For most dental practice owners, the Profit and Loss (P&L) statement is seen as a basic summary of income and expenses. But when used strategically, it becomes one of your most valuable growth tools—especially when it comes to understanding how your production is balanced between hygiene and dental services.

This article focuses specifically on how to interpret your production breakdown and track whether your clinic is moving toward an ideal hygiene-to-dental production ratio, which is a key driver of profitability.

Why the Production Ratio Matters

A strong hygiene department doesn't just support recall—it plays a direct role in the clinic’s financial health. That’s because:

• Hygiene production carries fewer direct costs: There are no lab fees and fewer supply costs.
• Hygiene salaries are paid at a lower percentage compared to dentist, which can be 40% or more.

In other words, a dollar earned through hygiene stretches further than a dollar earned through dental production. It delivers more profit per chair hour, which is especially valuable if you’re looking to grow without adding additional providers.

Example: If you can increase hygiene production from 34% to 40% of your total production—without hiring a second dentist—you could meaningfully increase your profit without inflating overhead.

How to Read the Production Breakdown

Below is a snapshot of a real production P&L section focused only on Dental Billings and Hygiene Fees:

This table gives us five key takeaways:

1. Dental Billings (YTD): $625,131
2. Hygiene Fees (YTD): $333,333
3. Total Production (YTD): $958,464
4. Hygiene Contribution to Production: 34.8%
5. Dental Contribution to Production: 65.3%

While dental remains the dominant contributor, hygiene is holding strong at nearly 35% of total production—a positive indicator that the clinic is operating with balance and long-term profit in mind.

Tracking Your Progress

If you’re investing in growing your hygiene department—through expanded hours, additional hygienists, or recall reactivation campaigns—your P&L should reflect that effort. Key metrics to monitor:

• Is hygiene production increasing as a percentage of total production?
• Are hygiene fees growing consistently month-over-month?
• Are you maintaining or improving this ratio without a spike in hygiene-related overhead?

Pro Tip: Growing hygiene production can improve profit even if total production stays flat. It’s not just about doing more—it’s about doing more of the right things.

Next Steps for Practice Owners

To put this into action:

Review your P&L’s production section every month

• Track dental and hygiene production side-by-side
• Watch the hygiene % and set a goal to move toward 40%
• Use this data to inform hiring, scheduling, and training decisions

If you’re not already breaking down your production this way, talk to your bookkeeper or financial advisor about customizing your P&L to include it. It’s a small change that can lead to clearer insights and better business decisions.

Final Thought: Balanced Production Is Profitable Production

A clinic that relies solely on the dentist to drive production risks burnout, bottlenecks, and inefficient growth. But when hygiene contributes 35–40% of total production, your practice becomes more stable, more scalable, and ultimately, more profitable.

Tracking this ratio each month through your P&L doesn’t just tell you where you are—it helps you decide where to go next.

At Shift Accounting, we go beyond basic bookkeeping. Our reports break down your production by department so you can see exactly where your growth is coming from—and where untapped profit potential may be hiding. Whether you're working to rebalance hygiene and dental production or looking for clearer insights each month, our team is here to help you make smarter business decisions with confidence.