Summary

In most cases, a dental staffing agency costs less than in house hiring once you count the hidden time and money that goes into recruiting on your own, but the honest answer depends on whether you are filling a permanent role or covering a short term gap.

This guide breaks down what in house dental hiring really costs once you add up job postings, interview hours, background checks, benefits, and the risk of a bad hire leaving six months later. Then it looks at what a staffing agency actually charges, and where that fee buys real value instead of just convenience. Mayday’s network has already filled more than 20,000 dental shifts nationwide with an average time to fill of 5 to 7 days, compared with a 42 to 63 day industry average when a practice runs the entire search alone. By the end, you will have a simple framework for deciding which path costs less for your specific practice, instead of a one size fits all answer.

What In-House Dental Hiring Actually Costs

Most practice owners think of in house hiring as free, since there is no agency invoice attached to it. That is not really true. The cost is just spread out across your own time, your team’s time, and a handful of smaller expenses that rarely get added up in one place. Once you do add them up, the cost of hiring a dental hygienist in house is often higher than practices expect.

Job Postings and Advertising

Posting on job boards, running local ads, or boosting a listing on social media all cost money, and the good ones are not free. Even a modest posting budget across a few sites adds up fast, especially if the first round of applicants does not produce anyone qualified and you have to repost.

Interview Time You Don’t Get Back

This is the cost most owners underestimate. Screening resumes, scheduling calls, conducting interviews, and following up with candidates all take real hours, usually your hours or your office manager’s hours. Every hour spent on hiring is an hour not spent on patient care, treatment planning, or running the business side of the practice. For a role like a dental hygienist, where you also want a working interview to confirm clinical fit, that time commitment multiplies.

Background Checks and Credential Verification

Verifying a license, running a background check, and confirming references are not optional steps, even though it is tempting to rush them when you are desperate to fill a chair. Done properly, this takes real administrative time and sometimes a small verification fee per candidate. Our guide on hiring criteria for dental hygienists walks through what a thorough check actually involves, and it is more than most practices realize going in.

Benefits, Payroll Taxes, and Onboarding

A permanent hire comes with payroll taxes, workers compensation, and often benefits like health insurance or paid time off. None of that shows up on the job posting, but it shows up on your books every month the person is employed. Add in onboarding time, training on your specific software and workflows, and the ramp up period before a new hire is fully productive, and the true cost of a permanent hire is almost always higher than the listed salary alone.

• Job board and advertising fees, often repeated if the first round falls short
• Owner or office manager hours spent screening, interviewing, and following up
• Background checks and license verification for every serious candidate
• Payroll taxes, workers compensation, and any benefits offered
• Onboarding and training time before the new hire is fully productive
• The turnover risk if the hire does not work out within the first year

What a Dental Staffing Agency Actually Charges

A staffing agency charges differently depending on what you need. For temporary coverage, you typically pay an hourly bill rate that includes the professional’s pay plus the agency’s margin for sourcing, vetting, and handling the administrative side. For a permanent placement, most agencies charge a one time placement fee, usually a percentage of the new hire’s first year salary or a flat rate agreed upfront.

This is where the phrase dental staffing agency fees vs salary gets confusing for a lot of practice owners. A placement fee can look large as a single number on an invoice, but it replaces weeks of your own unpaid time, not just the cost of finding a candidate. Our guide for employers on hiring dental staff breaks down typical fee structures in more detail if you want to compare specific numbers for your area.

Permanent Roles: Comparing the Real Numbers

For a single permanent hire, in house hiring can sometimes come out cheaper on paper, especially if you already have an efficient hiring process and low turnover. But that comparison only holds up if your first search actually works. If a hire falls through in the first few months, and you have to start the entire process over, the in house math changes fast. You are now paying for two searches instead of one, plus whatever coverage gap the departure created in the meantime.

Mayday’s network includes 2,000+ vetted dental professionals across 2,000+ dental offices nationwide, with an average time-to-fill of 5 to 7 days, compared with a 42 to 63 day industry average for most staffing searches.

An agency’s placement fee usually comes with some form of guarantee period, where a replacement is provided at no extra cost if the hire does not work out. That guarantee is worth factoring into any true cost comparison, since it is protection an in house search rarely offers on its own.

Temporary and Emergency Coverage: A Different Math Entirely

For short term and emergency coverage, the comparison shifts heavily in the agency’s favor, and there is not much debate about it. Running your own temp hiring process for a two week gap is not realistic for most practices. You would need an existing bench of pre-screened, credentialed people willing to work on short notice, and almost no practice keeps that on hand internally. This is exactly the gap a staffing agency is built to close, and it connects directly to what we cover in the hidden risk of staffing without accountability, where an unverified last minute hire can cost you more than the agency fee ever would.

