Rex says
Money math without the spreadsheet headache. Plug in your numbers and I'll show you exactly where the dollars land.
Try a scenario
Click to load — tweak from there.Inputs
Result
Production per clinical hour
$525
Overhead cost per clinical hour
$344
Margin per hour (production basis)
$181
Collected revenue per hour
$504
Margin per hour (collections basis)
$160
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One click, a permanent link with your numbers baked in.
How to use this
- 1Enter daily production ($).
- 2Enter clinical hours per day.
- 3Enter monthly practice overhead ($).
- 4Enter clinical days per month.
- 5Enter collection rate (% of production collected) (%).
- 6Read your production per clinical hour on the right — it updates as you type.
- 7Hit Share to keep the scenario or send it to someone.
About this calculator
Dental practices are typically evaluated on production per hour of chair time, since that's the resource that's actually scarce — not the dentist's calendar, but the operatory-hours available in a day. This calculator converts your daily or weekly production into an hourly figure, then compares it to your practice's hourly overhead cost per chair to show true margin per clinical hour. It's the number that should drive decisions about adding a hygienist, extending hours, or dropping a low-paying PPO plan. National benchmarks put general dentistry production at $400-$700 per hour and specialty (endo, oral surgery, ortho) meaningfully higher, but the number that matters is your own overhead-adjusted figure, since a $600/hour production day with $450/hour overhead nets far less than the raw number suggests.
Worked example
Using the values the calculator loads with:
Inputs
- Daily production: 4200 $
- Clinical hours per day: 8
- Monthly practice overhead: 55000 $
- Clinical days per month: 20
- Collection rate (% of production collected): 96 %
Results
- Production per clinical hour: $525
- Overhead cost per clinical hour: $344
- Margin per hour (production basis): $181
- Collected revenue per hour: $504
- Margin per hour (collections basis): $160
What each field means
Inputs
- Daily production ($)
- The daily production used in the calculation, measured in $. Starts at 4200 $ so you have a working example on load.
- Clinical hours per day
- The clinical hours per day used in the calculation. Starts at 8 so you have a working example on load. Accepted range: 1–16.
- Monthly practice overhead ($)
- The monthly practice overhead used in the calculation, measured in $. Starts at 55000 $ so you have a working example on load.
- Clinical days per month
- The clinical days per month used in the calculation. Starts at 20 so you have a working example on load. Accepted range: 1–31.
- Collection rate (% of production collected) (%)
- The collection rate (% of production collected) used in the calculation, measured in %. Starts at 96 % so you have a working example on load. Accepted range: 0–100 %.
Results
- Production per clinical hour
- Returned as a money amount in US dollars and shown as the headline result. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
- Overhead cost per clinical hour
- Returned as a money amount in US dollars. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
- Margin per hour (production basis)
- Returned as a money amount in US dollars. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
- Collected revenue per hour
- Returned as a money amount in US dollars. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
- Margin per hour (collections basis)
- Returned as a money amount in US dollars. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
FAQ
What's a good production per hour for general dentistry?
Most benchmarking data (Dental Economics, Levin Group) puts solo general dentistry between $400 and $700 per hour depending on region and case mix, with hygiene-heavy schedules on the lower end and restorative/cosmetic-heavy schedules higher. Multi-provider practices with associate dentists average lower per-provider figures.
Why use collections instead of production for the real margin?
Production is what you bill; collections is what actually lands in the bank after insurance write-offs, adjustments, and unpaid patient balances. A practice heavy in PPO contracts might produce $650/hour but only collect $520/hour after contractual write-offs, which is the number that should drive overhead decisions.
How do I use this to evaluate dropping a PPO plan?
Compare your average hourly production doing PPO patients against fee-for-service or a higher-paying plan for the same procedure mix. If PPO patients fill otherwise-empty chair time at positive margin, keep them; if they're displacing higher-paying patients, the math usually favors renegotiating or dropping the plan.
Does adding a second chair or hygienist change this calculation?
Yes — added capacity spreads fixed overhead (rent, front desk, equipment) across more clinical hours, which lowers overhead cost per hour and improves margin, as long as you can actually fill the added hours with patients.
Accuracy and limitations
- Results are estimates before tax, fees, and inflation unless an input explicitly covers them.
- Rates are treated as fixed for the whole period — variable-rate products will drift from this projection.
- This is educational maths, not financial advice. Check anything contractual with the lender or your accountant.
Related tools
Cite this calculator
Writing about this topic? Grab a citation — every link helps keep these tools free.
RevenueLab. (2026). Dental Practice Hourly Production Calculator. Retrieved from https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/dental-practice-hourly-production
<p>Source: <a href="https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/dental-practice-hourly-production" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dental Practice Hourly Production Calculator — RevenueLab</a> (2026).</p>
Source: [Dental Practice Hourly Production Calculator — RevenueLab](https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/dental-practice-hourly-production) (2026).