Dentistry is a lucrative career, but it’s also an expensive one to enter. On average, dental students graduate with $26,000 of debt per year of school, with dental school taking 4 to 5 years. It can take a long time to pay off all of that debt, and with many dentists aspiring to own their own practices one day, they have even more debt to look forward to in the future.

If you’re looking for a way to increase your income to pay off student debt or the debt you incurred buying your practice, these are some ideas that can help you increase your revenue streams and add both active and passive income.

#1 Offer Fluoride Treatments to Adults

Many dental practices stop offering fluoride treatments to adults because they’re not covered by most insurance policies. Fluoride treatments can be a major benefit to patients with restorations and medium or high risk of cavities.

Offering fluoride treatments to adults who meet the right criteria to benefit from them is a quick way to add some extra revenue to your practice.

#2 Move to 50-Minute Hygiene Appointments

There is a big movement to shift from 60-minute hygiene appointments to 50-minute appointment slots among dental practices. For the most part, 50-minute appointments are plenty of time to provide a thorough cleaning for most patients, and they have the benefit of increasing the number of appointments you can see in a day.

The 50-minute hygiene appointment allows you to increase turnover in the chair and see more patients in a day.

#3 Sell Dental Scrap

Dental scrap is a hidden source of revenue for many dental practices. Precious metals are regularly used in dentistry, including gold, palladium, and silver. They’re used in applications such as ceramic backing, inlays, onlays, and crowns. While there may not be much used in each individual application, it can add up if you collect it.

Once you have enough of it, the best dental scrap refiners will pay for the precious metals you’ve collected. Find a dental scrap refiner to work with you, and that will provide a kit that makes collecting dental scrap easy.

#4 Create an In-House Membership Plan

Preventative dental care utilization is much lower than it should be. Among uninsured adults, it’s only 20%, while even insured adults only have a preventative utilization rate of 50%. In other words, there’s a lot more that consumers could be doing to protect their teeth.

The biggest obstacle to better dental health is cost. People are often reluctant to go beyond their insurance coverage or pay for regular cleanings if they’re uninsured.

A subscription plan is a great way to help patients budget the funds they have for preventative dental care. In-house subscription plans are perfect for uninsured patients who want to do more for their dental health with a predictable budget.

Despite dentists earning on average $170,000 a year, high debt levels and goals of buying their own practices make it an expensive career, as well. Adding income streams to your practice will help you pay off that debt faster and achieve your dreams of a debt-free, independent practice!