Free HR calculator

Chair Downtime Calculator

A hygienist or assistant absence can leave chair time unused and appointments waiting to be rescheduled. Enter your production per chair hour and lost chair time to estimate the monthly and annual impact. Then compare the production recovered through rebooking with the cost of temporary coverage.

What to expect Have your monthly short-staffed days, lost chair hours, production per hour, and rebooking rate ready. The calculation takes about two minutes.

Staffing gaps

Short-staffed days per month

Count the days a hygiene column or operatory was unstaffed.

Chair hours lost per short day

Enter the chair hours left unused after schedule adjustments.

Production

Production per chair hour

Use your average hourly hygiene or operative production from practice reports.

Share of affected appointments recovered through rebooking

Include appointments rebooked into available chair time during the period you are measuring.

Temporary coverage (optional)

Short-staffed days covered by temporary staff each month

Temp cost per covered day

Enter the temporary staffing day rate or agency fee. Covered days are treated as fully staffed in the estimate.

Annual impact of lost production and temporary coverage

0 idle chair hours per year

Per month

Average per short-staffed day

What your results mean

Compare your estimate with your practice reports. Adjust production and rebooking figures to see how temporary coverage and recovered appointments affect the total.

Email your results

Send yourself a copy of your calculation and inputs.

How the calculation works

How chair downtime is estimated

Lost chair hours are valued at your average production per hour. The calculation then accounts for appointments recovered through rebooking and temporary staffing costs. Days covered by temporary staff are treated as fully staffed.

See the calculation

Production affected by staffing gaps

Multiply lost chair hours by your average production per hour to estimate the production affected by staffing gaps.

Protect your booked chair time

Keep a backup staffing plan, cross-train appropriate roles, and maintain a temporary staffing roster. Contact affected patients promptly to reschedule.

Other costs to consider

Other financial effects may include compressed schedules, delayed recalls, patient attrition, and payroll savings during unpaid absences.

Build your coverage plan

Prepare for staffing gaps

The Dental Attendance, Time Off, and Coverage System helps you plan coverage for clinical and front desk roles. Its 9 tabs include attendance tracking, time-off and shift-swap procedures, and a same-day call-out guide. Protected leave receives zero attendance points.

$59

One-time purchase. Instant download.

See the Attendance and Coverage System

30-day refund. Questions? Reply to your receipt or email support@truestephr.com.

Compare this estimate with your records to help plan your next step.

Next steps

Weigh coverage against rebooking

Compare backup coverage costs with the production your practice can recover through rebooking.

01 · Calculate

Estimate lost chair production

Use your actual chair hours and production figures.

02 · Save and compare

Keep your production estimate

Email your estimate, then use the system to plan backup coverage across the practice.

See the Attendance and Coverage System →

03 · Dental Practice HR System · $199

Dental Practice HR System

The Dental Practice HR System brings five toolkits together as one program, beginning with a practice self-audit.

See what is inside →