119: Dental Financial Planning: Practice Capacity and Patient Growth - Part 1

In this episode of the Dental Boardroom Podcast, host Drew Phillips breaks down how your dental practice’s calendar is more than just a schedule—it’s your growth engine and valuation tool. This is the first of a two-part deep dive on practice capacity, focusing on how to measure, optimize, and leverage both provider and facility capacity to maximize revenue, improve cash flow, and set your practice up for long-term growth.

Key Points:

• Your calendar is your growth engine – it’s not just a schedule.
• Capacity = how many patients your practice can see.
• Facility capacity: What your building can handle (rooms, ops, equipment).
• Provider capacity: How many patients each doctor or hygienist can see.
• Personal capacity: Your own limits or preferences.
• Dentistry pricing is limited, so growing patient volume is key to increasing revenue.
• Small scheduling changes can create big growth (e.g., moving new patient exams out of hygiene chairs).
• Utilization gaps (open spots in your schedule) cost money—filling them boosts profit.
• You can grow revenue without adding staff or overhead by optimizing schedules.
• Next episode: How to grow your patient base and predict future needs.