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How Much Does a Dental Practice Cost?

The average dental practice in the U.S. costs about $520K. But I don’t like national averages here, because it’s misleading for your specific situation and practice. There are just too many other factors in the mix. How many operatories does it have? How many doctors? Is it a specialty practice? What city is it in? Which neighborhood? And so on. You get the idea.

So let’s look at it a different way.

Judging a Dental Practice’s Online Presence

A dental practice ought to look good, right? When someone drives past, they might notice the signage, the landscaping, the general look of the practice. Is it inviting? Is it dingy? These things matter!

But as a prospective buyer, you’re probably young enough to understand something instinctively: as much as the physical look of the practice matters, its online presence matters even more.

Who do you trust most in the practice purchase process?

When buying a dental practice, you’re going to assemble a team to help you out. As I’ve said elsewhere, the most important member of your team is your dental-specific attorney. Next is your accountant. But there are others as well. A banker, a broker, equipment reps, insurance agents, and possibly some other consultants as well.

With so many people involved, which voices should you turn to first?

Unconventional Ways to Find a Dental Practice to Buy

If you’ve been reading my stuff for a while, you know about the “80/20 rule” already. When looking for a practice to buy, spend 80% of your time networking with other dentists and 20% with brokers.

But I might call it the “79/19 rule,” which just isn’t as catchy. What I mean is that there are other methods for finding a practice, and while they’re usually not as reliably effective, I have seen plenty of cases where it worked out.

DON’T Worry About This When Buying a Dental Practice

The dentist I was talking to argued that starting a practice makes more sense because (I’m paraphrasing here), “Tons of patients loyal to the seller will leave anyway, and I’ll have to build a patient base again. I might as well start from scratch.”

There’s wrong, and then there’s completely, totally wrong. This dentist was the latter.

I know many dentists share this fear, even if they’re not as adamant about it as the doctor in this story. And it’s not a crazy fear! But it is wrong.