When is the right time to engage a consulting firm?

Are you looking to increase production, profit, and income? Are you looking to improve team development and leadership? Are you looking to train a new office manager?

Like businesses, dental practices have a tremendous opportunity to improve in many areas. Even the best practices can increase production, profit, and income to create a highly efficient and low-stress environment that runs smoothly.

The reality is that it will not be this perfect every single day, but if the majority of your days are not spent enjoyably practicing dentistry and hitting goals, there is still an opportunity to improve performance. Dentists are not always properly educated about business during their time in dental school. You can learn different information from seminars, webinars, or articles, but how do you put it all together to have the practice of your dreams?

The consulting industry

The consulting industry includes some of the biggest businesses in the world. There are consulting firms that offer broadscale strategies and analysis for any industry, business, or challenge that you can imagine. In fact, there are millions of people who work in consulting and engage with some of the largest companies such as Microsoft, Google, and Apple.

Now let's consider the business of dentistry. Dental practices may benefit from consulting assistance if they have some of the following characteristics:

1. They are run by dentists who have very little business training.

2. They are complex, small businesses with many systems, components, and the same staffing challenges as any other business.

3. Dental operations do not run smoothly every day due to roadblocks such as no-shows and last-minute cancellations.

4. Dentists can only practically access dental business education in bits and pieces, and it is difficult to put it all together.

These factors are only compounded by today's new challenges, which include flat or lower insurance reimbursements, significant staffing issues/shortages, and the rapid rollout of new clinical techniques and technologies. Unfortunately, dentistshave only so much time, energy, and mind space to address these practice issues while studying business on top of full schedules for clinical care.

When to consider hiring a consultant

As the CEO of a long-term dental management consulting firm, I could joke that any time is the right time for consulting; to some degree, that is true. Comprehensive consulting programs can help any practice grow significantly in a relatively short time. However, there are specific circumstances where practice management consulting is most likely to have the greatest impact.

Hiring a consulting firm requires a true commitment on the part of the dentist and the practice to implement the advice and guidance that is offered. Consulting programs tend to fail when the practice does not follow the methodology of the consulting firm they have engaged. So, when is the right time to hire a consulting firm?

1. To improve your practice: Improvement could be defined as getting organized, becoming more efficient, decreasing stress, or in most cases, increasing production, profit, and doctor income. It is also important to engage the right firm to match your specific goal. For example, my firm, Levin Group, focuses on increasing production, profit, and doctor income by implementing proven systems. Another firm may take a more focused approach to a single aspect of the practice, such as improving the relationships, cohesiveness, or motivation of the dental team. A technology consulting firm may advise the practice as to what equipment or software to buy, and how to use it in the most efficient manner. Be sure to engage the firm that will help you to achieve your goals.

2. When you have a problem: Some businesses deal with daily problems that restrict production, profit, and income. Chronic and recurring issues are typically a result of poor leadership. Leadership is about having a vision, mission, and goals, and helping to align the team around them so that everyone is working to move in the same direction.

3. To implement a specific desire of the dentist or owners: For example, we are often engaged in our comprehensive office manager training program to help office managers act at a chief operating officer level. This allows dentists to move back to focusing strictly on doing dentistry.

4. To make the practice more enjoyable: Dentistry is hard work, at times challenging and stressful. Keep in mind that dentistry is a lifelong career, which means it can be worthwhile to engage a consulting firm just to have more enjoyment and fun. The pursuit of enjoyment and fulfillment usually leads to increased production, so even if that is not the main goal, it will produce a return on investment.

5. When there is going to be a fundamental change in the practice: Some examples of this include when a dentist's child becomes a dentist and joins the practice, an associate is added, multiple practices are merged, or if the practice is bought or sold. One caution is not to engage a consulting firm for areas of the practice where they do not have expertise. All too often dentists become comfortable with one consultant or consulting firm and ask them for advice that is beyond thier expertise or scope. This can lead to suboptimal results.

Key questions to ask consulting firms you are considering engaging with:

1. How many years have you been involved in consulting?

2. How many dental practices have you worked with?

3. Do you have a specific process that you follow to achieve results?

4. Do you analyze the practice at the beginning, monthly, and at the end?

5. What is the background of the consultants or consultant?

6. Where did you acquire your expertise as a consultant or consulting firm?

7. Do you have resources that can be accessed to provide advice and guidance for specific or unique practice situations?

8. What are the expected results?

9. Will the consulting firm be able to accomplish the goals that have been established?

Key takeaways

A good consulting firm usually explains the process, results, and duration of their services. Simply retaining a consulting firm indefinitely is not the best strategy for most practices as you then become dependent on that consulting firm rather than learning the expertise within the practice.

Additionally, the best time to engage a consulting firm is different for every practice; it all depends on their individual needs. As the saying goes, "Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime."

Editor's note: This article appeared in the February 2026 print edition of Dental Economics magazine. Dentists in North America are eligible for a complimentary print subscription. Sign up here.