Moving Your Dental Practice to a New Location in the Same Area: What to Check First
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Moving your dental practice to a new location in the same area: what to check first
Practices move for many reasons: a lease is ending, the office is too small, the building is outdated, or the neighborhood has changed. A move within the same area can grow a practice or quietly cost it patients. The difference is usually how well the new site fits the patients you already have.
If you are moving to a different city or state, see relocating to another state as a dentist.
1. Map where your patients live today
Plot your active patients by ZIP code. Most will live within a short drive of your current office. A new site should keep most of them within a similar drive. Moving across a river, a highway with few crossings or into a congested corridor can make a short move feel long to patients.
2. Compare the competition at both sites
Measure residents per general practice within a short drive of your current office and of each candidate site. If the new site sits closer to several established offices, some of your patients will pass a competitor on the way to you. Count competitors from a list a person has checked.
3. Check the people around the new site
The area around the new site may have a different income, age or payer mix. That can be an opportunity (a growing, higher-income area) or a mismatch (fewer patients who fit your insurance participation). Compare median household income, age, growth and Medicaid enrollment for both locations.
4. Visibility and access
Signage, parking, a ground-floor entrance and an easy turn into the lot all affect new-patient flow. A cheaper space off the main road can cost more in lost visibility than it saves in rent.
5. The lease
Have a dental attorney review the new lease before you sign: term, renewal options, exclusivity, build-out allowance and personal guarantee. Check what your current lease requires when you leave, including restoration of the space.
6. Tell patients early
Give patients plenty of notice, with the new address, parking directions and the date. Keep the same phone number if you can.
Frequently asked questions
Will I lose patients if I move my dental office? Some, if the new office is less convenient for them. Keeping most of your patients within a similar drive time, and telling them early, limits the loss.
How far can a dental practice move without losing patients? It depends on how far your patients already travel. Map their ZIP codes and keep the new site within a similar drive for most of them.
Can someone compare my current site with a new one? Yes. A Single-Site Study examines one address in depth, and an Area Analysis compares several, written by a demographer.
How Dentagraphics helps
- Free plan: state and county demographics and competition.
- Memberships: unlimited address and area searches, so you can compare your current site with each candidate.
- Single-Site Study ($695) or Area Analysis ($745): a demographer compares the locations and writes the analysis.
- Lease Review: our in-house attorney reviews the lease before you sign.
Our competition data covers 118,330 US dental practices verified by hand. We do not broker practices and hold no stake in any location.
Thinking about moving your office? See a free sample report, or create a free account to compare the areas today.