Dental practice overhead calculator
Enter collections and operating expenses to see your overhead percentage, the dollar gap to a target overhead level, and the value of each overhead point. Use it before making a staffing, lease, lab, supply, software, or production-goal decision.
Your overhead inputs
Enter annual collections and operating expenses before doctor/owner compensation, income tax, and distributions.
Use collected production, not scheduled production.
Non-doctor wages, payroll taxes, benefits, temp labor.
Occupancy and fixed office costs.
External lab bills and case-related lab costs.
Consumables, disposables, and office supplies.
Paid media, website, local sponsorships, referral campaigns.
PMS, phones, merchant fees, IT, subscriptions.
Equipment leases, maintenance, repairs, interest.
Professional fees, training, dues, and uncategorized overhead.
Compare your expense load against a chosen target.
Current overhead
62%
$558,000 in operating expense on $900,000 in collections. That leaves $342,000 before owner pay, income tax, and distributions.
Target gap
$27,000
above target at 59%
One point
$9,000
1% of annual collections
Moving overhead by 3 percentage points changes pre-owner-pay margin by about $27,000 at this collection level.
Expense mix
How to read the result
Overhead is total operating expense divided by annual collections. A practice collecting $900,000 with $558,000 in operating expenses is running at about 62% overhead before owner pay. Moving from 62% to 59% on that same collection base is a $27,000 swing before owner pay, income tax, and distributions.
ADA News cites fixed expenses around 4% to 7% of production, variable costs around 45% to 55%, industry-wide overhead around 62%, and a 59% general-practice target referenced by Levin Group. Those figures are context, not a verdict. Specialty mix, growth stage, owner compensation model, DSO affiliation, real-estate structure, and local labor costs can all change what is reasonable.
Use it as a decision filter
- - Staff: test whether a new hire pays for itself through increased collections or lower bottlenecks.
- - Lab and supplies: quantify the annual value of a percentage-point change before switching vendors.
- - Facility: compare rent, utilities, and expansion costs against expected collection lift.
- - Software: model subscription and admin cost against fewer missed claims, no-shows, or manual hours.
Frequently asked questions
- What is dental practice overhead?
- Dental practice overhead is operating expense as a percentage of collections, usually before doctor or owner compensation, income tax, and distributions. This calculator adds entered expense categories, divides by annual collections, and compares the result with a chosen target.
- What overhead benchmark should a dental practice compare against?
- An ADA News expense-management article cites industry-wide practice overhead around 62% and a 59% general-practice target referenced by Levin Group. Treat those as planning context, not a rule for every specialty, market, owner model, or growth stage.
- Which expenses should be excluded?
- For a clean overhead read, keep owner or doctor compensation, income taxes, distributions, and one-time personal expenses out of the operating-expense lines. Include ordinary staff, facility, lab, supply, marketing, software, equipment, debt-service, and administrative costs.