A crowded calendar can look like success, but what if it’s hiding slow service, low-yield work, and profit slipping through the cracks? We pull back the curtain on the “packed restaurant” illusion and share a clearer measure of health: dollar-per-hour production. By focusing on adjusted production per hour, you can design days that hit your goals on purpose, not by accident, and reclaim time without sacrificing revenue.

We get specific about how to shift from busy to profitable. You’ll hear the simple math that compares an eight-hour day of fillings to a four-hour block of crowns—and why the latter can be four times more profitable in half the time. We dive into DPH block scheduling, setting minimum dollar values for key slots, and limiting low-dollar procedures so your schedule tells the truth. We also tackle the hidden cost of cancellations: the empty operatory that quietly halves profitability. From pre-collecting and firm policies to waitlists and same-day rescue protocols, we show how to protect high-value time and stabilize your week.

Learn how to make more money on less days! Register for the 3 Day Virtual Practice Freedom event at https://www.dentalpracticeheroes.com/freedom

Take Control of Your Practice and Your Life

We help dentists take more time off while making more money through systematization, team empowerment, and creating leadership teams.

Ready to build a practice that works for you? Visit www.DentalPracticeHeroes.com to learn more.

You have the income, the title, even a great team, but still feel trapped. Sound familiar? This episode with Dr. Richard Low will help you take a step back and understand what’s behind your burnout — and how to fix it.

We talk about his decision to leave his 35-office DSO to save his marriage and mental health, why isolation makes burnout worse, and what you can do to get out of the cycle of guilt and overwhelm. Tune in for much-needed advice and perspective on recovery, purpose, and finding yourself again!

Topics discussed:

• Dr. Richard Low’s early success in dentistry
• How success led to burnout, depression, and feeling trapped
• The wake-up call that led him to leave his group
• Why so many practice owners struggle to make a change
• What to do when you’re unhappy in ownership
• How to recover and heal from burnout
• Why dentists need to talk more about mental health

Listen to the Next Level Dentist podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@NextLevelDentist

Connect with Dr. Richard Low:

https://nextlevelfathers.com/

https://www.instagram.com/dr.richard.low/

This episode was produced by Podcast Boutique https://www.podcastboutique.com

GRAB THE FREE PLAYBOOK HERE - Discover 30 proven strategies top-performing dentists use to increase profits, cut clinical days, and finally enjoy the freedom they originally built their practices for.

https://www.dentalpracticeheroes.com/playbook

Take Control of Your Practice and Your Life

We help dentists take more time off while making more money through systematization, team empowerment, and creating leadership teams.

Ready to build a practice that works for you? Visit www.DentalPracticeHeroes.com to learn more.

Ever felt like your dental practice would finally take off if you could just get a few more new patients through the door? That seductive thought might be keeping you from discovering what's really holding your practice back.

I learned this lesson the hard way. Two years into practice ownership, we were consistently seeing 75-90 new patients monthly with minimal marketing effort. The schedule was packed, production was strong, and colleagues were asking for my secrets. I genuinely believed I had mastered practice ownership—until I implemented dashboard software that revealed the harsh truth. Despite impressive production numbers, almost every other metric was failing. Patient retention was terrible. Case acceptance rates were dismal. Cancellations were rampant.

What makes this trap so dangerous is how effectively new patients mask these problems. When you're constantly busy with new faces, you don't notice how many existing patients disappear through the back door. When demand for appointments is high, cancellations don't leave obvious holes in your schedule. When enough patients say "yes" to keep you busy, low case acceptance rates don't trigger alarms. But these hidden inefficiencies dramatically slow your practice's true growth potential.

Once we addressed these fundamental issues, everything changed rapidly. We reached capacity faster, brought on associates sooner, and I reduced my clinical days while improving profitability. The math is clear: fixing retention keeps your marketing investments working longer; reducing cancellations frees your team from constant schedule shuffling; improving case acceptance lets you treat fewer patients while achieving better financial results. Rather than chasing more new patients to pour into a leaky bucket, focus first on plugging the holes—then watch how quickly your practice transforms when new patients become a growth accelerator rather than a band-aid covering deeper problems. Ready to discover what's really holding your practice back? Let's talk about creating systems that maximize what you already have.

Take Control of Your Practice and Your Life

We help dentists take more time off while making more money through systematization, team empowerment, and creating leadership teams.

Ready to build a practice that works for you? Visit www.DentalPracticeHeroes.com to learn more.