For dental practice owners
Dental practice valuation, explained
A dental practice is valued on its adjusted EBITDA times a multiple that depends on who is buying. In 2025, one general office sold to an individual dentist at 3×–4.25× EBITDA (median 3.5×), to a partner at 3.3×–4.68×, and to a platform or private-equity buyer at 4×–8×.
This page shows the arithmetic, the factors that move a practice inside that range, and how to get the number from your own books for free. The full 2025 multiples table is published on this site, so you can check every step.
The valuation account is free. No card. Read-only access to your books, always.
What a dental practice valuation measures
A buyer is paying for the profit the practice will produce after they own it. That profit is EBITDA: earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, which is the cash the practice throws off before financing and accounting choices. It is adjusted in two ways before it is multiplied.
First, owner add-backs. Your vehicle, your continuing education, a family member on payroll, a one-time equipment write-off: a buyer adds those back because they will not be paying them. Second, an associate allowance. Dental overhead conventionally leaves out the owner-doctor's own pay, so a buyer subtracts what it costs to hire a dentist to do your clinical work, about 17% of collections.
The starting number is collections, not production. Production is what was scheduled and billed; collections is the money that came in. Buyers and lenders underwrite on collections.
The 2025 multiples, by buyer type
The multiple is not one number. An individual dentist, a partner and a platform buyer each price the same office differently, because each one can do something different with it. These are the 2025 rows from the dataset behind the Dental Practice Connect valuation.
A platform or private-equity range only applies at scale: a single office below roughly $1,200,000 of collections or $300,000 of EBITDA is priced by individual buyers. A group of two to four offices clears 5×–10×, because the buyer is paying for a platform, not just the chairs.
| Buyer | EBITDA multiple (low – median – high) | Share of collections |
|---|---|---|
| One dentist buying one office | 3× – 3.5× – 4.25× | 60% – 75% – 95% |
| A partner buying in | 3.3× – 3.85× – 4.68× | 66% – 83% – 105% |
| A platform or private-equity buyer | 4× – 6× – 8× | 60% – 75% – 90% |
A worked example
The range is the point. A buyer could pay $1,071,000 for this office if the books tie out, the team stays and the lease has term left; a buyer who finds problems in those three places pays $756,000 for the same collections. 5 points of overhead is worth about $210,000 of price at the median multiple.
| Step | Arithmetic | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Collections, trailing twelve months | Money actually collected, not production | $1,200,000 |
| Operating profit | $1,200,000 × (1 − 62% overhead) | $456,000 |
| Associate allowance | 17% of collections to pay a dentist to do your clinical work | − $204,000 |
| Adjusted EBITDA | 21% of collections | $252,000 |
| Low end | $252,000 × 3× | $756,000 |
| Median | $252,000 × 3.5× | $882,000 |
| High end | $252,000 × 4.25× | $1,071,000 |
| Cross-check | 75% of collections | $900,000 |
Run the valuation on your numbers
Six inputs, an instant range by buyer type, nothing submitted. For the number a buyer will argue with, the app runs your actual P&L through the same table.
How we get to a number
Buyers price a practice on EBITDA. Earnings after a market-rate dentist. Times a multiple. The multiple depends on the buyer. And on how many offices. We use 2025 transaction multiples. Same table as the app. Adjusted for specialty.
- Individual buyer — a dentist buying one practice. Most single offices sell this way.
- Partnership — an associate buying in. Or two dentists together.
- DSO / platform — pays for scale. Every multi-location practice. Single offices above about $1.2M.
DPC valuation dataset (2020–2025 dental transactions), 2025 rows.
The eight things a buyer discounts
Two offices with the same EBITDA do not sell for the same price. Where a practice lands inside the range comes down to eight factors. The app scores each one out of 100 and prices it: a buyer could pay this much more if this were true.
- Financial quality: books that tie out, add-backs a buyer will accept, and a margin that holds up
- Patient base: active patients seen in the last 18 months and new-patient flow, not the chart count
- Staff and key-person risk: how much production leaves with you, and whether the team stays
- Payer mix: fee-for-service and strong PPO schedules versus heavy write-offs at the same collections
- Capacity: open operatories, open days and unscheduled treatment a buyer can execute in year one
- Facility and lease: years of term or options left, rent as a share of collections, equipment age
- Market: the demographics and competition around the office, which no amount of work moves
- Transition: how long you will stay, and how much of the referral base follows the practice rather than you
Three ways to get a number, and what each one costs
A rule of thumb, usually 60–80% of collections, is free and ignores profit; two offices with the same collections and overhead 10 points apart get the same answer. A broker's opinion of value is free and is usually tied to a listing agreement. A formal valuation runs $3,000–$8,000, takes weeks, and is stale the month after it is delivered.
