Annual Overhead

• In general terms, the average annual overhead for a dental office in 2006 was $350,000. This amount can vary based on the dentist market and location, which affect fees and revenues made by patients. However, that figure does not include a salary for the dentist. Like other business owners, if the dentist wants to make a profit, then a salary must be assigned from earnings after other important expenses have already been paid.
  
  

Key Components

• The $350,000 is made up of several categories. For instance, the dentist must calculate employee wages for a variety of receptionists and hygienists. Nearly every dental procedure uses up materials, including tools, safety products and chemicals for cleaning or the dental work itself. Many modern dental offices save on money by automating as many systems as possible and move any hard-copy information into the digital world.
  
  

Keeping an Office Running

• The annual amount to run a dentist office leads to around $312 per hour to keep the dentist office open. This is the figure if the dentist plans on working 33 hours per week for 48 weeks out of the year, anther average that may change from office to office. If the revenue the office generates is the national average as well, $525,000, then this will allow the business to stay profitable.
  
  

Multiple Patients

• Dentists in the United States are typically bound by insurance coverage limits. Insurance companies, either through regulation or their own standards, limit the amount they will pay dentists per surgery, which makes it very difficult for dentists to raise their revenues to the point where they surpass the $312 hourly cost to run the office. As Abel pointed out in his "The Real Cost of Dentistry," most dentists make money by seeing more than one patient at a time and working along with hygienists to increase hourly earnings.