc...

Marketing trends are always changing, so we're going to help you stay up-to-date. Hear from special guest and dental marketing expert, Dan Brown, on the latest trends and what you should be focusing on in the new year to bring practice growth.   2:37 – Focusing on what works 3:45 – Prices are going WAY up for Google and Facebook ads 6:43 – Ways to get the most out of your online ads 13:23 – Intern...

Inflation is the highest it's been in a long time, and this is starting to have very real effects on the cost of doing business for dental practices. So in this episode, we look at the numbers and discuss what you can do to ensure you stay profitable and secure the future of your practice financially.   1:01 – The current inflation numbers 3:20 – How this impacts your practice's overhead 8:58 – Wa...

It sure sounds nice to have a completely fee-for-service practice: you could receive your full fee for every procedure, make more profit, have a less hectic schedule… But is it really possible to drop insurance plans? Won't you lose your patients and your production? Well, you may be surprised by how the numbers shake out.   1:38 – Why more and more dentists are starting to ask, "Do I really need...

Don't just wait by the phone or blindly hand out referral cards and hope you'll get some patients coming in. There are three proactive things you can do to be in control of the number of word-of-mouth referrals you see.   1:59 – Patient acquisition costs: how much are you spending per new patient? 5:11 – Gaining control over the number of word-of-mouth referrals you receive 9:55 – The stats: How m...

A "Treatment Coordinator" is a common position in dental practices nowadays, but what is the job description? What should they be doing every day? And how can they help the practice increase collections and improve patient care?   Topics: How/when did Treatment Coordinators become a "thing" – 1:10 The job description – 4:52 The word "sales" in dentistry – 7:04 The "hand off" from the doctor to Tre...

With the dust (hopefully) settling soon from the pandemic, we take a look at the future of private practice from an economic perspective. There are some key trends that every dentist should be aware of. We'll look at the supply of dentists and population (1:43), economic effects from the pandemic (7:39), and some interesting opportunities for savvy private practice dentists (14:20). Free consultat...

Why are dental office receptionists so undervalued and under-trained? And why don't most dentists realize this oversight is costing them majorly in terms of potential patients and income? In this episode, we discuss the role of the receptionist, bringing on special guest Jeff Santone to share some staggering statistics and horror stories from placing mystery calls to dental offices (2:36), and the...

We don't need to tell you that the job market is strange right now. In fact, it's unprecedented. And unless you're very lucky, you've probably experienced it in your dental office whether it's in terms of staff leaving, never coming back after the pandemic lockdowns, inflation and rising wages, or having difficulty hiring. So in this episode, we wrap our minds around these odd market dynamics with...