It may be time to re-think your whitening protocols

Dentistry Today

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Sponsored Editorial

It could be costing your practice more than you realize

When your patients request professional teeth whitening, are you still taking impressions and fabricating custom bleach trays? If so, when was the last time you performed a thorough cost of goods (COG) analysis? You might find that the process costs your practice more than you know, and to make a profit, your price could be prohibitively expensive for the average patient.

For a custom whitening tray COG, you must add up all of these things:

Materials and Equipment Use: Employee Time: Lost production time:
  • Alginate/PVS
  • Lab Stone Model
  • Custom Tray Sheets
  • Impression tray, including
    sterilization
  • Plaster vibrator
  • Grinder for stone model
  • Sink Plaster Trap
  • Vacuum former
    (suck-down machine)
  • Taking the impression, plus
    cleaning
  • Mixing and pouring the stone
    model
  • Grinding the models
  • Performing suck down and
    cutting the tray
  • Getting the patient back in
    the office
  • Increase by 1.5 if assistants
    at overtime
  • Assistant or RDH is in the lab
    fabricating trays instead of
    helping with daily production
  • Valuable chair-time being
    used by taking impressions
  • Chair time being used to
    handle fit issues
  • If it doesn’t fit and the model
    was distorted, you must start
    this process all over again

This COG will vary from office to office, but after adding up these costs you might find it to be about $100-$200+ just to fabricate the custom trays, not including the whitening gel syringes. If you want to make a profit, you must charge $200-$400. This could be too big of a sell for your team just for whitening, especially when you want them focused on handling more valuable treatment. If you’re giving whitening away, as some offices do for promotion, that’s a lot of cash!

The good news is that you can now offer professional-only teeth whitening strips that cost nothing to fabricate

Practices around the country are finding that SheerWhite! Teeth Whitening Strips are solving the problems of the high fabrication cost while still producing professional whitening results. Not only does the practice save money, it is able to pass along the savings to the patient and provide whitening at an “everyday-patient” price. Additionally, patients are finding that SheerWhite! Teeth Whitening Strips are easier to wear, less mess, less sensitivity than custom trays – and takes fewer days to whiten. They can even talk while wearing them. If you haven’t tried SheerWhite! yourself, then it’s time.

For more information, visit CAOGroup.com or call 877-877-9778.