If you’re reviewing your practice’s total production each month, that’s a great start. But if you’re not breaking it down by provider, you’re missing the kind of detail that can reveal performance gaps, uncover hidden opportunities, and help you lead your team more effectively.

This article will walk you through what a Production by Provider report actually tells you, how to interpret it, and how to use it to set meaningful targets — not just for revenue, but for accountability and growth across your entire team.

Why It Matters — and What Happens If You Don’t

It’s not enough to know that your practice produced $100,000 last month. You need to know where that production came from. Was it heavily weighted toward hygiene? Is one associate pulling more than their share of the load? Is another consistently underperforming? These are the kinds of questions the Production by Provider report helps answer.

When you’re not reviewing this data:

• You could be over- or under-scheduling team members without realizing it.
• Associates may be plateauing without support or guidance.
• Opportunities to increase production — or optimize compensation — get missed.
• Hygiene programs can underperform without accountability.
• You lack the clarity to set meaningful, realistic goals.

Without visibility into this data, you’re essentially steering your business with part of the dashboard turned off.

Production Per Doctor Day / Per Hygiene Hour

Raw production totals can be misleading. A full-time associate will naturally outproduce a part-time one, but that doesn’t mean they’re more efficient or more profitable. For dentists and associates, you should always review production per day worked. This normalizes the data and allows you to compare providers fairly. If a provider is producing well below others on a per-day basis, it may signal issues with case presentation, scheduling, or confidence in diagnosing treatment.

For hygienists, shift the metric to production per hour worked. Hygiene appointments are typically standardized, so hourly production gives you a clean measure of how efficient and accurate they are. This is also where things can get interesting. It’s not uncommon to uncover that a hygienist is underbilling — performing services but not charging for them correctly — which leads to lost revenue and undervalued work. On the other end of the spectrum, overbilling can occur when a hygienist charges for more units or procedures than can reasonably be completed in the time allotted. This not only affects trust with patients but could also raise red flags in the event of an audit.

Either way, reviewing production per hour helps you coach, support, and schedule your hygiene team appropriately — and ensures they’re operating in a way that aligns with expectations and values.

Individual Provider Trends

Production isn’t static. Every provider will have high and low months, but what matters are the trends. Review each provider’s data month over month and ask yourself:

• Is an associate improving steadily or plateauing after onboarding?
• Is a long-standing provider starting to trend downward?
• Does a hygienist consistently produce more on certain days, or noticeably less in the afternoons?

These patterns tell you more than any single number ever could. They highlight when a provider might need support, whether their schedule is optimized, or if something external — like energy levels, case mix, or even team dynamics — is impacting performance. Identifying trends early helps you step in with the right kind of support before production issues turn into morale or retention problems.

Hygiene Department Health

Your hygiene department plays a critical role in both recurring revenue and identifying patients for outstanding treatment. Use your provider report to evaluate how strong this part of your practice is.

Start by reviewing overall hygiene production, then break it down further. Are your hygienists maintaining consistent production from month to month? Are patients returning for re-care on schedule, or are there gaps? What percentage of hygiene visits include perio treatment, fluoride, or adjunct services? And importantly, how does each hygienist’s average hourly production compare?

If hygiene production is flat or declining, there may be a breakdown in the reactivation process, inconsistent perio diagnosis, or even gaps in billing training. This isn’t just a financial issue — it can affect patient outcomes and treatment acceptance clinic-wide. A healthy hygiene department is one of the strongest indicators of a well-managed practice.

Balancing Schedule and Efficiency

Your Production by Provider report also tells you whether your scheduling matches your providers' capacity. Compare production totals with patient volume and time worked. If a provider has frequent low-production days despite being in the clinic, it may be due to underbooking or inefficiencies in how their time is used. Conversely, a provider producing at a high level but with constant back-to-back appointments may be at risk for burnout.

Balance isn’t just about fairness — it’s about sustainability. If an associate or hygienist feels consistently overworked or underused, it can impact job satisfaction and retention. Use your data to reassess scheduling gaps, adjust appointment types, and distribute workload more effectively across the team.

Common Obstacles That Hold You Back

“I don’t know what numbers to trust.” If you’re unsure whether your reports are accurate, start with cross-checking data from your PMS with what’s on your P&L. Confirm that your team is entering procedures consistently and that adjustments (write-offs, discounts) are clearly accounted for.

“I don’t have time to review every report.” You don’t need to do a deep dive weekly. Monthly or even quarterly reviews, especially when tied to goal setting or bonus reviews, can still be highly effective.

“I’m not sure how to use the data.” You’re not alone. Start by asking basic questions:

* Who are your top and bottom producers, and why?

• Is hygiene pulling its weight?
• Is everyone scheduled in line with their capacity?
• Even just answering those can lead to meaningful changes.

Using the Data to Drive Action

Once you’re comfortable reading the report, the real value comes in using it to shape your decisions. You can set personalized production targets for each provider, build bonus plans around meaningful metrics, and track improvements over time. If a provider is underperforming, use the data to explore why — is it a scheduling issue, a confidence gap, or a missed opportunity in diagnosis? If a hygienist is exceeding expectations, you may want to study their systems and replicate their approach elsewhere.

This type of data-driven management doesn’t create pressure — it creates alignment. It gives your team clarity on what’s expected and gives you a foundation for fair, honest conversations.

Final Thoughts

It’s easy to get stuck reacting to top-line numbers without ever digging into what’s driving them. But taking the time to review your Production by Provider report regularly gives you a much deeper understanding of how your clinic actually runs. It helps you coach more effectively, schedule more strategically, and support your team in a way that’s grounded in facts — not assumptions.

This isn’t about perfection. It’s about progress. Make this report part of your monthly review process, and you’ll start to catch small issues before they become big ones — and you’ll lead with more clarity and confidence than ever before.