How Do I Compensate My Hygienist?

Episode #401 with Dr. Kevin Groth, Dr. Rob Ritter, and Dr. Pat Lillis

You need to hire a hygienist, but they're in short supply. And the ones who apply ask for outlandish salaries! So, what do you do? Do you pay incoming hygienists more and create animosity? Do you raise everyone’s salaries and have high overhead? Or do you just choose to go without hiring? For some insight to help you navigate this dilemma, Kirk Behrendt brings in The Big Three, Dr. Kevin Groth, Dr. Rob Ritter, and Dr. Pat Lillis for ways to fairly compensate your hygienists without losing your mind. For their best practices on finding, hiring, and keeping the best hygienists, listen to Episode 401 of The Best Practices Show!

Main Takeaways:

Take emotion out of compensation decisions.

Use metrics to determine your hygienists’ salaries.

Consider giving all your hygienists the same salary.

Quality hygienists exist — you just need to be patient.

Hygienists are not more important than everyone else.

Empower your team to be the best they can be.

Quotes:

“Right now, we hear it all over the country, it’s supply and demand for hygienists to work in your practice. I know there aren't enough hygienists. Either they left the profession, didn't come back, or they're coming back and asking for some of the most unbelievable salaries that I've ever heard in my career. And then, dentists are struggling on how to compensate them.” (10:03—10:23)

“It’s an interesting thing with hygienists. Let's just start it there. I think we’d all agree with that, it’s very interesting. Because remember, they're taught in hygiene schools that they don't work for the dentist, they work with the dentist. They are that mid-level provider. And they want to be compensated because they typically have more education than our clinical assistants or our administrative team. Yet, I don't make emotion-based decisions on how we compensate our hygienists. I don't — I won't. I will not go down that path.” (10:29—10:58)

“When it comes to hygienists, here’s what I do that's pretty simple. I know what I charge for a hygiene prophy for an hour. I take that number times eight — because that's how many patients they're going to see in an hour on a typical day, not including the new patients, not including the scaling and root planings — and then I take 30% of that, and that's what they can make for the day as a starting salary.” (11:29—11:54)

“Most general practices run somewhere between 60% and 70% of overhead. That's what it costs them for overhead. So, I'm not going to compensate them more than that because my overhead is somewhere between 60% and 70%, in most general practices.” (11:58—12:14)

“I've got two ways for [hygienists] to make legitimate bonus money that will increase their hourly rate on things that they do. So, we do a bare-ass minimum, a BAM, and I know how much they need to generate for the day. So, in a general practice, let's just say it’s $1,000. They need to do $1,000 for the day as a BAM. What I do is I give them 10% of anything over $1,000. So, if they did $1,500 for the day — and they get everything, whether they sell a toothbrush or a whitening kit or a fluoride treatment, whatever they sell. I don't care if they sell it. And I know we’re not supposed to use the word “sell” by the practice management consultants, but that's what they're doing. They're marketing, they're selling, whatever you want to call it. So, if the difference is $500, they get 10% of that, $50, and you amortize that out over eight hours, how much is that? That's an extra $4 or $5 an hour on top of their initial amount of money that they're going to get.” (12:26—13:21)

“The second compensation is, when I go in the room and I diagnose a unit, a crown, an onlay, a veneer, an...