A Profitable Practice with Invisalign
One of the biggest reasons why orthodontists fail to offer Invisalign to their patients is because of the ‘expensive’ Invisalign lab fee. The conventional wisdom is that while treating more clear aligner patients can increase overall practice revenue, the practice’s profitability will decline as a result of using a more expensive product. Additionally, many orthodontists feel the need to charge more for Invisalign and offer less flexible financial terms than they would with braces. These are false assumptions that need to be rectified for the benefit of our patients.
Having a profitable practice is certainly important if you want to be able to reinvest in technology to improve patient care and offer more affordable financing. However, most orthodontists, perhaps due to limited business knowledge, struggle to properly evaluate the true impact integrating new technology can have on profitability. It isn’t always simple addition and subtraction.
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What I’m trying to find out is where Invisalign starts to become profitable in a small office. With the influx of more Invisalign patients with significantly more lab costs (than braces), at what point can I find profitablilty? My office is 1/3 the size of the ‘hypothetical practice’ example given.
What I would really like to see data on is: What annual practice income level should an Orthodontist have BEFORE deciding to promote Invisalign in their practice. My premise is that small offices, like mine, can’t afford to promote Invisalign and stay in business. At what income level is that break even point? Thanks for any responses.
The model just as well with a start up as it does with a more established practice. Fill in your own numbers on your own so it is specific to your practice.