Increasing Orthodontic Practice Production Without Clinical Changes

Operational improvements in chair time management, marketing, and delegation are enabling orthodontic practices to boost production without making clinical changes.

---

By Roger P. Levin, DDS

As a standing principal, I never make any recommendations in regard to orthodontic clinical treatment. In fact, as a general dentist, who practiced for 10 years full-time while building a consulting firm, I never did a single orthodontic case in practice. I have a great respect for orthodontists and their clinical techniques, and I always shy away from making clinical recommendations. However, what I can do is look at what successful orthodontic practices are doing from an operational standpoint and then each orthodontist can make their own decisions. This is my way of gently saying don’t get perturbed at me if you don’t like what I’m about to tell you, but at least think about it because you have many colleagues doing it.

Three ways to improve orthodontic practice production

1. Longer intervals between patient appointments. This is a clinical decision as I have referenced above. We are now seeing a growing number of practices increase the interval length between appointments for both bracket and aligner treatment. Whether you like this idea and agree with it or not, it is an idea that can increase practice production. There was a time when every child and patient was seen every 4 weeks no matter what. That was based on clinical quality and may have had veracity in regard to the products and materials that were available at the time. We have now seen a host of orthodontic advancements that have expanded intervals and orthodontists who are seeing patients every 4 weeks are by far in the minority. Technologies like remote monitoring will continue to improve and have the effect of increasing the length of time between appointments.
   
   How does this increase orthodontic practice production? The fewer patients you have to put into a chair, the more available chair time. Remember, orthodontics is a volume game and the more volume you can put through a practice the higher production will be.
   
2. Full-blown, full-out referral marketing. This is a time to put aside all excuses. Practices that go full bore with referral marketing are going to fill those increased chair hours with more patients, which means more production. An effective referral marketing program needs to focus on five areas: patients, parents, referring doctors, social media, and the community.

3. Delegate everything to the orthodontic team. I actually mean delegating everything that is legally allowed by your state board and all regulations and laws. Orthodontists undergo years of specialized education, including residency training, to practice at the top of their license. They don’t go through all of that to end up acting as an orthodontic assistant or front desk administrative staff member. When they do, they aren’t able to focus on referral marketing, clinical technique, and maximizing the number of patients. In the manufacturing world, there is a term for how much manufacturing can be done in a factory—throughput. Throughput refers to getting things out the door in certain volumes. And orthodontists who delegate everything will increase throughput exponentially with a dramatic effect on practice production. If you are doing anything not required, you need to ask why and usually the answer is insufficient training of the team.

Increasing production in an orthodontic practice is easy to understand. It takes effort, time, and training, but it is still easy to understand. This simple formula will have a tsunami level impact on increasing practice production.

Photo: ID 19757923 © Violetkaipa | Dreamstime.com

More articles by Roger P. Levin, DDS:

• How to Build a World-Class Office Manager—and a Stronger Orthodontic Practice
• What Should an Orthodontic Office Manager Actually Do?
• Three Ways to Improve Your Ortho Team Fast
• What It Takes to Turn an Orthodontic Practice Around