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 the functions that create immediate value without disrupting clinical operations.
Days 1–30: Stabilize
Priorities are payroll, benefits, employee communication, the doctor relationship, patient continuity, billing, credentialing and cash management. Avoid unnecessary visible change.
Days 31–60: Diagnose
Measure production, collections, hygiene, staffing, schedule utilization, treatment acceptance, payer performance, supply spend and AR. Compare actual performance to the acquisition thesis.
Days 61–100: Improve
Begin implementing opportunities such as hygiene optimization, scheduling improvements, procurement, marketing, specialty referral capture, recruiting and payer negotiations.
What not to do
Do not treat integration as an IT deployment. Dental acquisitions involve people, patients and clinicians. A technically perfect integration that causes the seller or team to leave can destroy value.
Start with practices whose sellers have already stated their transition preferences.
Register as a buyerMarket ranges on this page are illustrative planning ranges, not offers. Involve qualified legal and tax advisers on any transaction.