If you are trying to control costs across the whole year rather than just one hire, it also helps to think in terms of total labor cost, not just the hourly rate on an invoice. We go deeper on that approach in how to lower total labor cost, including how overtime, turnover, and empty chair time factor into the real number.

When In-House Hiring Makes Sense

In house hiring is not wrong for every practice. It tends to make the most sense in specific situations.

1. You are a larger practice or DSO with dedicated HR staff whose time is already budgeted for recruiting.
2. You are hiring for a stable, well defined permanent role and have a strong local reputation that attracts applicants without much advertising spend.
3. You have the bandwidth to run a proper background check and credentialing process without it competing with patient care.
4. You have low historical turnover, so the risk of a failed hire and a repeated search is genuinely low for your practice.

If none of those describe your practice today, that is not a criticism. It just means the true cost of in house dental hiring is probably higher for you than the sticker price suggests.

When a Staffing Agency Makes Sense

Almost every practice benefits from having an agency relationship in place for temporary and emergency coverage, even if permanent hiring stays in house most of the time. The two approaches are not mutually exclusive. Many practices use an agency for fast, flexible coverage while still running their own search for a long term hire, and then convert a strong temporary professional into a permanent one once the fit is proven. You can read more about how that works in the benefits of partnering with a dental staffing agency.

Not sure which approach fits your practice? Talk to Mayday about your specific staffing needs and get a straight answer on where an agency saves you money and where in house hiring is fine as is.

Instead of treating this as an all or nothing decision, run the math for your own practice using this short framework.

• Add up your last two permanent hiring searches, including your own time at a reasonable hourly value, advertising spend, and any coverage gap while the seat sat open.
• Compare that total against a typical agency placement fee for the same role in your area.
• For temporary needs, compare the agency’s hourly bill rate against what an empty chair actually costs you per hour in lost production.
• Factor in the guarantee period an agency offers versus the cost of redoing an in house search from scratch.

Once you actually run these numbers, the decision tends to get a lot clearer than it looks from the outside. For more supporting data on typical costs and fill times across the industry, our stats and facts about dental staffing agencies is a useful reference point.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a dental staffing agency more expensive than hiring in house?

Not necessarily. A staffing agency’s fee is often higher as a single line item, but in house hiring carries hidden costs like your own time, advertising spend, and the risk of a failed hire. For temporary and emergency coverage, an agency is almost always cheaper once you factor in how expensive an empty chair really is.

What is the real cost of hiring a dental hygienist in house?

Beyond the salary itself, you need to count job postings, interview time, background checks, payroll taxes, benefits, and onboarding. Most practices spend several weeks of combined staff time on a single hire once every step is included, and that time has a real dollar value even if it never shows up as a separate invoice.

Do dental staffing agencies charge a fee for temporary shifts, or only for permanent placements?

Both. Temporary and per diem shifts are billed at an hourly rate that includes the agency’s margin. Permanent placements are usually billed as a one time fee, often a percentage of the new hire’s first year salary. Ask any agency you are considering to explain both fee structures clearly before you commit.

Can I use a staffing agency for some roles and hire in house for others?

Yes, and many practices do exactly this. It is common to run permanent hiring in house for stable, well defined roles while using an agency for temporary coverage, emergency call-outs, and harder to fill specialty positions.

How do I know if in house hiring is actually cheaper for my practice?

Run the numbers from your last one or two hiring searches, including your own time, advertising costs, and any lost production while the seat was open. Compare that honest total against a typical agency fee for the same role. Most practices are surprised by how close, or how far apart, the two numbers actually are.

What happens if an in house hire does not work out?

You typically start the entire search over, which means paying the full cost again in time and advertising, plus covering the gap the departure created. Many staffing agencies include a guarantee period on permanent placements, providing a replacement at no extra fee if the hire does not work out within a set window, which is a real cost advantage worth factoring in.

Does using a staffing agency mean giving up control over who works in my practice?

No. A good agency sends you a match, but you still decide whether that professional is a fit for your practice. With Mayday, you review the credentials and confirm the shift or placement. The agency handles sourcing and vetting, not your final say on who works in your office.

Ready to see the real numbers for your practice? Contact Mayday at (888) 899-4386 or [email protected] and get a straight comparison before your next hiring decision.