Have You Reached Your Saturation Point?

You can't buy more time. Which means that, no matter how diligent, efficient and talented you are as a dental team, if you just keep doing what you're doing, you will eventually become too busy to keep up with the needs of all your patients.

The most instructive example of this reality can be seen in your practice's hygiene production. Let's say that you have two hygienists working eight hours a day, four days a week, 48 weeks a year. Let's break that down into a simple "reality of time" equation.

The Saturation Point Equation:

Total available hygiene hours per year: 3,072

Hygiene time required per patient: 2 hours per year

Limit to practice growth: 1,536 patients

(Of course, some patients may come four times a year for hygiene, but you also have those that come once a year; we are taking two hours as the average.)

In other words, once you reach a patient base of 1,536, you have hit your saturation point. Beyond the saturation point, for every new patient you receive, you are putting greater stress on the schedule. This means patients are getting appointed further and further out, to the point where six-month recalls are turning into seven months or more. That's when patient loyalty starts to weaken and some become tempted to drop out and go somewhere else.

Once you have reached your saturation point, every new – or lost – patient is a daily reminder that your practice's opportunities for growth are being limited. And don't let down time in hygiene fool you. In other words, don't fall for the idea that because your hygiene schedule isn't always fully booked it means that you still have more capacity. Every practice, no matter how busy or successful, has some down time. The real measure of how much room you have to grow is the simple formula outlined above.

So what is the solution to the saturation point problem? I started out by saying that you can't buy more time, but that is not entirely true. By bringing in another doctor as an associate to expand the capacity of the practice and to support the practice's hygiene team and capture the value that is otherwise slipping away, you are, in a way, buying more time. More time for your patients to get the care they need when they need it. More time for your team to see more patients and keep the cycle of care moving forward. More time to accommodate further growth.

Maximizing time is really what business –and life—is all about. Once you realize that, you realize that you shouldn't wait until retirement approaches to think about optimizing your time possibilities in the practice. If you are even close to reaching a saturation point, I urge you to look at your transition possibilities today. It's all about getting the most from the time you have—for you, your team and your patients.


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