Browse by Topic: DSO & M&A · Practice Operations · Hygiene Career Track · Practice Finance · Regulation & Compliance
Opening a dental practice from scratch — a true de novo, no patient chart, no existing goodwill — costs most dentists somewhere between $650,000 and $1 million all-in in 2026, and the number that surprises first-timers isn't the construction bid. It's everything else stacked on top of it.
I've watc...
Every dollar a dental practice spends that isn't doctor compensation falls into one of six overhead categories. Most practice owners know their overhead is "too high" — but they don't know which category is the problem, or how their specific mix compares to practices like theirs.
That's the gap the...
Most dental practices have an AR problem they don't fully see.
Not because they're not looking — but because the numbers on the AR aging report are accepted as fixed, when they're actually a signal. High AR days, a bloated 90+ bucket, a climbing denial rate: these aren't just administrative annoyan...
By Dental Strategy Institute | June 2026 | 6-Minute Read
Most dental practice owners think about their equipment the same way they think about their waiting room furniture: it is there, it is functional, it has a cost, and it does not need much more attention than that.
This is a mistake — and it i...
There's a version of this conversation that happens constantly in dentistry right now, and it almost always goes the same way. A practice owner gets an offer. Or a recent graduate is evaluating associate paths. Or a mid-career dentist is trying to figure out whether to build, buy, or affiliate. And ...
EBITDA. You'll see it in every DSO letter of intent. You'll hear it in every M&A conversation. And if you ask most practice owners what their EBITDA actually is, you'll get a shrug and a rough number that's almost certainly wrong. That's not an insult — it's just the reality. EBITDA is a financial c...
I've had this conversation a hundred times. A practice owner tells me they're "pretty sure" they're making money on their PPO contracts. They're staying busy, the schedule is full, and the collection numbers look reasonable. Everything seems fine. Then we sit down and actually run the numbers. And u...
If you've received a letter of intent from a DSO, you've seen the term EBITDA. You may have nodded along as your broker explained it. You may have accepted the number your accountant produced without fully understanding how it was derived. This matters more than almost anything else in your transact...
What the Hygienist’s Role Means for Your Practice's Bottom Line
One of the biggest drivers of practice revenue is hygienists -- they're responsible for roughly a third of it. But in most hygiene programs, they don't tell you what that means, or why it should matter to your paycheck, your career,...