The Incredible Impact Orthodontics Can Have on Your Revenue

In our previous posts, we’ve said that adding orthodontics to your pediatric or general dentistry services will boost practice income. Have you ever wondered just how much it could boost it?

While there isn’t one particular answer that will apply to everyone, you can improve your revenue and make strides toward long-term growth when you offer this specialty to your local community. Today, we’re crunching the numbers and sharing what you can expect to earn once you take this next step.

Choosing Your Speciality

Before you start calculating how much you can enhance your dental practice by adding orthodontics, take a step back. First, consider the specific type of orthodontics you want to offer. Will you focus more on straight wire orthodontics or clear aligners?

And who will your primary patients be? Will you serve entire families? What about children and teens? There isn’t a right or wrong answer, but it’s important to know who you’ll need to market your services to once you’re ready to provide them.

Find an orthodontics course.

Once you know the kind of orthodontics you want to offer, you can begin looking for training and educational opportunities in that field. Look for those tailored to general and pediatric dental professionals, such as those in our orthodontic course list.

As you evaluate your different options, choose the one that will best support both your short-term and long-term goals. As you do so, remember to leave room in your budget for this expense. Our comprehensive courses range from $5,000 to $15,000 depending on the specific one you choose.

Bring your team on board.

If you really want to increase the earning potential of your dental office, consider bringing your team on board with you. Enroll your assistants and hygienists in orthodontics courses so they can assist, answer questions, and speak confidently about all of the treatments you offer.

These courses usually range from about $500 to $1,000 per person, and the investment is well worth it. If your entire team is trained and experienced in this specialty, you have more to offer your current and future patients.

Invest in the right tools.

Next, you’ll need to budget for specialized instruments and equipment. This exact figure will vary depending on the type of orthodontic services you plan to offer. For instance, the supplies required to apply straight wire braces are different from the ones needed for clear aligners.

Together with your team, think about what you’ll need to get up and running. Most dental offices spend between $10,000 and $20,000 investing in the necessary gear.

Add up your one-time costs.

The costs described above are considered one-time payments. Before moving into continuous costs, let’s add up what you’ve spent so far by choosing the mid-range of all the estimates we’ve provided. That breaks down to the following:

• Orthodontics course for dentist: $10,000
• Orthodontics course for team members: $700 each, three team members being trained
• Start-up equipment: $15,000

At this point, you can see you’re still under $30,000. However, keep in mind that this doesn’t include outside factors such as travel costs, time spent away from the office, and other peripheral expenses you might accrue in this initial start-up phase.

Consider patient payments.

When calculating how much you can expect to spend at your dental practice once you add orthodontics, remember to also calculate the revenue you anticipate. While these numbers can vary, the typical patient spends around $5,000 per orthodontic treatment.

It’s important to add these numbers to your budget to reflect an accurate balance.

Calculate per-case expenses.

When evaluating your per-case revenue, you’ll also need to factor in your individual case expenses. This includes appliances plus accessory materials, including:

• Bands
• Brackets
• Wires
• Retainers
• Wax
• Elastics

On average, these ancillary items cost around $500 for a treatment plan that lasts around one to two years. You’ll also need to add in personnel costs for the actual time you spend with the patient, as well as any time your front desk team spends on customer service, updating records, etc.

Most offices invest about 10 hours of personnel costs for each orthodontic patient. In all, your per-case expenses will total around $1,000.

Subtract per-case expenses from revenue.

To understand how much you’ll truly spend on each patient, you need to subtract your per-case expenses from your expected revenue. Using the averages above, the equation would be $5,000 – $1,000, which leaves a profit of $4,000.

Determine anticipated case load.

Once you know your revenue per patient, consider how many new orthodontic patients you will likely treat each year. From there, you can expand everything over the next 20 years to get a long-term picture of your expected costs and earnings.

Remember that estimated $30,000 you’ll spend on supplies in the beginning? Divide it out over 20 years, and that equals a cost of around $1,500 per year.

On a per-case basis, let’s go conservative and figure that you’ll treat three new patients per month, offering year-long treatments for each. That gives you a total of 36 cases per year. Multiply 36 by the per-case revenue of $4,000 above ($5,000 – $1,000) and you get $144,000 per year.

Subtract your annual costs ($1,500), and you can see that your net orthodontics-based income is $142,500.

Boost practice income with orthodontics.

Obviously, the numbers we’ve provided in this post are only ballpark estimates. The exact costs and revenue that you can expect will vary depending on a number of factors, such as the equipment you need, the courses you take, the size of your team, and how many patients you treat.

However, this does show you that adding orthodontics can be a great way to boost practice income. To learn more about this field and sign up for one of our upcoming courses or events, get in touch with us today!