Guide
Calculating case value and contribution margin per clinician hour
The case value is the fee a treatment brings your practice per case – taken from your own billing data, not from market averages. For the decision on advertising, what counts is what is left per clinician hour after materials and lab.
Last updated: 30 October 2026 · Dr. Arnd Heymann, Dental Yield
The terms in one sentence each
The Yield calculator under Tools works with the same five figures.
- Case value
- Fee per case of a treatment, determined from your billing data.
- Contribution margin per case
- Case value minus the cost of materials and lab.
- Contribution margin per clinician hour
- Contribution margin per case divided by the clinician hours one case takes up.
- Free capacity
- Clinician hours per month that are not yet booked.
- Bottleneck
- The scarcest resource in the practice: clinician time, chair, assistants, call-backs or appointment attendance.
How do you calculate the contribution margin per clinician hour?
Five steps, in this order. It is the same logic as in the Yield calculator under Tools; practice fixed costs are not included.
| Step | Figure | Formula |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Contribution margin per case | Fee per case × (1 − share of materials and lab) |
| 2 | Contribution margin per clinician hour | Contribution margin per case ÷ clinician hours per case |
| 3 | Possible cases with free capacity | Free clinician hours per month ÷ clinician hours per case, rounded down to whole cases |
| 4 | Additional yield per month | Possible cases × contribution margin per case |
| 5 | Affordable advertising cost per new patient | Contribution margin per case × 25 % (calculator assumption: a quarter of the contribution margin) |
Worked example
Example with fictional values – these are the default settings of the Yield calculator under Tools. The figures are purely illustrative and say nothing about your practice.
| Item | Calculation | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Fee per case | Input | €3,200 |
| Materials and lab | Input | 35 % |
| Clinician hours per case | Input | 3 h |
| Free clinician hours per month | Input | 18 h |
| Contribution margin per case | €3,200 × 0.65 | €2,080 |
| Contribution margin per clinician hour | €2,080 ÷ 3 h | €693 |
| Possible cases with free capacity | 18 h ÷ 3 h | 6 cases |
| Additional yield per month | 6 × €2,080 | €12,480 |
| Affordable advertising cost per new patient | €2,080 × 25 % | €520 |
Why per clinician hour and not per case?
If clinician time is the bottleneck, the winner is not the treatment with the highest fee but the one with the highest contribution margin per hour. The second example compares two treatments with the same 18 free hours.
| Figure | Treatment A | Treatment B |
|---|---|---|
| Fee per case | €3,200 | €900 |
| Materials and lab | 35 % | 20 % |
| Clinician hours per case | 3 h | 1 h |
| Contribution margin per case | €2,080 | €720 |
| Contribution margin per clinician hour | €693 | €720 |
| Possible cases with 18 free hours | 6 | 18 |
| Additional yield per month | €12,480 | €12,960 |
Treatment B brings in less per case, but more per clinician hour. In return, it needs three times as many new cases – so advertising cost per new patient and appointment attendance belong in the business case before you decide what to advertise.
Typical mistakes when calculating case value
Most campaigns do not fail because of the advertising, but because of what is missing beforehand.
- Calculating with market averages. What a case brings your practice is in your billing data.
- Confusing fee with yield. Without deducting materials and lab, every treatment looks too good.
- Comparing per case only. Without the time required, the contribution margin per clinician hour is missing.
- Advertising without free capacity. More enquiries only help if appointments are free.
- Overlooking the bottleneck. It is not always the clinician; it can also be the chair, assistants, call-backs or appointment attendance.
- Measuring in clicks. What counts is cases per month and yield per treatment hour.
- Adopting example values. An example calculation without practice fixed costs does not replace an analysis of your real data.
Where do your practice’s figures come from?
In the Yield-Check (modules 1 to 3, €4,900 net) we read the case value per treatment group from your practice software and identify the bottleneck. For this we need an export covering the last twelve months and the staff rota; the analysis is carried out under a data processing agreement, without patient names.
- Result of module 1: case value per treatment group, share of self-paying patients, return rate and referral rate
- Result of module 2: bottleneck hours per month, free capacity per clinician, missed-appointment rate
- Result of module 3: two to three lead treatments with case value, time required and target group
- Next: Tender an agency with a uniform price sheet
Frequently asked questions
What is the case value in a dental practice?
The case value is the fee a treatment brings in per case. Dental Yield determines it from your practice’s billing data – real fees instead of market averages.
What is the difference between case value and contribution margin?
The contribution margin per case is the case value minus materials and lab. In the example, a fee of €3,200 with 35 % materials and lab leaves €2,080.
Why calculate the contribution margin per clinician hour?
Because clinician time is often the bottleneck. Comparing treatments per hour shows which treatment makes the best use of free capacity – even if its fee per case is lower.
How much may advertising cost per new patient?
The Yield calculator under Tools assumes a quarter of the contribution margin per case, €520 in the example. For your practice, we derive the target cost per new patient from your own figures in the business case (module 4).
What data do I need for the calculation?
An export from your practice software covering the last twelve months, and the staff rota. For a first estimate, the fee per case, the share of materials and lab, the clinician hours per case and the free hours per month are enough.
Is there a template to calculate it myself?
Yes: the Case value calculator spreadsheet template for €149 net and the online workshop “Case value and capacity” for €390 net per person, online in Teams on the last weekend of every month (one week earlier in December), from 28 November 2026. You will find both under Pricing.