Dental Practice Connect is a brokerage that starts from the valuation instead of the listing. The number is computed from your own books against the published table above, it updates every month your books do, and it is free whether or not you ever sell. If you do sell with us, the same valuation is what we price the practice from.
What happens after you create the free account
From signup to your valuation in one sitting
The account runs on an uploaded P&L or a read-only QuickBooks connection, and it stays free. A practice-management connection through Sikka — production, collections, providers and payers — is something we set up with you when you sell with us.
- 1
Create your free account
Three short screens: you, your practice, your numbers. About two minutes. Nothing is published anywhere, and no card is asked for.
- 2
Connect QuickBooks, or upload a P&L
Connect QuickBooks Online and we read your chart of accounts and Profit & Loss. The connection only ever reads; nothing in your books is changed. No QuickBooks? Upload the Excel, CSV or PDF export your accountant already sends you.
QuickBooks: a read-only connection. - 3
We classify the accounts and find the add-backs
Every account is mapped to a dental category and compared with industry benchmarks. Owner add-backs are called out line by line, and you can review every mapping.
Profit & Loss, benchmarked line by line. - 4
Your valuation and scorecard appear
A value range by buyer type on your adjusted EBITDA, charted month by month, and a Practice Health score with the three levers worth the most to you this year. It updates every time your books do.
Value over time, by buyer type.
Dental practice valuation questions
What is a dental practice worth as a percentage of collections?
For one dentist buying one general office in 2025, 60%–95% of annual collections, with a median of 75%. Treat it as a cross-check only: the EBITDA multiple is what buyers and lenders actually underwrite, and a practice with low overhead sits well above the median share of collections while a practice with high overhead sits below it.
What EBITDA multiple do dental practices sell for?
3×–4.25× adjusted EBITDA for an individual buyer of a single office (median 3.5×), 3.3×–4.68× for a partner buying in, and 4×–8× for a platform or private-equity buyer, using 2025 transactions. Groups of two to four offices clear 5×–10×.
How is EBITDA adjusted for a dental practice?
Owner add-backs are added (personal vehicle, continuing education, family on payroll, one-time expenses), and an associate allowance of about 17% of collections is subtracted, because a buyer has to pay a dentist to do the selling doctor's clinical work. The result is the number the multiple is applied to.
What is actually free?
The instant estimate on this page is free and needs no account. The full valuation account is free too: create it, upload a P&L or connect QuickBooks read-only, and the valuation, the benchmarked P&L and the scorecard are yours, with nothing published and no card asked for. The only fee on this site is the brokerage fee, paid at closing if you choose to sell the practice with us.
Is this a formal appraisal?
No. It is a defensible range from published transaction multiples and your own books, with the reasons behind it. A formal valuation from a credentialed appraiser typically costs $3,000–$8,000 and is the right tool for a court or the IRS. This is the right tool for deciding whether, when and to whom to sell.
Does Dental Practice Connect change anything in my QuickBooks?
No. Every connection is read-only, and that is enforced in the code rather than promised: only read requests can leave the product. Intuit's permission screen offers no read-only option, so it will list full accounting access when you connect; we never send a write. We read your books to value the practice; we never edit them.
Who sees my numbers?
You, and anyone you invite. Nothing is published. The instant estimate runs in your browser and submits nothing unless you ask for it by email; the app keeps your financials behind your login.
Have a question about your valuation?
If you would rather ask than click, send the question. A real person answers, and the answer is a number with its basis, not a pitch.
Keep reading
Practice valuation calculation
The arithmetic, step by step, with a worked example you can follow on your own P&L.
What's my dental practice worth?
The short answer, the five numbers that decide it, and a free range in about a minute.
Sell a dental practice
Who buys, what each buyer pays, the timeline that protects your price, and a DSO offer vs. a private sale.
2025 dental practice multiples
The transaction table behind every number on this page.