How to buy a dental practice: step by step

To buy a dental practice, set your criteria and get pre-qualified, then check the market (residents per general dental practice, income, growth and verified competition) before you commit to a city or a practice; after that, value each candidate on cash flow, sign a letter of intent, do due diligence and close with the lease assigned to you. Most purchases take about 4 to 9 months. Dentagraphics provides that market data for any US address, with competitors verified by humans and no stake in any practice or location.

To buy a dental practice: set your criteria and get pre-qualified with a lender, build your advisory team, shortlist markets that can support you, search listed and unlisted practices, check the market around each candidate before you make an offer, value it on cash flow, sign a letter of intent, do full due diligence, close the financing and purchase agreement with an assigned lease, and plan the transition. A purchase typically takes about 4 to 9 months from first search to closing, and longer if you are searching in a tight market.

The step buyers most often skip is the market check before the offer. A practice's financials show how it has done; the market around it shows whether that can continue under you. It is also the one thing you cannot change after closing.

The steps at a glance

#	Step	Typical time	Key output
1	Set criteria and get pre-qualified	2 to 4 weeks	Budget, practice type, target areas
2	Build your team	2 to 4 weeks	Dental CPA, dental attorney, lender
3	Shortlist markets	1 to 3 weeks	Areas with room, income and payer mix that fit
4	Search listed and unlisted practices	1 to 6 months	Candidate practices
5	Market check before the offer	Days per practice	Go or no-go on each candidate
6	Value the practice	1 to 3 weeks	Price range based on cash flow
7	Letter of intent	1 to 2 weeks	Price, terms, exclusivity period
8	Due diligence	30 to 60 days	Verified financials, patients, lease, equipment
9	Financing, purchase agreement and lease	30 to 60 days, overlapping	Loan approval, signed agreement, lease assigned
10	Close and transition	Closing day, then 3 to 12 months	Patients and staff retained

These are planning ranges. See how long it takes to buy a dental practice for the detailed timeline.

Want to see what a full market report covers? Get free sample reports emailed to you.

Step 1: Set your criteria and get pre-qualified

Write down, before you look at a single listing:

Specialty and model: general, pediatric, orthodontic; fee-for-service, PPO or Medicaid.
Size: operatories, collections range, one location or more.
Where: the areas you would actually live and work in.
Budget and timeline, including how much you can finance.

Then talk to a lender that finances dental acquisitions. Pre-qualification sets your price range and makes sellers take you seriously. Conventional practice loans are common; the SBA 7(a) program is another option, with a $5 million maximum.

Not sure you're ready? See are you ready to buy a dental practice?

Step 2: Build your team

Dental CPA: reviews tax returns, profit and loss, production and collections, and normalizes the seller's numbers.
Dental attorney: reviews the letter of intent, purchase agreement, lease and employment terms.
Lender: underwrites the deal.
Optionally, a buyer's representative to help find and negotiate.

Your CPA and attorney should work for you, independent of the seller.

Step 3: Shortlist markets before you shortlist practices

Most buyers start with listings and then ask whether the area is good. Start with the areas instead. It keeps a good-looking listing from pulling you into the wrong market.

Compare residents per general practice. The US average is about 3,860. By metro it ranges from 2,442 in the San Francisco Bay Area to 4,458 in St. Louis, and the spread between neighborhoods inside one metro is larger still. See the 25 largest metros ranked and residents per general practice by state.
Match income, age and payer mix to your model, using Census Bureau American Community Survey data.
Don't chase the richest areas. In Dentagraphics' 2026 national study, the top income tenth of suburban and urban ZIP codes had 2,380 residents per general practice within 5 miles, about half the 4,828 in the bottom tenth.

Step 4: Search listed and unlisted practices

Listed practices. Listings are spread across many brokerage websites, and each shows only its own. Search widely and set alerts so you see new listings the day they go live; good practices sell quickly. See how to compare practices across broker websites.

Unlisted practices. Many owners would consider selling but haven't called a broker. A short, personal letter to owners of practices that fit your criteria, especially owners with 20 or more years in practice and a single location, often reaches them in a way a listing can't. Keep it confidential, and leave out anyone covered by a restrictive covenant you've signed. See how to find a dental practice to buy that isn't listed.

Step 5: Check the market before you commit to a city or a practice

Do this before the letter of intent. It takes days and it tells you whether the rest of due diligence is worth paying for. For scale, the US has about 60 professionally active dentists per 100,000 people (ADA Health Policy Institute, 2025), but the difference between neighborhoods matters far more than the national figure.

Residents per general practice within about 5 miles, from a list checked by a person. In suburban and urban US ZIP codes the median is 3,391; the top quarter for room is above 4,628 and the most crowded tenth is 2,101 or fewer.
Competition trend: how many practices opened nearby in the last two or three years, including group and chain offices.
Income, age, children and payer mix compared with the practice's patients and fees.
Growth, without assuming growth means room. Dentists follow growth quickly.
Where the patients live: map active patients by ZIP and test those areas too.

