Dentaltown October 2021 - 14

professional courtesy
column
What's Your Day Worth?
The American Dental Association's Health Policy
Institute has a plethora of interesting data on our
profession. Want to see some interesting infographics?
Curious about the trends in supply of dentists per
100,000 population? Wondering about access to dental
care in your state? You can fi nd the answers to these
questions and many more on the ADA website, within
the " clinical resources " tab.
This month, I thought it would be fun to pull a
couple of data points for a discussion of the relationship
between income and work schedule. These data are
averages and I realize " your results may vary, " so consider
these a starting point for your consideration. To get the
most out of this, you should fi nd the corresponding
numbers for your practice.
Have you ever sat down to consider the number of
days you work in your practice each year? The ADA
survey indicates in the year 2000, practice owners
worked 1,744 hours (assuming eight-hour days at 218
days per year). In 2019, practice owners worked 1,762
hours (assuming eight-hour days at 220 days per year).
For the sake of comparison, a person working a regular
fi ve-day workweek with two weeks' vacation would work
245 days (365 days minus 104 days of weekends, six major
holidays and 10 days' vacation leaves 245 workdays).
Many dentists work four days a week, which would
translate to 203 workdays before any vacation is taken
(365 days minus 104 days of weekends, six major holidays
and 52 weekdays off, equals 203). When you review your
own numbers, you might feel a bit lazy, but rest assured,
choosing when to work is one of the benefi ts of ownership.
Let's take those days worked and determine a value
for the income produced when we work (or the income
lost when we take a day off). The same survey from the
ADA reported the median annual net
income of dentists in private practice to be
$141,660 in 2000 and $190,000 in 2019.
If we divide these income fi gures by the
average days worked, then the income is
$650/day in 2000 and $864/day in 2019.
As I mentioned, your results will vary,
but looking at your take-home income
relative to the days you work in the offi ce
helps to illustrate your productivity over
time and the cost of a " lost day. "
Table 1: Average hours per year in the dental offi ce for the
primary private practice of dentists, by employment situation,
1990-2020.
All owners
2000 1,744 hours = 218 days
2019 1,762 hours = 220 days
Table 2: Median annual net income of dentists in private
practice, 1990-2020.
All owners
2000 $141,660
2019 $190,000
Source: American Dental Association, Health Policy Institute, Surveys of Dental Practice
For example, if you found that in 2019 you worked
200 days and took home $800 a day, and in 2021 you
worked 180 days and took home $1,000 a day, you
would have the same income with four additional weeks
of vacation. Going through this calculation may open
your eyes to a decrease in effi ciency over time, or it may
be another way to set goals for the year ahead. After
all, production goals are often nice big numbers, but if
they don't translate to bottom-line income, then you're
simply driving your overhead higher.
Let's go back to the income/day of $650 in 2000
and $864 in 2019. That initially sounds like a decent
increase over time, but it was underwhelming. When
we plug it into the Bureau of Labor Statistics infl ation
calculator, the buying power of $650 in December 2000
would be $960 in December 2019. This underscores
the importance of looking at more than just your total
income when you're setting goals and schedule days for
your practice. Please take the time to count the days
worked and compare them to your income for the past
two full years to establish a baseline. This year will soon
be over, and you will have a third data point to add to
the chart. The nice thing about this method is it helps
take the " COVID-19 effect " out of the mix by only
counting days worked in the practice.
Please share your thoughts and comments in the
digital version of this article at dentaltown.com. Reach
me by email at tom@dentaltown.com. ■
by Thomas Giacobbi, DDS, FAGD, editorial director, Dentaltown magazine
14 OCTOBER 2021 // dentaltown.com
http://www.dentaltown.com
Dentaltown October 2021

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