Dentaltown October 2020 - 8

howard speaks
column

Up Yours! (Productivity, That Is)
Hey, homies! You know I love you, but that also
means I'm going to call you on your BS. It doesn't do
either of us any good for me to blow smoke up your pants.
For 32 years, whenever I've traveled on vacation,
I go check out at least one dental office in the city I'm
visiting. If I go lecture, I fly into town a day or two
beforehand for the same reason. I've been to more than
a thousand dental offices around the world, and when
I visit one that's particularly cool, I post photos
in that particular country's "Your Dental
Neighborhood" forum on Dentaltown.com,
which has forums for dentists everywhere from
Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, so a dentist in,
say, Ohio can check out a practice in Panama,
Cambodia, Malaysia, etc.
After 30 years of walking into a thousand
dental offices, you know where I find the dentist 90%
of the time? Sitting in the back.

You're back in business-
now get back to busy-ness
You're used to me telling you how wonderful
you are, but I've got to be honest: You are not a hard
worker. You may be a lot of things, but a hard worker
isn't one of them.
After the pandemic hit and we had to close our
practices down from, essentially, St. Patrick's Day to
Cinco de Mayo, a lot of staff still weren't ready to come
back when we reopened-especially people who might
be taking care of kids at home. People were posting on
Dentaltown about hygienists calling in crying, saying,
"I'm scared. I don't want to bring this home to my
family." So we lost a lot of labor.
But what did everybody see in
their July, August and September
protocols? When they opened back
up, the market bounced back-to at
least 70% right out of the gate, and
the most efficient operators went right
back to 100%.
Along with that, practices saw
a massive increase in profitability,
because labor is a practice owner's
second-biggest cost. The pandemic

virus scared away enough labor-assistant, hygienists,
front desk-that dentists are actually having to do work
they normally would've handed to someone else while
they sat in the back, browsing DentalPorn.com.
How many of you have ever gone up to your staff and
said, "By the way, if I have a cancellation and someone's
dying to get their teeth cleaned, put them in with me. I
brought my lunch to work; I don't need a full hour. I'll
be happy to do a lunch clean." Not many-in fact, I'd
say 90% of dentists have told their offices that they're not
available for cleanings ever, because they think they're
all that and a bag of chips. But if insurance is paying
you $65 for a cleaning and you're paying a hygienist
$40 an hour, you're probably not making much money
when your average overhead is 65%.
Now's the perfect time to get used to doing more
work yourself. Do some cleanings! Make that temporary!
Consider this labor scare a blessing in disguise. ■

Is Howard spot-on, or
should he be told off?
How is your practice doing in the coronavirus
era-are you thriving or barely surviving?
Dr. Howard Farran loves to reply to
comments on his columns, so members of
Dentaltown should head to
dentaltown.com/magazine and weigh in
now. If you subscribe to the magazine but
aren't an online member, head to
dentaltown.com/join-it's free!

by Howard Farran, DDS, MBA, publisher, Dentaltown magazine

8

OCTOBER 2020 // dentaltown.com

DT1020_Howard-Speaks_MM.indd 8

9/18/20 8:58 AM
http://www.Dentaltown.com http://www.DentalPorn.com http://www.dentaltown.com/magazine http://www.dentaltown.com
Dentaltown October 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Dentaltown October 2020
