Growth in the Dental Practice and Why It’s Like Golf

Every golfer knows golf is really a game that you play against yourself. You may play with other golfers on any given day, but ultimately, you’re always measuring your performance against your own previous results.

It’s the same in a dental practice. Technically, the other dentists in your area are competitors, but because you work in relative isolation, the only reliable way to measure your success is by tracking your growth year to year. And I’m not talking about just the incremental increases in revenue that keep pace with the increases in expenses — that’s not moving forward, that’s standing still.

When growth occurs in the dental practice, good things happen — things like better practice economics, which lead to better choices inside and out of the practice.

Most importantly, when you have a good context for growth, you understand that it needs to be built into your game every day. It’s a framework that gives purpose to your daily actions. After all, it’s one thing to know that you’re continually improving the quality of care you’re providing for your patients. The ultimate satisfaction comes from knowing that you’re also continually improving the quality of return you’re providing to your team, your family, and yourself in the process. And to do that, you have to keep score.

Growth in the practice is ultimately a result of growth in case acceptance. Let’s measure and compare. What is your case acceptance rate?