Hygiene Production Information – What You Should Know

Most dentists don’t realize that their hygiene departments have the power to either make or break their dental practices. In fact, the hygiene departments in most dental practices are under-producing.

Hygiene Production Questions & Concerns

Below are a few common questions and concerns regarding hygiene production and how to improve it.

• What kinds of things count towards hygiene production?
  Everything billed in hygiene (except the exam) should count towards hygiene production. Some dentists debate about whether or not the exam should count toward hygiene production. This is because some codes only allow the exam to be submitted if the dentist is the one who performs it. This difference really only matters if your hygiene team receives a bonus based on production.
• What percentage of production should come from my hygiene department?
  Technically speaking, the industry standard is 30-35%. However, this number will obviously vary depending on treatment protocols and the dentist’s own personal definition of ideal hygiene care. When trying to figure out your ideal hygiene production, you should look closely at your fee schedule and the services offered by your practice. For example, if you perform scaling & root planing on a regular basis, your office will likely have higher hygiene production averages.
• Hygiene production hours?
  We suggest adding new hygiene days to your schedule. This is based on simple logic. Let’s say you bring in 30 new patients in a month. This will mean an extra 360 patient in one year, which equals out to 720 hygiene appointments. If you aren’t adding additional hygiene days to your schedule, you could be missing out on quite a bit of hygiene production.
• Should hygienists be paid salary or commission?
  Base pay with commission is the most popular system. This is because, if the front office staff makes a scheduling mistake, the hygienist won’t be penalized, but it also provides the hygienist with extra motivation to go the extra mile for patients.

If you have any additional questions or concerns regarding your hygiene production, or training for your hygiene team, please contact CTC National. It’s our job to help you keep your dental practice running smoothly and profitably.