Put yourself in the shoes of a dental consultant. What would you look for in a practice whose production and collections were going down each month? How could each person in the office be the cause of a failing dental practice?

Perhaps the front office people are being rude or not answering the phone in a reasonable length of time. Perhaps the scheduling is not being done correctly. Look at each position in the office and try to come up with ways that could be contributing to the downward spiral that the dental practice is in.

Now take a look at your own production and collections. Compare it from month to month. Put it on a graph and really take a good look at it. Is it going up, staying the same or going down?

The first thing you need to realize is that production is caused. If that graph is going up or going down, it is because you are causing it to happen.

It’s not the time of the year; it’s not that the economy is bad or good; it’s not just plain dumb luck. It is not an accident.

If you have three hygienists and two of them get patients to do soft tissue management and the third one doesn't, don't just sum it up that “two are good and one is bad.” Go tell that third hygienist to present soft tissue management to you as if you were a patient and you'll find out what it is she is doing that isn't successful. And this will demonstrate to you that the production of the “good” hygienist is caused by the specific actions that they are doing.

Apply this same idea to all areas of your office and the result will be increased production, collections and profitability. And that will be no accident.

Kevin Tighe, Cambridge Dental Consultants, Senior Consultant, got bitten hard by the business and marketing bug during long summer days working at his dad's Madison Avenue ad agency. After joining Cambridge as a speaker in the mid-1990s, Kevin went on to become Cambridge’s senior consultant and eventually CEO. Cambridge Dental Consultants is a full-service dental practice management company offering customized dental office manuals. Frustrated? High overhead? Schedule a chat with Kevin at