How Much is a New Patient Worth to a Dental Practice? Here’s What the Data Says

June 12, 2017 Leave a comment

So how much is a new patient worth to a dental practice? There are plenty of numbers floating out there that tackle this subject, but we thought we’d use some hard data to tackle it from a different perspective.

To find these numbers, we took data from Sikka Software that has been compiled over the last seven years. The data we are using for this comparison has been collected by Sikka Software from more than 12,500 dental practices from around the country.

The numbers below reflect the gross production per patient who was seen for a comprehensive exam. Comprehensive exams are one of the best ways to indicate a patient who is new to the practice.

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Caries Risk Assessments: Should They Lead to More Fluoride Varnish Applications?

May 26, 2017 Leave a comment

Over the last six weeks, we have taken a look at a lot of data that can impact hygienists and their practices. We have looked at everything from prophys per month to scaling and root planing (SRP) statistics. In the majority of these articles, there have been data trends that have gone up and down. In this article, however, we’re going to examine one set of data that has done nothing but climb over the last seven years.

Let’s examine how many times in a month fluoride varnish is applied to a patient in the average dental practice. For the purposes of this article, the patient could be a child or adult. To find these numbers, we took data from Sikka Software over the last seven years. The data we are using for this comparison has been collected by Sikka Software from more than 12,500 dental practices from around the country.

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At $116,000, Average Accounts Receivable for Dental Practices up 36% since 2011

May 23, 2017 Leave a comment

Here’s a simple question that will either be easy for you to answer or will you stump you: What’s your practice’s current accounts receivable (AR) number?

If you know the answer, great! If you don’t, it’s imperative that you dive into the numbers.

Using data gathered by Sikka Software from more than 12,500 dental practices, I was curious to see what average AR numbers were among these practices. Digging through the numbers from 2011 to 2016, the numbers I found over the last four years were in the six-figure range (figure 1).

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How to Get the Most Out of Practice Optimizer

May 17, 2017 Leave a comment

Check out our webinar with Tony Bojorquez, Sikka technical expert, as he shows you how you can uncover hidden dollars in your practice. Make sure you’re getting the most out of the tools you have. Click here to watch the recording.

For more great webinars, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking the button below.

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SRP Data Suggest a Need to Educate Teenage Dental Patients Better About Periodontal Disease

May 16, 2017 Leave a comment

We discussed in a recent article about scaling and root planing SRP in the dental practice and how the number of SRP procedures compare to the amount of hygiene exams. You can read that article by clicking here.

In this article, we want to take a deeper look at the age of patients who may be receiving advice on SRP … and actually following through with it. To do this, we extracted data compiled by Sikka Software over the last seven years. The data we are using for this article has been collected by Sikka Software from more than 12,500 dental practices from around the United States.

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Practice Mobilizer: Your Dental Practice at Your Fingertips

May 12, 2017 Leave a comment

With our free app, Practice Mobilizer, you can access your metrics and pilot your practice from wherever you have an Internet connection. Whether you’re in your office, at home, or on the go, stay in touch with your practice. Get patient alerts, track key performance indicators, and send secure messages to patients.

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5 Things You Need to Know About the New Practice Mobilizer

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You may have already discovered the wonders that having the Practice Optimizer from Sikka Software can bring to your practice. However, did you know that there’s another way to know more about how your animal hospital is currently doing as well as what direction it’s heading each month? Practice Mobilizer from Sikka Software gives you an integrated suite of tools offering full control of your practice on your mobile device. Do you want to know how collections are doing at this very moment? You can check. Do you want to know if your first client of the day is running late? Now you can, right from the convenience of your phone.

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How to Increase your SRP to Adult Prophy Rate and Calm Patient Fears

May 10, 2017 Leave a comment

Scaling and root planing (SRP) is one of the dental procedures that often raises questions in the minds of patients.

Is this going to hurt? Why do I need this? Why didn’t flossing that one time 30 minutes before I came into the dental practice today prevent this? These are just some of the questions you may hear and that your patients might be thinking.

But are these questions keeping patients from accepting the treatment? Are these questions and the insurance scenarios that go along with it keeping hygienists from being fully confident in the SRP discussion with their patients?

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What You Need to Know to Help Your Patients Who Snore or Grind

May 9, 2017 Leave a comment

Check out our webinar featuring dental expert Kevin Henry as he speaks with Michiel Allessie, certified Sleep Dentist and founder and CEO of Sleep.ai, about new technologies and advances you can offer to your patients to help with their snoring or grinding at night. Click here to watch the recording.

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5 Things to Know About Sleep Dentistry

May 1, 2017

Do you think that sleep disorders, including sleep apnea, don’t have a place in your practice mix? Think again. Here are five things you need to know about your patients and what they may be battling every night.

  • Numbers tell a story: It’s estimated that there are 240 million adults in the United States. It’s also estimated that 60 million of them snore at night. That’s 25 percent of the adult population in America! Think about that for a minute.
    Additionally, it’s estimated that 25 million adults have obstructive sleep apnea (just over 10 percent of the U.S. population) and 17 million suffer from bruxism (roughly 7 percent of Americans).

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