3 Ways Dentists Try Saving Money that End Up Costing More

Operational costs are high in dentistry: high tech machines, office rent, skilled labor, insurance... the list goes on. While keeping operational costs down can increase profit, many dentists irrationally sacrifice long-term gains for short-term profits. Have you fallen prey to these 3 ineffective ways dentists use to save money?

1) Offering Continuing Education to Doctors Only

You're afraid that offering continuing education across the board is not only costly but may cause your staff to leave once they're more educated. The truth is that investing in well educated staff is a great investment in your business for two reasons:

1. Staff who receive company-funded continuing education feel more appreciated, valued and responsible, and in turn happily work harder for their dentists based on feelings of trust and loyalty
2. Well educated staff perform more competently, provide better patient care and save dentists money in terms of efficiency over the long run

When well-educated staff are earning you $10,000 more per month in productivity, it's worth paying the $200/yr on continuing education and the $2/hr increase in raise. For a full-time dental assistant who earns $20/hr and scales up to $22/hr after continuing education, dentists are only paying $320/month extra for a more productive, better performing, happier team.

2) Skipping Training on Practice Management Software

We get it, we really do. You're already paying thousands for the software, why pay another thousand dollars to receive practice management software training when you could just tinker with the tools for a little while to figure them out, right?

What most dentists don't realize, though, is that by passing on the training, you're missing out on learning the most efficient tools and functionalities. As a result, dentists waste time on hour-long tasks that could be completed in just a few minutes had they invested in training. Training is an upfront cost that saves money and time over the long run - it's a worthy investment many dentists fail to make.

3) Billing Non-Precious Metals as Precious

This is dental insurance fraud, plain and simple. But worse than that, it's bad business practice. What happens when your patient has an allergic reaction to nickel, the primary element in base metal alloys? Considering the fact that 1 in 10 people have nickel allergies, it's a high risk bet to take.

Some dentists wrongly believe that insurance companies will never know, or that dental insurance companies don't even care to discover the truth. Dental insurance companies are wising up to this practice, however, and you don't want to be caught nickel-handed.

The Right Way to Save Money as a Dentist

So where should dentists save money? What's even left as an option? One great way to save money as a dentist is by becoming a member of the exclusive Intengent Honor Society. Simply, Intengent's Honor Society is an agreement between dentists and Intengent Dental Laboratories: dentists send all their cases to Intengent Dental Laboratories, and in exchange Intengent gives dentists 20% off their cases. It's that easy.

Why does Intengent Dental Laboratories offer the Honor Society? Because we're a large dental lab whose success was initially built by mom and pop dental offices, so we want to give back to small businesses and build personal relationships by offering this exclusive pricing.

If you're ready to start saving money in a sustainable, ethical, sensible way, become a member of Intengent's Honor Society now.