In this edition:

• 💵 Increase LDA retention

• 🤝 Practice sale activity increases to last year

• ✏️ AAP launches program for hygienists

• ✋ Can caries prevention be profitable?

• And more!

How to improve LDA retention

One group that’s often overlooked and underappreciated—but costs the practice thousands of dollars in their absence—is dental assistants.

There are ways to change and improve this situation for dental assistants, dentists, and ultimately the entire team: increase DA pay by a suggested 15%. DANB has provided a toolkit and retention calculator to help the dental team determine the costs and returns of the DA based on the practice’s financial information. As an example, they suggest a $6,125 pay increase against the potential loss of $110,000.

Words of encouragement and recognition work as well in fostering a team environment.

Dental practice sale volume up

Tusk Practice Sales highlighted with Dental Economics the trend of practice sales from Q1 2023 to Q1 2024.

Deals that went to market in Q1 2024 were received much better than deals that went to market Q1 2023. A hot 2024 was predicated on the fact that mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in 2023 was at a crawl compared to the years prior, and DSOs would need to pick up the pace to keep investors happy.

They also found:

• Selling doctors who go to market in the second half of the year will have a very difficult time getting their deal done before the end of the year.

• In 2022 and 2023, they saw rapid inflation in supply costs and labor expenses, and a very difficult hiring environment fueled by the great resignation.

• The more time you have, the more control and greater negotiating power you have.

AAP launches recognition program for hygienists

The American Academy of Periodontology has launched a recognition program for dental hygienists to promote collaboration and increase patient care quality.