Glossary: the vocabulary of running dental offices well
Plain-language definitions of the operating terms office managers, practice owners, and DSO operators use every day, each with a worked example and the terms it connects to.
The MyDentalForce glossary defines the metrics and routines behind patient outreach and dental office operations: what each term means, how it is calculated, why it matters when you run more than one office, and what to do about it. Every entry opens with a one-sentence definition, works through an example with illustrative figures, and links to the related terms.
Unscheduled treatment
Unscheduled treatment is dental treatment that a provider has diagnosed and presented to a patient, and that the patient has accepted or has not yet declined, but that has no appointment on the schedule.
GlossaryHygiene recall
Hygiene recall is the system a dental office uses to bring patients back for their next preventive hygiene visit, usually a cleaning and exam, at the interval the provider prescribed.
GlossaryPatient reactivation
Patient reactivation is the process of bringing back patients who have not visited the practice for an extended period, usually 12 to 18 months or more, and who have no future appointment on the schedule.
GlossaryTreatment acceptance rate
Treatment acceptance rate is the percentage of diagnosed and presented dental treatment that patients agree to and schedule, measured either by dollar value or by number of procedures over a set period.
GlossaryMorning huddle
A morning huddle is a short daily meeting, usually 10 to 15 minutes before the first patient, in which a dental office team reviews the day's schedule, production goal, open time, and priority patients.
GlossaryProduction vs collections
Production vs collections is the distinction between the dollar value of dental work a practice performs in a period (production) and the cash it actually receives for that work (collections).
GlossaryDSO (dental support organization)
A DSO (dental support organization) is a company that provides business and administrative support services, such as human resources, billing, marketing, purchasing, compliance, and IT, to dental practices that remain clinically owned or directed by licensed dentists.
GlossaryPatient outreach
Patient outreach is the daily operating discipline of contacting patients who are due for hygiene, have unscheduled treatment, have lapsed, or carry an outstanding balance, so that they get scheduled or resolved and the practice's schedule stays full.
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