Why do many dental practices have multiple operatories?

I've been doing a bit of research on dental practices for a project and don't quite get why there is a need for more operatories than dentists? What is the point in having 4 operatories for one practising dentist? Is it so they can add associates and work like that? Are they for hygineists to use? Stil why so many?

Why do many dental practices have multiple operatories?
Additional operatories can be used for associates, hygienists and assistants performing expanded duties.





They can also be used for 'quick' visits, like denture adjustments or post-op follow ups.





I work for a private dentist in a small town. We have two operatories. One is the 'main' one where we do our procedures. The second one is used by the hygienist and myself.





Everyone in the office is cross-trained, so we help each other out with breaking down rooms and sterilization, as well as scheduling appointments and taking calls.





We focus on quality and not quantity.





Our patients are seated at their appointment time, and the work is completed by the time the next patient is due. Our scheduling is pretty much on-target, unless we get an emergency....but our patients, who have been seen as emergencies in the past at one time or another, don't have a problem with waiting a few minutes to be seated.
Reply:they have hygeinists working on patients. as they finish, the doctor is called over to look at the patients. so it has to do with scheduling really on the reason why they have so many chairs. The more chairs, the quicker they are, the more money.
Reply:the more operatories you have, the more patients you can see at once. The more patients you can see at a time, the more money you make. Hence, multiple operatories. They multitask.
Reply:Yes, dentists often use them for associate dentists or hygienists. Some will even use more then one on their own at the same time, though I was always uncomfortable with that idea. (While one patient is getting numb, the dentist is finishing a filling on another patient...) In that case, patients are likely to wait more, but as the other answerers said, the dentist will make more.
Reply:I used 5 for many yrs. There are many things that you have to wait on. If you go to a Dr that just has 1 or 2 operatories I would change dentist as he can not be efficent %26amp; must charge more %26amp; do less %26amp; take longer. You can't hurry but you can be efficent!! Doc W