A practice whose collections are flat in a market that is adding offices is losing share. A practice in a market with room is easier to grow. For a full checklist, see how to know if a dental practice is a good buy.

Step 6: Value the practice on cash flow

Brokers commonly quote general practices at roughly 60% to 80% of annual collections. Treat that as a starting point, not a valuation. What you are buying is cash flow: profit after normalizing the seller's expenses and paying a market salary for the dentist's clinical work. Have your CPA build it, and stress test the loan payment against a 10% to 15% drop in collections in the first year.

The market belongs in the valuation too. A practice in a crowded or shrinking area deserves less credit for "upside". See how market data helps you judge a valuation.

Step 7: Sign a letter of intent

The letter of intent sets price, structure (usually an asset purchase), the seller's transition period, an exclusivity period for due diligence, and contingencies for financing, lease assignment and due diligence. Have your attorney review it before you sign.

Step 8: Do full due diligence

Financials: three years of tax returns, profit and loss, production and collections, reconciled.
Patients: active patient count and definition, new patients per month, hygiene recall, payer mix.
Staff: tenure, pay compared with the local market, benefits.
Equipment and technology: age, condition, software and data.
Lease and space: term, renewal options, assignment, rent increases.
Legal and regulatory: licenses, compliance, any pending issues.

See the due diligence checklist, red flags and questions to ask a seller.

Step 9: Finalize financing, the purchase agreement and the lease

Your lender completes underwriting, your attorney negotiates the purchase agreement, and the landlord assigns or replaces the lease. Make sure the lease, with renewals, runs at least as long as your loan. Arrange malpractice and business insurance, and start insurance credentialing under your name, since that can take months.

Step 10: Close and protect the transition

On closing day ownership transfers. The value you paid for is the patients and the team, so plan how to keep both:

A letter from the seller introducing you to patients.
The seller working alongside you for an agreed period, if possible.
Meeting each staff member early, and keeping pay and schedules stable at first.
Keeping the practice name, phone number and hours through the transition.

See how to keep a dental practice's patients after you buy it.

How Dentagraphics helps you buy a practice

Demographics On Demand: conduct unlimited searches at the state, county, area or address level, so you can run Step 5 on every candidate.
Practice Marketplace: search by state from multiple sources, and automatically receive an email as soon as a new practice listing matching your search criteria goes live. We aggregate listings from dozens of brokers.
Practice Mailers: send handwritten mailers to practices that meet your search criteria. Dentists have sent more than 40,000 to more than 20,000 practices.
Custom Reports: hire our trained demographers as consultants to provide custom analysis specific to your location. The Single-Site Study ($695) provides in-depth, detailed demographic data for a specific location, such as an address or intersection; the Area Analysis ($745) compares numerous areas to identify the ideal location for your specialty, patient base and practice strategy. All reports include a complimentary 30-minute consultation with a demographer to review your report.

All Practice Finder and Demographics On Demand features are included with a Start/Buy membership ($149 per month). We do not broker practices and hold no stake in any deal. See a sample Single-Site Study and how we verify practice data.

Local market guides: Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Phoenix, Atlanta, Chicago, Ohio, Florida and California.

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Frequently asked questions

What are the steps to buying a dental practice? Set criteria and get pre-qualified, build your team, shortlist markets, search listed and unlisted practices, check the market around each one before an offer, value it on cash flow, sign a letter of intent, do due diligence, finalize financing, the agreement and the lease, then close and manage the transition.

How long does it take to buy a dental practice? About 4 to 9 months from first search to closing for most buyers. The search is the least predictable part; due diligence and financing usually take 30 to 60 days each and overlap.

How much does a dental practice cost? Brokers commonly quote general practices at roughly 60% to 80% of annual collections, but value depends on cash flow, patients, the lease and the market. Have a dental CPA review the numbers.

What should I check before making an offer on a dental practice? The market around it: residents per verified general practice within about 5 miles compared with nearby areas and the US average of about 3,860, how many offices opened recently, and whether income, age and payer mix fit the practice.

How do I find a dental practice for sale that isn't listed? Write directly to owners of practices that fit your criteria, especially long-time owners of single-location practices. A personal, handwritten letter works better than a form letter or a cold call.

Should I buy a practice or start one? Buying gives you patients and cash flow from the first month; starting gives you full control of location and design. The market usually decides. See start from scratch or buy.

Do I need a broker to buy a dental practice? Not always. Many sales go through brokers, and you can also reach owners directly. Either way, have your own dental attorney and CPA review the deal.

Looking at a practice to buy? Create a free account to try Demographics On Demand, with a national, state and county overview of demographic and competition data. Or get free sample reports emailed to you to see what our custom reports cover before you commit.