For owners thinking about an exit
Sell a dental practice: the number first
Selling a dental practice goes better in a specific order: know what it is worth from your own books, fix what a buyer will discount while there is still time, then decide between the buyer types. In 2025 an individual dentist paid 3×–4.25× adjusted EBITDA for one office and a platform buyer 4×–8×, and the difference between the low and high end of either range is mostly things you can still change.
This page is the order of operations. Dental Practice Connect is a Texas dental practice brokerage built around it: the valuation account is free, and if you sell with us, the fee is paid at closing, after the number, never before.
The valuation account is free. No card. Read-only access to your books, always.
Who buys dental practices, and what each one pays
Three kinds of buyer, three different prices for the same office. An individual dentist finances the purchase and keeps one office. A partner buys a share and keeps you in the chair. A platform or private-equity buyer adds the office to a group, pays more at scale, and usually asks you to stay on and to take part of the price as equity.
A platform range only applies above roughly $1,200,000 of collections or $300,000 of EBITDA for a single office. Below that, an individual buyer sets the price.
| 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% |
Where does your practice sit today?
An instant range by buyer type, before you talk to anyone. Nothing is submitted.
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 timeline that protects your price
A buyer reads the last twelve to thirty-six months of books. Anything you fix today shows up in the numbers a buyer sees a year from now, which is why the practices that sell at the high end started twelve to twenty-four months out. The work, in the order it pays:
- Clean, reconciled financials for three years, with the add-backs documented so a buyer accepts them
- Overhead toward 60% of collections: each point you remove is a point of EBITDA, and EBITDA is what is multiplied
- A lease with five or more years of term or options; a short lease is the most common reason a deal reprices late
- An associate or hygiene team that stays, so production does not leave with you
- A real active-patient count and new-patient flow above 25 a month, which prove the practice is not living off an aging base
- Modern, owned equipment with no capital leases for the buyer to assume
What a buyer discounts
Every buyer prices the same eight things, whether or not they say so. The app scores each one from your practice data and prices it, so the list above becomes your list, ranked by what each item is worth.
- 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
A DSO offer versus a private sale, in today's dollars
A corporate offer is rarely one number. It is cash at close, a holdback or earn-out that depends on targets, equity in the buyer's company, and a salary for the years you stay. A private sale is usually more cash now and no second bite. Comparing them means putting both on the same footing: net present value, after tax, over the years you would actually work.
The Comparison Calculator in the app does exactly that, pre-filled from your valuation. Our public Offer Analyzer runs a simpler version without an account. When we represent you, the offers sit side by side in the same tool and we negotiate the terms.
What it costs to sell
A traditional broker charges 8–10% of the sale price at closing, $96,000–$120,000 on a $1,200,000 practice. That fee buys marketing, buyer screening and negotiation. Dental Practice Connect does the same work as software plus a person, for 5% at closing: $60,000 on the same practice, nothing before closing, and nothing if it does not sell.
Your attorney handles the lease and the building; Dental Practice Connect does not negotiate leases or real estate. Your CPA handles tax. A formal valuation, if a lender or a partner requires one, runs $3,000–$8,000. The valuation account is free whether or not you sell with us, and it is the same number we would price the practice from.
What happens after you create the free account
Get your valuation and scorecard before you talk to a buyer
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.
Questions owners ask before selling
How long does it take to sell a dental practice?
From a signed letter of intent to closing, typically three to six months, most of it the buyer's financing and due diligence. The part that decides the price is the twelve to twenty-four months before that, when the books, the lease and the team are being prepared.
Should I sell to a DSO or to an individual dentist?
There is no general answer, only arithmetic. A platform buyer pays a higher multiple (4×–8× versus 3×–4.25×) but usually above $1,200,000 of collections, and part of the price is equity and earn-out rather than cash. Put both offers in net present value, after tax, over the years you would work, and the better one is the bigger number.
What does it cost to sell with Dental Practice Connect?
A share of the sale price, paid at closing, stated in the section above; nothing before closing and nothing if the practice does not sell. The valuation account and the first conversation are free. Your attorney and CPA bill separately, and your attorney handles the lease; we do not negotiate leases or real estate.
Do I have to sell with you to use the valuation?
No. The valuation account is free and stays yours whether you sell with us, with another broker, or not at all. Many owners use it for a year or two before they decide anything.
What is my practice worth if I sell today versus in two years?
The multiple does not change much in two years; the EBITDA it is applied to can. Five points of overhead, a lease renewal and an associate who stays are each worth real money at the median multiple, and all three take about a year to show up in the books a buyer reads. The scorecard in the app prices each one for your practice.
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.
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.
Thinking about selling? Start with a conversation about the number.
Tell us where you are: an offer on the table, a partner buying in, or just curious. The reply is from one person, with the range for your practice and what would move it.
Keep reading
Sell a dental practice in Texas
What Texas changes about a sale, what it does not, and a valuation from a Texas company.
Dental practice valuation
How a practice is priced: adjusted EBITDA, the multiple by buyer type, and what buyers discount.
What's my dental practice worth?
The short answer, the five numbers that decide it, and a free range in about a minute.
How selling with us works
The service, step by step, from the valuation to closing.
2025 dental practice multiples
The transaction table behind every number on this page.