In a lot of ways, this is a misunderstood topic. Often, when the topic of statistics comes up, hygienists react adversely, because we immediately think production. While production is a part of the equation in a dental hygiene department, it’s actually so much more! Tracking performance statistics, that is how much of each procedure you perform, can tell you a lot about your overarching treatment philosophy and clinical parameters.

Let’s look at a few examples from profitable dental hygiene departments:

• An office in California, with three doctors and five hygienists were providing periodontal procedures at 21 percent. A perio percentage of 21 percent might appear high, but in this case, it primarily represented patients in maintenance, rather than active treatment. During coaching, this office discussed what they believed about treating periodontal disease, and guess what they discovered? They weren’t walking their talk. After they tuned up their solid evidence-based clinical protocols their perio increased to 31 percent. They experienced a 64 percent increase in periodontal infections treated with non-surgical therapy. (4341/2) This shift came as a result of identifying a lack of clinical continuity, which was revealed in this practices statistics and benchmarks.

I’d like to share two more examples of how statistics and benchmarks can confirm that each hygienist is ‘living’ the treatment philosophy and clinical parameters of a profitable dental hygiene department.

• Brooke is a member of a five-doctor practice and one of eight hygienists in this busy Alabama office. In just three short months, she raised her personal perio percentage to 31 percent. She is spending 31 percent of her time providing periodontal care for her patients. This is also reflected in her production, which has increased by $120/day!  

Let’s look at another example.

• Kristy, one of five hygienists in a three-doctor Arizona practice, a full year following initial training, is maintaining a perio percentage of 36 percent, with an average hourly production of $222, up $92 from her beginning production per hour.

It’s clear from these statistics that these ladies are ‘living’ their treatment philosophies and making sure that the patients in their care are receiving periodontal therapy when it’s needed. And the fact that their dental hygiene departments are profitable proves that they are providing a high level of service and professional care for their patients. If you haven’t already done so, setting some reasonable and clear goals for the dental hygiene department provides benchmarks for performance so that each Hygienist can measure their progress and success. Below you will find the current industry standards. Use these guidelines to help set your goals.

Hygiene industry standards:

• Perio percentage 35-40 percent
• Open time percentage 8-10 percent
• Hygiene production 3x salary + benefits
• Prophy (1110) to perio maintenance (4910) ratio of 3:1