Understanding the lifetime value of a dental patient can help you fully comprehend the importance of each patient who schedules with your practice. Learn how to calculate your patients' average lifetime value and the measures your practice can take to boost this figure. 

What Is the Lifetime Value of a Patient?

In a nutshell, lifetime value is the amount of money your practice will earn from a dental patient throughout the time they are a regular patient at your practice. It's not the revenue you earn from them; it's the profits you make once you subtract the cost of your services. 

As you know, not every patient stays with your practice for the same amount of time, and patients need diverse services that can vary in cost and value to your practice. So while you can't calculate an exact lifetime value that applies to every individual patient, you can get an average figure that can help you make more informed marketing and retention decisions. 

Calculating the Lifetime Value of Dental Patients

You can find numerous formulas to calculate the lifetime value of a dental patient, as this calculation isn't an exact science. If you want one formula you can generally apply to all patients, use the following:

(Average price of patient service - average cost your practice pays to provide the service) x average number of visits per year x average number of years a patient stays with your practice

For example, let's say the average dental service costs $200, and your practice has to pay $50 in supplies and overhead costs. You've also found that most patients have two visits per year, and patients tend to stay with your practice for five years. Your average lifetime value for each patient would be (200 - 50) x 2 x 5, equaling $1,500. 

You could then multiply this figure by your total patient base at a given time to understand the overall value your patients bring to your practice. If you currently see 1,000 patients on a regular basis, the overall value would be $1,500,000. 

You can also calculate your referral rate by multiplying your lifetime value by the average number of referrals each patient brings in. 

Tips to Increase Your Lifetime Value

If your dental practice is hoping to increase your profitability, one of the easiest ways to do so is to increase the lifetime value of a dental patient. This boost in value will multiply for each patient who comes to your practice.

Focus on Retention

Retention, retention, retention — that's the key to increasing patient value. The longer patients stay at your practice, the more revenue each patient will bring in. 

You can target retention in a number of ways. First, focus on improving the patient experience. What kinds of amenities can you offer to make patients want to stay at your practice? 

For instance, you can offer a Virtual Check-In process through Dental Intelligence that allows patients to wait in their cars until you're ready to see them. You can also send Digital Forms and allow patients to schedule their appointments online using Online Scheduling. These small amenities may not seem like much, but they can make or break the patient experience in the digital age. 

Attract New Patients

While bringing in new patients won't increase your value per patient, it will boost your overall patient revenue. Each time you acquire a new patient, you get to multiply your lifetime value figure by that much more. 

Your dental practice should be using a range of marketing strategies, such as:

• Email marketing
• Social media marketing
• Search engine optimization
• Patient referrals

Lower Your Costs

Lowering your overhead will allow you to decrease the amount you're losing on each patient service. Consider these tips to lower your costs:

• Shop around for more affordable suppliers
• Evaluate your current costs and look for outliers
• Automate as many tasks as possible
• Work with a larger dental lab network instead of a small one that charges more per service

Digital Tools for Your Dental Practice

Want to start boosting the lifetime value of dental patients today? With Dental Intelligence's marketing tools, you can enhance the patient experience through user-friendly patient portals, automated appointment reminders, streamlined communications, and many more features. These features can boost retention and even enhance dental patient reactivation, getting old patients back in the chair.

Get started today with a demo from Dental Intelligence.