How to Determine the Salary of a Hygienist
How do you settle on a salary for your hygienist?
This is a hot topic! Our industry lost many hygienists during the COVID-19 pandemic, so some of our current situation with high hygienist salaries is a supply issue. It is compounded by corporate dentistry, DSOs, DMOs and groups that hire many hygienists and pay sign-on bonuses — all in an effort not to get people healthy, but just treat the effects of disease, while staying within the insurance framework.
When your hygienist comes to you wanting a significant increase, how do you figure out what you can afford, and if it is worth it?
The old rule of thumb was that the hygienist salary should be 1/3 of their production. Or said another way, a hygienist will ideally produce a minimum of three times his/her daily rate, including all benefits. But if you are in an insurance network, that rule goes out the window unless you are doing assisted hygiene, shorter appointments, or seeing two to four patients per hour.
I recently had a doctor tell me her hygienist was offered a significant raise and a $7,500 signing bonus —the hygienists asked if the doctor would match it.
Chances are, if this hygienist left, she would not be happy after a short amount of time at the new location. The reason: the office philosophies are drastically different — one oriented toward health creation, the other oriented to a volume offering — with the hygienist doing as many prophies as possible per day, with a lot of same-day dentistry.
A good hygienist will assist patients in transcending the problems of bacterial plaque. This all starts with a mutual understanding of why that person is in the chair in the first place! This isn’t just a “private care” activity.
Patients who are at an insurance network practice, and getting their teeth cleaned on the insurance company’s six-month schedule, are still showing up for a reason! About 50 percent of those with insurance go to the dentist regularly. Why? It is the hygienist’s and dentist’s job to figure out what it is! This is how you discover the patient’s values for health. Everything going forward will relate to those values.
A good hygienist helps the patient understand their power to shape or reshape their body and its microbiome through nutrition and helps modify their behavior to improve sleep patterns. The hygienist also assists in setting up a learning environment for the patient to understand the cause and effect of bacterial plaque, nutrition issues, genetic predispositions, resistant strains of bacteria, etc., and what they can do about it.
In short — help a person discover their individual creative potential and take immediate actions that support their short- and long-term desired outcomes.
As patients become healthier and transcend the effects of bacterial plaque, all you have left is problems with force, genetics, and systemic health. This opens a whole world of dentistry that is available to you and the patient.
This is something that will never be accomplished in volume settings because it requires the dentist and team to deeply understand the person in front of them, and care for them in a much different way than traditional dentistry or medicine. To form that kind of relationship takes time. The benefits of that relationship absolutely and massively increase the earning ability of the doctor and practice, but also improves the energy and spirit of the practice.
When figuring what you can afford for your hygiene compensation, look at the total staff compensation for the office. In our budgeting model for a single hygienist office, the total staff compensation would be between 20-23 percent. A good hygienist will increase total revenue for the office, allowing for an increased hygiene compensation without disrupting the Schuster Center overhead model.
If this topic interests you, or if you would like to discuss this article personally, use the link below to schedule a time with Dr. Edwards or call Chris Ellison at 480.941.9393.
https://my.timetrade.com/book/