Dental production and revenue down in 2025? Let's boost them up in 2026

7 minute read

As the year comes to a close, it’s time to take a look at how your dental practice performed financially. If you’re not satisfied with this year’s earnings and profits, now is the time to strategize how you’ll approach 2026. The big question is: What could you change to improve production and revenue? We’re here to help you answer that question.

In 2025, many practices with in-house billing teams struggled to keep revenue on track due to staffing gaps, rising operational costs, insurance pressures, patients delaying treatment, and everyday operational inefficiencies.

According to the ADA—

“Dental practices are continuing to experience a ‘fiscal squeeze’ brought on by rising prices and lower demand for care, according to an update from the ADA Health Policy Institute on the state of the dental economy for the third quarter of 2025.”

While staffing shortages and price increases aren’t in your control, starting the new year with a smart strategy is. When you learn from the struggles of 2025, 2026 doesn’t have to be a repeat of the same challenges.

From our experiences supporting dental practices since 2012, DCS has seen that, with a few targeted operational improvements, you can reclaim lost revenue and set your practice up for a stronger, more profitable year.

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And if you want a fresh start, the DCS Special Projects teams are ready to clean up your aging report, streamline your patient records, and help you prepare for your best year yet.

Key takeaways for improving production and revenue in the new year:

Small operational improvements can dramatically boost your practice’s revenue.
Inefficient workflows, verification errors, and weak follow-up systems were major reasons dental practices lost money in 2025.
Partnering with a dental billing expert like DCS frees your team to focus on patient care while maximizing practice collections and production.

Where did dental practices lose money in 2025? Our free analysis uncovered the truth.

Did you know that DCS experts perform a free collections analysis to assess your pinpoint problem areas with your dental billing? Whether the problems are large or small, it’s valuable to understand where your dental office financials sit.

Here’s where our insurance billing experts discovered revenue leaks in dental practices like yours:

Incomplete or incorrect insurance billing. Even small errors like incomplete documentation, improper codes, or an incorrect date can cause denied claims, delayed payments, and avoidable write-offs. These mistakes quietly drain revenue from practices that aren’t aware of little mistakes that create big problems.
Insurance aging reports that are never reviewed and resolved. Accounts unpaid for 60–90 days significantly drag down your cash flow. Without consistent follow-up, these balances pile up, obscuring your practice’s true financial picture—high production does not guarantee high collections. Many dental teams simply lacked the time or resources to manage this project consistently.
Verification and eligibility mistakes. When your front-office staff are overwhelmed, insurance verification often falls through the cracks. This results in denied claims or reduced payments, delayed scheduling, and patients confused about their financial responsibilities—and perhaps disputing their bill.
Weak follow-up systems. Inconsistent or unclear patient balance payment reminders—especially those that fail to show insurance benefits—can stall payments. Practices that lacked structured follow-up routines saw patient balances grow unchecked.
Inefficient internal workflows. Practices without standardized processes, whether across multiple team members or locations, experienced bottlenecks that slowed collections and reduced production.

An overworked or understaffed team only compounds all of these problems. So what can you do to combat these drains on your revenue and production?

How to set your practice up for a strong 2026—fix these 5 things now

As we said at the start, there are always factors outside your control, but there is still plenty that you can control and influence. There are proven and effective steps you can take to improve your dental business’s profits and production in 2026, and DCS is here to help.

Here are 5 things to home in on in 2026, specifically regarding collections:

Clean up your 2025 A/R (accounts receivable and aging report). A thorough A/R cleanup provides a cash infusion, reduces the burden on your team, frees up their time and attention for patient care, and gives your practice a clean financial slate.
- Note: If your team doesn’t have the capacity to manage your aging report, the DCS A/R Special Projects team can step in, drive review and recovery, and ensure you get paid for all the work you’ve done.
Standardize your insurance billing processes. Standardize daily claim submissions, use a clean claim checklist, improve documentation, and strengthen narrative templates to drastically reduce errors, expedite filing, and accelerate payments.
Require insurance verification. Verification of coverage impacts both production and collections more than many realize. Thorough, consistent verification done in advance of appointments provides the information you need to reduce denials, prevent scheduling delays, and inform patients of their out-of-pocket costs. If dental insurance verification is overwhelming your team, DCS Insurance Verification Services can manage all of this for you.
Automate patient billing. Automation will take over patient payments from the initial statement through reminders and the write-back—and it never goes on vacation or calls in sick. This frees your team to focus on actual patient experience while offering you consistent cash flow. Tools like QuantaPay create a hands-free billing experience that improves collections and patient satisfaction.
Regularly monitor your practice’s key performance indicators (KPIs). Track monthly performance reports, claim turnaround times, patient A/R targets, and production benchmarks. These numbers will keep you updated on your practice’s performance and indicate where improvements can be made before they snowball into major problems.

Once those foundations are rock solid for your practice, you can increase production without increasing problems with paperwork. Here are practical, actionable steps for improving your production:

Strategies to boost production now that you’ve improved collections:

Once financial processes are optimized, you may find that production naturally improves. But you can get a head start by focusing on these 3 actions:

Reactivate overdue patients. Reengage with patients for unscheduled hygiene appointments and treatment follow-ups fills your calendar without additional marketing spending. This can be done by phone, email, or text—and if your team is too busy, there are automated services to handle it.
Increase treatment plan acceptance. Transparent financial discussions and detailed treatment presentations significantly increase acceptance rates, patient satisfaction, and collections. The team member presenting the treatment plan should approach it as a sales task as well as an opportunity to answer patient questions and address their concerns.
Reduce cancellations and no-shows. Digital reminders, like the ones QuantaPay can provide, pre-appointment confirmations, and reasonable no-show fees reduce last-minute calendar confusion, protect your production, and help keep your schedule full.

This is all manageable with a skillful dental team and enough time. But if your team is understaffed or overworked, here’s another solution that eases their workload instead of adding to it…

Your 2026 revenue growth requires a dental billing partner, not just more production

When dental teams are stretched thin, revenue growth and higher profitability rarely come from pushing staff harder, hiring more staff, or increasing production when your current billing system has fallen behind.

That’s where the DCS Special Projects team is at their best—cleaning up and clearing out your dental billing issues.

We work with your team as a true partner to uncover and collect lost revenue, clean up your patient management software (PMS), and streamline your billing systems to set you up for future success.

You will love the cash boost after our dental billing experts maximize revenue by resolving old business from your aging report, reclaiming the revenue you’ve earned but haven’t received.

If your practice could use ongoing support, our service teams will manage your insurance verification and insurance billing month after month. Whatever dental billing service you’re in need of, DCS is a partner you can count on to boost your revenue and improve your processes.

Choose DCS as your revenue growth solution and dental billing partner

To recap, we covered:

Where dental practices lost money in 2025, based on the findings of our free analysis
8 practical, proven ways to set up your practice for a more profitable 2026
How your 2026 revenue growth would be supported by a dental billing partner, not just more production

Now that you have a better idea of how to improve collections and production in the new year, consider which direction is best for your practice. You can tackle each of these on your own, or you can turn to the experts at DCS for dental billing and business support.

Either way, your best first step is start with a zero-commitment, free collections analysis to see where things stand, where to start, and where DCS can help.

You’re not alone if production and revenue were lower this year! But with the right improvements and the right partner, 2026 can outperform 2025 and even become your highest-earning and most profitable year yet.

Dental revenue resources from Dental Claim Support