Financial Impact of Dental Assistants
Dental assistants impact the bottom line
Dental assistants are an integral part of dental practices and clinics, and new research illustrates dental assistants’ positive contributions toward productivity, as well as the high cost of dental assistant turnover.
The results reveal the benefits of raising wages as a retention strategy. Increasing dental assistant pay by 15% can improve retention while offsetting turnover costs and potential revenue loss.
View the report to learn more, and use our retention toolkit and calculator to see what this means for your practice.
The case for higher pay
There are clear financial costs to vacant dental assistant positions, and hiring to fill open roles is even more challenging now due to the ongoing shortage of qualified dental assistants. Insufficient pay is the top reason dental assistants leave a position and the number one reason assistants quit the profession entirely. By increasing wages, dental practices can reap financial benefits.
Reduce turnover
Increasing wages can reduce dental assistant turnover and minimize associated hiring and training costs.
Maintain productivity
Retaining dental assisting staff helps practices maintain their productivity levels and prevents team burnout.
Preserve revenue
With the dental team performing at full capacity, practices can sustain patient volume and preserve revenue levels.
Retention toolkit
Use the calculator and other toolkit resources to help your practice evaluate the costs and returns of pay adjustments based on your practice’s data.
Dental assistant pay and financial impact calculator
Enter the financial figures for your practice into the calculator to see how much dental assistant turnover is costing you — and how much you could save by using pay increases as a retention strategy.
Employer resources
These resources can help employers see the bottom-line impact at-a-glance.
Cost of dental assistant turnover
Expenses related to dental assistant turnover and unfilled positions are cumulative and include the direct costs of advertising and recruiting, as well as indirect costs such as training and orientation, loss of productivity, and reduced patient volume. When dental assistant positions are vacant, dental practices experience both short- and long-term negative financial implications.
- Rescheduled patients: Nearly 1 in 4 practices decrease or reschedule patient visits when the assistant is out of the office.
- Decreased profitability: It costs 25% of the dental assistant’s annual pay to replace them with a new assistant.
- Reduced revenue: Dental practices could experience a 6% decrease in daily revenue each day the assistant role is vacant. That could add up to nearly $110,000 if the position were vacant for a year.