What Makes a Dental Practice a Good DSO Acquisition?
A strong DSO acquisition target combines durable EBITDA with provider stability, patient retention, operational quality, growth potential and a realistic transition plan.
DSO guides: evaluating dental practice acquisitions
Diligence frameworks for corporate development teams at DSOs and dental groups.
Acquisition underwriting
How Should a DSO Evaluate Provider Dependency?
Provider dependency measures how much practice revenue depends on one dentist. How to measure it, when it is and is not a deal killer, and how to link deal structure to the risk.
How Do You Normalize EBITDA in a Dental Practice Acquisition?
Normalized EBITDA adjusts reported earnings to estimate sustainable profitability under new ownership. Common adjustments, doctor-compensation normalization, and why buyer synergies are not seller EBITDA.
What Should a DSO Review Before Acquiring a Dental Practice?
A dental acquisition due diligence checklist covering financial quality, provider stability, patient durability, payer exposure, employees, facility, equipment, and legal and compliance review.
Winning and integrating
How Can a DSO Write an LOI That a Dentist Will Accept?
A winning dental-practice LOI combines competitive economics with clarity, credibility and terms that address the seller's personal concerns. The highest enterprise value does not always win.
What Do Dentists Care About When Choosing a DSO?
Dentists care about price, but many sellers weight clinical autonomy, staff continuity, reputation, post-sale compensation, transition requirements and trust just as heavily.
How Do You Retain a Dentist After Acquiring the Practice?
Retaining the selling dentist requires more than an employment agreement: deliver what was promised, reduce burden quickly, sequence integration, preserve status and plan retention before closing.
What Should a DSO Do During the First 100 Days After Acquiring a Dental Practice?
The first 100 days should stabilize employees and patients, preserve production, establish trust with the selling dentist and integrate only what creates immediate value without disrupting clinical operations.
Deal flow
How Should a DSO Score Dental Practice Acquisition Targets?
A DSO acquisition scorecard consistently evaluates financial quality, provider risk, patient durability, strategic fit, growth capacity and transaction risk before diligence resources are committed.
How Can DSOs Find Off-Market Dental Practices for Acquisition?
DSOs find off-market practices through outreach, advisers, industry data and seller-intent platforms. The challenge is identifying owners genuinely considering a sale whose practices fit the thesis.
What every DentalDex package includes
| Section | Contents |
|---|---|
| Financials | Three years of P&L, normalized adjusted EBITDA with itemized add-backs, TTM collections |
| Production | Production by provider, hygiene share of collections, new patients per month |
| Revenue quality | FFS / PPO / Medicaid mix, top payer concentration, active patient count |
| Operations | Operatories, chair utilization, staff roster and tenure, equipment age, lease terms |
| Seller intent | Transition preference, structure tolerance, what the seller wants in a buyer |