TBU # 004: Biomimetic Tip Tuesday: How to Charge For Biomimetic Dentistry

"How do I make money doing biomimetic dentistry?" is a common question I get. The truth is the best way to make money as a biomimetic dentist is to charge for your time, not the procedure you're doing.  

Huh?  

That seems backwards...

Its not really.  Let me explain.  

1st of all, doing biomimetic dentistry takes time.  Perhaps a bit longer than traditional density.  Thats fine.  We are most likely doing more steps, being more thorough, and probably seeing higher results while being more conservative.  So we're giving the patient more, right? 

We've put countless hours into perfecting and refining our biomimetic approach.

Ok, so how are we charging for our time then? 

Lets break it down.  Lets start with the overhead of our practice.  

First, start with what you would like, or need, to make each month.  That includes your bills, paying your office staff, loans, your salary, etc.  Lets say the number that you want to collect each month is $75,000.  That roughly equates to a million dollar practice in production.  Breaking that number down further per hour on a four day work week comes out to about $600/per hour.  Of that $600 per hour that is needed, lets say that hygiene brings in about $200/per hour of production.  So the operative side would then be responsible for $400 / per hour. 

So now it comes back to how long it takes us to do our work.  Let me give a few scenarios.

1. If it takes us a full hour to do a 1 surface composite, then that should be our fee.  Thats not too unreasonable if we take into consideration of photography, dam setup, and maybe a hygiene check at the end.  

2. If we are a bit faster, or our office demands a different schedule from us, than maybe that occlusal becomes $200 and scheduled every 30 min instead.  IF you are needing more speed but still want to hold on to biomimetic concepts, there are still ways we can achieve both. 

3. If we have a small office and only see a few people a day for restorative, then maybe our goal for the schedule is to have less appointments but at a higher price tag.  For example, lets say our onlays take about 2 hours, maybe 2.5 hours, for the total procedure, prep and cementing.  Its possible to charge $1200-$2000 for these biomimetic treatments.  With the higher end of that range, that means we only need about 1 of those a day to be successful if we can mix in other smaller type treatments.  

We can also get into up-charging to add in biomimetic specialized codes if needed.  Common codes that I've seen in other biomimetic offices are charging for a deep margin elevation, cusp replacement, fiber reinforcement, or perhaps even material dependent fees.  All of these can work if we're trying to balance a few variables in our office.  Our own office dynamics will largely dictate what we can do.  It definitely is possible to make a great living doing biomimetics.  We might just need to get creative with how we go about doing it. 

So rather than going off of our fee scheduling book, lets base our fees off the quality we are giving to our patients! 

(Pictured borrowed from Tonali Vasquez with the Biomimetic Study Club Mexico)