The Practice Numbers That Matter, and the Ones Someone Made Up

For US dental practice owners about to cut a cost, hire a provider, or sign for space, and for associates about to buy in.

Your overhead percentage is a fraction with 2 sides, and each side has the opposite fix. Until you know which side moved, cutting anything is a guess.

About this Guide

Chairlink Answers · Team and Leadership · Field Guide

Most owners read their practice backwards.

This guide shows you which side of a ratio moved, which figures were made up, and how to put a dollar figure on the gap before you act. Start with the source test, the number table, and the checklist on this page. Then download the full guide for all 21 numbers, the 6 areas, and 4 practices built to be genuinely unclear.

The 4 moves

Move What it means

1. Order Put your money in the order it moves, and see which of 6 areas is the real limit

2. Work up Run a 4 question differential on every metric, the way you would work up a symptom before picking up a handpiece

3. Check Tell a bad number from a number measured wrong

4. Price Turn a percentage into dollars, and label whether those dollars are real, before you spend attention on them

How to use it

Run the source test on any benchmark you use today.
Find your numbers in the table on this page, and see which ones have a real benchmark.
For the ones with no benchmark, write down your definition, and track your practice against itself.
Go through the checklist before you cut a cost, hire a provider, or sign for space.

Never cut a cost until you know which side of the ratio moved. Until then, cutting anything is a guess. This guide is education, not financial, tax, or legal advice.

Every figure in the full guide carries its publisher, data year, and denominator, and where no credible benchmark exists, the guide says so instead of supplying one.

Written and reviewed by the Chairlink Answers editorial team.

Try this on your next report

The source test: Before you compare yourself to anything, ask: Who measured it? On what group of practices? In what year? With what denominator?

A source that cannot answer all 4 gave you decoration, not a benchmark. Ask it of everything in this guide too.

Don't read from the bottom up

Here is the path most owners take:

Take home feels thin.
They jump to cost.
They decide overhead is too high.
They never look at capacity.

That path feels logical. It leads to cutting a team that was not the problem.

4 habits to change this week

Instead of Try this

Saying overhead is too high Ask which side moved. Overhead rises when costs go up and when collections fall, and the 2 have opposite fixes.

Reacting to a bad number Ask if the number is bad, or just measured wrong

Quoting a percentage Turn it into dollars, then label whether those dollars are real

Comparing a no benchmark number to the industry Compare your practice against itself over time, on a definition you wrote down

The numbers worth watching

Not every number you get measured on has a real benchmark behind it. This table says which do, so you know when to compare yourself to the industry and when to compare yourself only to your own history.

Number How to get it Is there a real benchmark?

Adjusted collection rate Collections ÷ adjusted production, rolling 12 months Yes, measured. Only valid against net production

Total operating overhead Operating expense ÷ collections Yes, measured, but it leaves out your own pay, your associate and your loan

Team pay Staff wages ÷ collections Yes, measured. Check whether taxes and benefits are in

Hygiene reappointment Rebooked hygiene visits ÷ total hygiene visits Yes, measured

Net patient growth New + reactivated minus lost, against your active base Yes, measured

Case acceptance Dollars accepted ÷ dollars presented Measured average sits well below the targets you will hear quoted

Ownership profit Collections minus operating expense, associate pay, and what a replacement dentist would cost No. Most owners have never calculated it

True cash break even Operating cash + loan principal + interest + the draw you cannot skip + tax set aside No. Always higher than your P&L says

AR over 90 days Balances 90+ days ÷ total AR No. Every rule you have heard traces back to nothing

Schedule utilization Booked hours ÷ available hours No. Any figure quoted for it was invented

4 of these 10 have no real benchmark. That is not a gap in the research. It is the state of the evidence in dentistry.

Figures to stop repeating

We checked the benchmarks. These don't hold up:

The most quoted overhead figure in dentistry does not come from ADA research.
Claim denial rates, AR aging rules, cost per new patient, and the hygiene wage multiple all trace back to nothing.

Not on this list? Run the source test anyway.

Before you act on a number

Do you know which side of the ratio moved?
Is the number bad, or measured wrong?
Is your collection rate measured against net production?
Does your team pay figure say whether taxes and benefits are in?
Do you know what your overhead leaves out: your own pay, your associate, and your loan?
Have you put a dollar figure on the gap, and labeled whether those dollars are real?

What the full guide adds

All 21 numbers, and the work that goes with them.

21 numbers with what is actually behind each reference
The 6 areas and what each one limits
4 practices built to be genuinely unclear
22 common mistakes
Questions for your CPA, team, and lender, plus a 1 page review
4 arguments and the fact that settles each

Download the Full Guide