Toss out the five-week rule.

There's an old rule of thumb in dentistry: bring in an associate once you're booked out five weeks.

I only half joke when I say it's time to toss it out.

A full schedule is one reason to add a provider. It's nowhere near the only one.

You might want to:
→ Open a second location
→ Add evening or weekend hours
→ Improve EBITDA
→ Bring specialty procedures in-house instead of referring them out
→ Scale back your own chair time — because you're becoming a parent, or you just want your life back — without sacrificing what the practice earns

None of those wait for a five-week backlog.

The reason to add an associate is whatever you're trying to build. The schedule is a lagging indicator. The vision is the leading one.

If you only hire when you're already drowning, you're hiring in a hurry — and hurried hires are the expensive ones.