Dental Practice Finance Blog | DSO CFO
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From the Blog

What we're reading in dental P&Ls

Real numbers from real practices, with the healthy range for each line. Every post translates a percentage into the dollars it costs you.

Start Here · Case Study

Same $2M collections, a $320,000 difference in take-home

Two general practices, similar markets, similar teams, nearly identical collections. One owner kept $700,000 last year. The other kept $380,000. The gap lives in five ordinary overhead lines nobody was reading, and each one has a healthy range you can check against your own P&L this week.

Read the full breakdown
$320K
Gap in owner take-home between the two practices
5 lines
Supplies, hygiene payroll, front office, rent, collections rate
15 min
The monthly reading habit that explains the difference
Overhead · Supplies

7.4% on supplies sounds close to 6%. In dollars it isn't.

A 1.4 point gap is $28,000 a year on a $2M practice and $140,000 across five. Four reasons a practice runs high, and only three of them are problems.

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Overhead · Hygiene

13% of collections on hygiene wages: is that too high?

Two practices can post the identical wage percentage and have opposite problems. The six numbers that tell you which one you are.

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Overhead · Margin

62% overhead is average. 55% changes the economics.

Seven percentage points is $140,000 a year at $2M in collections. Why the goal is productive overhead, not the lowest overhead.

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Your Numbers

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