In the dental industry, staffing is often viewed as a basic expense. But when you break it down, it's clear that staffing directly impacts revenue, patient experience, and operational stability. Whether you're a DSO leader, operations director, owner, or regional manager, your ability to grow depends on how well your team is staffed.
Labor typically represents 25 to 27 percent of a dental practice’s total revenue. At the same time, staffing shortages are limiting care across the country. According to the ADA, practices could be seeing 10 percent more patients if they had enough staff on hand.
That is a missed opportunity to serve patients and a financial gap that many practices cannot afford to ignore.
Understaffing does more than create stress. It creates avoidable losses. Here’s where the costs pile up:
If a dental assistant, for instance, calls out and a chair stays empty long-term, that can lead to significant costs. Nearly one in four dental practices decrease or reschedule patient visits, resulting in a 6% decrease in daily average revenue. (Public clinics feel the impact more severely, with even more canceled or rescheduled appointments.) A qualified temp might cost $400 to $600 for the day—while going without a qualified temp for a year can lead up to almost $110,000 in revenue loss.. The math is simple. Coverage costs less than cancellations.
And when you manage multiple locations, that impact multiplies. Fewer available appointments. Lower capacity. Less flexibility to serve patients when they need care.
Staffing decisions are not just operational. They are financial. ROI, or return on investment, applies here just as much as with new equipment or technology.
ROI = (Return from staffing - Cost of staffing) ÷ Cost of staffing
Start with what a fully staffed team allows you to do. If you add a hygienist who enables 15 more visits per week at $150 per visit, that is $2,250 in additional weekly revenue. Over a year, that can reach $117,000.
If the total cost to employ that hygienist is $65,000, your return is about 80 percent.—a number consistent with hygiene-driven production figures in dentistry.
Even temporary help often yields strong ROI. If one missed shift means lost production of $5,000, and a qualified temp costs $500, that is a ten-to-one return.
Smart staffing protects revenue and opens more room to grow.
Traditional models treat labor as a fixed cost. You pay the same amount regardless of how many patients you see. That limits your ability to respond to real-time changes in demand.
A flexible workforce model gives you more control. You keep your core team consistent and supplement with vetted professionals when needed. This helps you:
With a flexible model, labor becomes a variable cost. You pay more when you're seeing more patients. You spend less when demand is lighter. That is what budget optimization looks like in practice.
For DSOs and larger group practices, staffing gets even more complex. You are balancing schedules, patient demand, and staffing needs across many sites.
A flexible staffing model supports better allocation of resources. It lets you:
You can also use historical data to forecast when and where staffing will be needed. Think seasonal spikes, school breaks, benefit renewals, and more.
Planning ahead gives you more control. Responding in real time keeps revenue protected.
Imagine a 40-location dental group that introduces flexible staffing through a W-2 compliant platform.
Before:
After:
Even after accounting for the cost of temporary coverage, the group saw an estimated 200 percent ROI on the staffing shift. Flexible staffing was not just a stopgap. It was a growth lever.
Staffing affects every part of your operation. If your team is not staffed for capacity, you are likely leaving money on the table and missing chances to grow.
The right staffing plan does more than fill seats. It opens chairs. It reduces risk. It gives your team space to work at their best.
onDiem helps dental organizations access flexible, W-2 compliant professionals across all roles and regions. We do the heavy lifting behind the scenes so you can focus on patient care and long-term strategy.
If you are looking to increase revenue, reduce waste, and protect your team, the next step is simple. Contact us—and finally, make staffing work for you.