A periodontal practice runs two production engines at once: a hygiene department paid on maintenance and per-quadrant scaling, and a periodontist paid on grafts and implants. WageTime pays the hygienists’ production, the surgeon’s collections split, and the cross-trained seats between them without the payday spreadsheet.
The American Academy of Periodontology counts about 3,500 active members licensed to practice periodontics in the US (AAP), and the office that supports one runs an unusually hygiene-heavy payroll on top of a surgical one. The person running it reconciles hygiene production off the recall schedule, the surgeon’s collections split off the practice-management report, sedation and CBCT renewals, and cross-trained two-rate weeks, mostly in a spreadsheet, every payday.
A periodontal practice lives on its hygiene department, and a healthy one runs about a third of total practice production, much of it periodontal (practice-management benchmarks). Hygienists are paid a base hourly rate plus a production percentage or a commission on hygiene production, and that number comes off the recall schedule into a spreadsheet, gets re-typed into payroll, and is rebuilt by hand every period, with a rounding error nobody catches until a hygienist does.
Scaling and root planing bills per quadrant, a full quadrant at one code and a one-to-three-tooth quadrant at another, and periodontal maintenance recall follows on its own three-to-four-month clock (ADA coding guidance). A hygienist paid on production earns off whatever mix of quadrants and maintenance visits filled the day, and turning that into a paycheck is per-unit math done in a workbook the front desk keeps.
The periodontist produces on gum grafts, osseous surgery, crown lengthening, regeneration, and implant placement, and an associate is on a percentage of collections that sits at the high end of the specialty scale, around 35% and up (Cain Watters). That split comes off the same practice-management report, gets re-typed into payroll next to the hygiene numbers, and a light surgical week still has to clear minimum wage for the hours actually worked.
Periodontal surgery runs on moderate or IV sedation, so the doctor holds a state sedation permit and a current ACLS card, implant planning puts a CBCT credential on the imaging staff, and everyone still carries a license, DEA, radiography cert, and CPR card. Five renewal clocks, five different dates, and the one a busy surgery schedule is most likely to run past is the sedation permit that clears the whole calendar to work.
A periodontal assistant scrubs in for a graft in the morning and runs sterilization or the recare desk in the afternoon, working two rates in one workweek, and the hygiene department’s steady recall base means those blended hours land every single period. That is weighted-overtime math on a full payroll, not an edge case, and no office manager wants to do it on paper.
Hygiene production becomes configuration in WageTime, not the spreadsheet the recall schedule usually feeds: base hourly plus a production percentage runs as one pay code, per-quadrant scaling as another, and the largest recurring line in the building settles inside payroll every period.
Replaces the recall-schedule spreadsheet, and the per-quadrant math re-typed off the report.
The graft-and-implant ledger runs as pay codes, not a monthly reconciliation. Periodontal associates sit at the high end of the specialty comp scale, commonly around 35% and up of adjusted production or collections, above the 28% to 35% a general-practice associate sees (Cain Watters).
Replaces the surgical-production spreadsheet, and the collections split re-typed off the report.
Every credential sits on the employee record in WageTime with its own renewal date and the document attached, so the sedation permit that clears the whole surgery calendar is renewed on schedule instead of discovered lapsed on a surgery morning.
| Employee | Credential | Expires | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr. A. Reyes | IV sedation permit | Aug 10 | 15 days |
| Dr. A. Reyes | ACLS card | Oct 06 | 72 days |
| R. Ortiz, RDH | CBCT operator credential | Mar 22 | Current |
| Dr. S. Patel | State dental license | Mar 31 | Current |
| T. Boyd, RDH | CPR/BLS card | Jan 18 | Current |
Replaces the sedation permit renewed a month late, and the surgery day it should have been ready for.
In one WageTime run, each side coded to its engine, so the owner reads true labor cost on hygiene and on surgery separately. The assistant who scrubs a graft at nine and staffs the recare desk at two settles on weighted-average overtime automatically.
Replaces the two stapled-together spreadsheets, and the blended-rate overtime nobody wants to do on paper.
Full-service payroll is $10 a month per person paid that month, plus $50 a month per company, with unlimited runs. No long-term contracts, no per-run charges.
Off-cycle runs and bonuses cost nothing extra. No long-term contracts; cancel anytime.
Example: 50 people paid × $10 + $50 company = $550 for the month
HR & hiring, onboarding, PTO, time tracking, benefits, and workers’ comp are optional add-ons, priced separately when you’re ready.
See a demoSet the base hourly rate as one code and the hygiene production percentage as a tiered commission code, and WageTime runs both on the same check every period. A hygienist paid a base rate plus a percentage of hygiene production, or a per-quadrant value on scaling and root planing, has all of it settle inside one run, with no recall-schedule spreadsheet and different splits allowed side by side.
Yes. A full-quadrant deep cleaning and a one-to-three-tooth quadrant can each be a per-unit pay code with its own value, and a periodontal-maintenance recall visit its own code, so a hygienist’s pay reflects the actual mix of quadrants and maintenance visits that filled the day. Flat-amount, per-unit, and tiered commission types run side by side inside one run.
Set the collections or production percentage as a tiered commission code and any per-implant or per-graft incentive as a per-unit code, both running on the collected-revenue basis you define. Periodontal associates are commonly paid around 35% and up of adjusted production or collections, and that split lands on the same check as any surgical incentive codes. How the comp rules apply is between you and your advisor.
Yes. The doctor’s state sedation permit and ACLS card, the imaging staff’s CBCT operator credential, and each person’s dental license, DEA, radiography cert, and CPR card sit on the employee record, each with its renewal date and document attached. Renewal alerts fire 30, 60, and 90 days before each expiration, and categories are built to match your state board’s sedation tiers.
A periodontal assistant often scrubs a graft in the morning and staffs sterilization or the recare desk in the afternoon, two jobs at two pay rates in one week. Put both rates on the one employee and WageTime settles weighted-average overtime on the blended regular rate, and the recall-driven schedule means it happens most weeks, not rarely. Clocked hours flow in coded to each job.
Yes. WageTime settles the hygienists’ base-plus-production, the surgeon’s collections split, and the assistants’ and coordinator’s hours in a single run, coded to each side so the owner sees true labor cost on hygiene and on surgery. Minimum-wage processing covers a light week for either engine, and finished payroll posts to QuickBooks mapped by department. Running two or more locations is covered on our DSO and dental groups page.
The platform behind WageTime is SOC 2 Type II audited and ISO 27001/27018 certified, with safeguards built for handling HIPAA-covered data, and business and employee data is protected end to end with bank-level encryption. A periodontal practice holds sensitive staff and patient information, and WageTime walks through its security posture on the demo rather than representing any specific compliance outcome for your office.
$50 a month for the practice plus $10 per person actually paid that month, with unlimited payroll runs. Off-cycle runs, production corrections, and bonuses cost nothing extra, every federal, state, and local tax is filed automatically, and year-end W-2s and 1099s are included. A practice that adds a hygienist or an associate pays for who was paid, not a per-seat block.
One hygienist paid on base plus production, your per-quadrant scaling values, and a surgeon paid on collections. Twenty minutes with a payroll specialist on a live demo practice: you’ll watch a hygiene production run with a minimum-wage floor, a surgical collections split settle next to it, and a two-rate assistant land on weighted overtime.
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