There is a metric that tells you a lot about a dental practice's future: average production per chair. Our new industry data put the average at approximately $200,000 per chair annually. That is a reasonable baseline, but it is not where growth really accelerates. Practices that reach $300,000 or more per chair see meaningfully stronger growth than those below that threshold.
That gap does not come from adding more chairs. It comes from what happens before a patient ever sits down in one and what happens when they decide not to come back.
Most practice leaders facing underperformance reach for the same lever: more marketing. More reach, more impressions, more campaigns. But the real leak is rarely at the top of the funnel. It sits in the patient experience itself, and many dental practices are leaving significant money on the table by treating it as secondary.
Friction is costing you more than you might think
Mike Huffaker.
Consider how easy it is to book a restaurant, schedule a haircut, or manage a prescription refill. Then consider what it takes to become a new dental patient. You call during business hours and nobody answers. You try again later and work through a hold queue. You are eventually asked to come in and fill out paper forms. That experience has not changed meaningfully in decades, and the numbers reflect it:
- Approximately 35% of calls to dental practices go unanswered.
- Of the calls that are answered, up to 40% to 50% fail to convert into a scheduled appointment.
- Approximately 77% of patients say they would prefer to book online if given the option.
Many busy professionals genuinely intend to call their dentist during the workday and then find themselves dialing after hours, leaving a voicemail, and never following up again. Those patients do not come back. And in most cases, the practice never knows they were lost.
Strategy No. 1: Go digital-first
Removing friction from the patient journey is a growth strategy. The highest-performing practices have already figured this out. The ones still running on phone calls and paper forms are funding the growth of those that have eschewed older systems.
The digital-first baseline looks like this: online scheduling available around the clock, digital intake completed before the patient walks in, two-way texting for reminders and follow-ups, and payment options that do not involve mailing a statement. Each of these removes a point of drop-off in the patient journey and makes it easier for a busy person to choose your practice over inertia.
Voice AI is worth watching closely in this space as well. There are now dozens of providers marketing solutions to dental practices, so diligence matters. Tools that actually work can capture after-hours appointment requests and reduce front-desk burden in a meaningful way. Tools that routinely escalate to a human agent, though, add cost without solving the underlying problem.
Strategy No. 2: Use technology to drive real outcomes
When evaluating any new solution, the useful questions are practical ones: Does this reduce administrative burden? Does it improve collections? Does it make the patient experience measurably better? The areas where return on investment is clearest right now include:
- Revenue cycle management automation, which reduces manual claims work, shortens days in accounts receivable, and improves cash flow
- AI-assisted scheduling and communication tools, which improve conversion and reduce no-shows when properly implemented
- Integrated patient communication platforms, which move follow-up and reminders out of the hands of already-stretched front-desk staff
The caveat that applies across all of these: A poorly integrated tool creates more work than it saves. It introduces errors, erodes staff confidence, and gets abandoned. The standard worth holding is whether a solution connects cleanly to the core system of record, not just whether it performs well in a demo.
Strategy No. 3: Know your ideal patient and design around them
Growth-oriented practices do not try to serve everyone. They identify who their ideal patient is and build the experience around that person. Some DSOs in urban markets stay open late because they know their patients are busy professionals who cannot step away from work midday. Others prioritize Saturday hours to serve working families. These are deliberate choices grounded in a clear picture of who they want to serve.
This thinking matters especially when it comes to younger patients. Recent data shows that practices bringing in 35 or more new patients per month grow nearly three times faster than those that fall below that threshold. A new patient carries meaningfully higher value than a long-tenured patient who has already completed the bulk of their treatment needs, which makes new patient acquisition a central driver of sustainable growth.
Attracting younger patients calls for a specific approach. Cosmetic services like aligners and whitening resonate strongly with this group. Conversations that connect oral health to overall wellness land well with a generation paying close attention to their long-term health. And above all, the experience itself has to match their expectations. A generation that manages nearly every aspect of their lives digitally will not tolerate a clipboard and a callback.
Strategy No. 4: Measure what actually matters
High-performing DSOs are disciplined about measurement. They track average production per chair, monitor doctor hours, and watch for clinical consistency across locations. Two metrics in particular tend to separate the practices growing quickly from those that are not.
The first is case completion. A practice can have healthy case acceptance figures and still struggle with growth if patients accept treatment and never return to complete it. When the gap between case acceptance and case completion exceeds 10%, growth slows in measurable ways. Most practices are not tracking this.
The second is referral management. Most groups lack a reliable system for monitoring inbound referrals, following up consistently, or measuring whether referred treatment is ever completed. It is a consistent source of revenue leakage that rarely surfaces on a standard performance dashboard, and it adds up faster than most leaders realize.
The successful practices that are already operating differently
Any practice leader can run a quick diagnostic: Try to experience your own practice as a prospective new patient would. Attempt to find the website, book an appointment online, and navigate the intake process from scratch. Most gaps become obvious within a few minutes.
The practices growing fastest right now have standardized the patient journey from first contact to final claim, removed friction at every step, and built the experience around a specific patient they actually want to serve. Operational consistency, smart technology adoption, and a genuine focus on the patient experience are the growth engine. That combination is available to every practice willing to commit to it.
Mike Huffaker is the chief revenue officer for Planet DDS. He spearheads both the sales and marketing divisions of the dental software solutions company. During his tenure, the company has achieved significant milestones, now proudly serving over 13,000 dental practices, including many large DSOs and emerging groups.
The comments and observations expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the opinions of DrBicuspid.com, nor should they be construed as an endorsement or admonishment of any particular idea, vendor, or organization.
