Every dentist exits eventually
One day you’ll hand over the keys. The only question is what you get for them.
Sell to a DSO, sell to a private buyer, bring in a partner, hand it to an associate, or simply retire. Every path ends the same way, with someone deciding what your practice is worth.
80-90%
of a typical business owner’s net worth is tied up in the business. For most dentists, that’s the practice. This one number is most of your retirement.
95%
of M&A professionals say deals fall apart because the owner overestimated what the business was worth. Most owners find out too late.
Why it happens
What a buyer is actually paying for
Every buyer is quietly asking one question: does this practice work when the owner isn’t in it? Anything that only runs because you’re standing there is something they have to replace, and they price that in every time.
That single question is what separates a practice that sells at a premium from one that sells at a discount. It’s also why a practice can produce beautifully and still sell for less than its owner expected.
Stays with the practice, so they pay for it
Walks out with you, so they discount it
What actually moves the number
A practice can pay you very well for years and still sell for less than you’d expect. Profit is what it pays you now; value is what someone else will pay for it later, and they’re built differently.
These are the things a buyer looks for. Every one of them is something you can build on purpose, and every one of them makes the practice better to own in the meantime.
It runs without you
A strong associate and hygiene bench means production doesn’t depend on you being chairside every day.
The systems are written down
Scheduling, hygiene recall, case presentation, billing, collections. Documented, and actually followed.
Patients belong to the practice
Relationships sit with the whole care team and the brand, not only with the owner-doctor.
There’s a leadership bench
An office manager, a lead hygienist, a lead assistant. Decisions don’t bottleneck at you.
The numbers are clean and current
Production, collections, hygiene %, case acceptance, chair utilization. Tracked, and acted on.
You have more than one way out
DSO, private buyer, partner buy-in, associate buy-in. Options exist when the value transfers with the practice.
Find out what your practice is worth,
and what it could be.
Eight questions. About two minutes. Nothing you need to look up, and no obligation at the end.
We use this to send your valuation and follow up once. No lists, and we don’t sell your details on.
Your practice valuation
Here’s what your practice is worth today.
It’s a range, because what a practice sells for depends on who buys it and how it runs without you.
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Individual sale
Sold to an associate, a partner, or another dentist
Corporate or DSO sale
Sold to a group or private equity buyer
An individual buyer, an associate, partner, or another dentist, is buying a practice to work in. They pay for your patients and your chairs.
A corporate or DSO buyer is buying a business that produces without its owner. That’s what the premium at the high end pays for.
Your marker shows how much of that range is available to you, based on your answers about how the practice runs without you. A practice built around its owner is a lifestyle practice, and there’s nothing wrong with that: it’s the top of what an individual buyer pays.
Why you sit where you sit
Your transferability score: how much of the practice a buyer can actually take over. It’s what sets your position on the range above.
This number can move. That’s our job.
We help dentists move up this range, and that work starts years before it’s time to sell. Book a call with Jeremiah, a Certified Exit Planning Advisor who works with dentists every day, and the planning starts now.
This calculator provides an estimate for educational purposes only. It is not a formal valuation, an appraisal, or a promise of any sale price or outcome. Actual practice value depends on many factors this tool does not capture. Core Advisors, Ltd. is a registered investment advisor. Please visit coreadvisors.com for important disclosures.
An estimate for educational purposes, not a formal valuation. Your details are used to send your result, nothing else.
Increasing practice value is what our team does
Core Advisors works with dentists, and only with dentists. Accounting, tax, retirement, and investment strategy all sit under one roof, so your practice number and your personal number get planned by people who actually talk to each other.
The specific thing the team is built around is the subject of this page: growing what the practice is worth. Not only filing the return and reconciling the books, though that happens too. Working on the things a buyer will one day pay a premium for, in the years when you can still change them.
The number is being built right now
Whether you’re selling in three years or fifteen, what you’ll be offered is being decided by how the practice runs this year. Two minutes will tell you where you stand.