Are you tired of feeling like you’re running on a hamster wheel—seeing endless patients but not the practice growth or income you deserve? Are you looking for a way to boost profitability while making your clinical days more engaging and fun?
You’re in the right place. Many dentists feel stuck in a high-volume, low-margin cycle. The effort is immense, but the financial rewards and sense of accomplishment don’t always match. The solution is to strategically add or optimize high-value services that can transform your practice’s bottom line and your professional satisfaction.
These procedures aren’t just about making more money; they involve advanced skills and technology to deliver truly life-changing results for your patients, which is the most rewarding part of our profession.
Let’s cut to the chase. Here are five high-profit dental procedures that every general practice should seriously consider offering.
1. Clear Aligners
If you are not offering clear aligners, you are leaving a significant and growing opportunity on the table. The patient demand for straightening teeth—for both aesthetics and health—is booming across all age groups.
Why It’s Profitable:
- High Profit Margins: Once your systems are dialed in, the required chair time per case is relatively low compared to the case fee, leading to excellent profitability.
- Gateway to Cosmetics: Clear aligners often open the door to further cosmetic work like whitening and veneers once patients get a taste of their new smile’s potential.
- Team Delegation: Key parts of the workflow, like intraoral scanning and progress monitoring, can be effectively delegated to trained team members, freeing up your time.
Getting started requires an investment in training and an intraoral scanner, but the ROI can be incredibly fast.
2. Dental Implants (with a focus on Same-Day Solutions)
Dental implants are a massive revenue driver and one of the most impactful services we can provide. They offer a durable, functional, and aesthetic solution for missing teeth—a problem a huge percentage of our patients face.
Why It’s Profitable:
- Premium Fee Structure: The advanced training, skill, and technology (like CBCT imaging) required to place and restore implants supports a premium fee.
- Massive Patient Value: You are restoring a patient’s ability to eat, speak, and smile with confidence. This life-altering result creates immense value.
- The “Same-Day” Differentiator: The ability to offer immediate implant placements or same-day restorations is a game-changer. Patients place enormous value on minimizing treatment time and avoiding temporaries. This service establishes you as a leading-edge clinician in your community.
3. Same-Day Crowns (CEREC & Chairside CAD/CAM)
If you’re still sending every crown to an external lab, it’s time to seriously evaluate chairside CAD/CAM. The ability to design, mill, and deliver a permanent crown in a single visit is a massive advantage.
Why It’s Profitable:
- Increased Case Volume: Here’s the magic: dentists who adopt systems like CEREC find the process so much more efficient and engaging that they end up doing more crown procedures. This is the real driver of profitability.
- Drastic Efficiency Gains: You condense a two-appointment procedure into one, freeing up chair time and reducing overhead (room turnover, staff time, materials).
- Incredible Patient Experience: Patients love the convenience. No messy impressions, no unreliable temporary crowns, and no second appointment. This is a powerful practice differentiator that generates rave reviews.
With today’s super-fast milling blocks and materials, you can often fabricate a permanent zirconia crown in the time it takes to make a great temporary. The initial investment is significant, but the return in efficiency, patient satisfaction, and increased production makes it an incredibly smart business decision.
Watch the video for a deeper dive into these transformative procedures.
4. The 1-Appointment Endo and Crown
This is the ultimate efficiency play. The vast majority of teeth that need a root canal also require a crown. By combining these two high-value procedures into a single, seamless appointment, you create a massive win for both your practice and your patient.
Why It’s Profitable:
- Sky-High Production Per Hour: You are slashing the total chair time, setup, and breakdown associated with multiple visits. The production packed into that one appointment block is outstanding.
- The Ultimate Combination: When paired with same-day crown technology, this workflow is unbeatable. You can often prep the tooth and have the crown milling while you perform the endodontic therapy.
- Unmatched Patient Convenience: The patient gets out of pain and walks out with their tooth fully restored and protected in one visit. This level of service generates incredible word-of-mouth referrals.
5. Wisdom Teeth Extractions
Don’t be so quick to refer out all of your third molars. With additional training and careful case selection, performing many straightforward and even moderately impacted wisdom teeth extractions in-house can be a highly productive service.
Why It’s Profitable:
- Capture Referred Revenue: You keep procedures and revenue within your practice that you would otherwise be sending away.
- Builds Patient Loyalty: Patients prefer to stay with their trusted general dentist. Offering this service, especially to the younger demographic in your practice, strengthens your relationship with the entire family.
- High Production Per Hour: For well-selected cases, the procedure time is manageable and the production rate is excellent.
Always work within your skill level, but don’t automatically refer out what you could competently and profitably handle yourself.
By strategically integrating even one or two of these services, you can fundamentally change your practice’s financial health and your own professional fulfillment. It’s time to break out of the “drill, fill, and bill” cycle and build the rewarding practice you’ve always wanted.
