Dental practice value at a glance
Estimate your dental practice's value
Applies the cited SDE multiple band for your trade, then positions you inside it using recurring revenue, customer concentration, owner dependence, years operating and trend. Educational estimate, not an appraisal.
Educational estimate, not an appraisal or an offer. Ranges come from published closed-sale data and broker/adviser reports cited on each trade page; the adjustment weights are our own documented heuristic (see Editorial policy). Real estate, inventory and working capital are excluded.
Get the full valuation brief (printable)
Your inputs and range, the cited multiples behind it, the buyer type active at your size, three changes that move the multiple, and next steps - on this page, ready to print or save as a PDF.
Published dental practice multiples by deal size
| Deal size / buyer | Multiple | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Main Street sales, 2021-2025 (sold) | 1.6x-3.37x SDE (median 2.48x); revenue 0.51x-0.86x | |
| Latest published figures | BizBuySell FY2025 closed dental sales: 3.28x average SDE, 0.87x average revenue (small sample: 22 sales). | |
| Single practice sold to a DSO (add-on) | 5-8x EBITDA | FOCUS Investment Banking - Dental practice EBITDA multiples 2026 |
| DSO platform | 9-12x EBITDA | FOCUS Investment Banking - Dental practice EBITDA multiples 2026 |
| Private practice sale (dentist buyer) | 60-95% of collections, most 70-85% | DDSmatch - How to value a dental office before selling (2025-06) |
| All industries, Q2 2026 (context) | Under $500K deals: 2.0x SDE; $2M-$5M: 4.0x EBITDA; $5M-$50M: 5.8x EBITDA | IBBA / M&A Source / Pepperdine Market Pulse, Q2 2026 highlights |
What moves the multiple for a dental practice
Key metric buyers ask for: Collections, hygiene share of production, payer mix (fee-for-service vs PPO vs Medicaid), doctor production per day, active patient count.
Pushes you toward the top of the range
- A hygiene department producing roughly a quarter or more of total production with steady recall
- Fee-for-service or healthy PPO mix rather than heavy Medicaid or deep-discount plans
- Collections above ~$1M with a clean margin; documented systems and KPIs
- An owner willing to stay on as an associate for a transition period (DSOs often require years)
Pushes you toward the bottom
- Production concentrated in the selling dentist, with no associate to carry patients
- Heavy exposure to Medicaid or discounted plans that a buyer cannot renegotiate
- Supply and lab cost creep eating the trailing-12-month margin
- An expiring or non-assignable office lease
How buyers value a dental practice
Private dentist-to-dentist sales are usually quoted as a percentage of collections and checked against cash flow the buyer can finance. DSOs price on adjusted EBITDA after paying the selling dentist a market-rate clinical wage, then split the price between cash at close and equity rollover. The two methods can produce very different numbers for the same office.
Rule of thumb on revenue: 60-85% of annual collections for most private sales (full range 60-95%); BizBuySell sold median 0.70x revenue. Use it only as a sanity check; buyers pay for cash flow they can finance.
Worked example: Maple Street Family Dental (fictional)
Fictional business for illustration. Revenue $1,450,000, SDE $420,000. Two operatories of hygiene, 70% PPO / 30% fee-for-service, selling dentist age 63 willing to stay 12 months.
| Position in the cited range | Implied value | Multiple of revenue |
|---|---|---|
| At the low end (1.6x) | $672,000 | 0.46x |
| Midpoint (2.48x) | $1,042,000 | 0.72x |
| At the high end (3.4x) | $1,428,000 | 0.98x |
Who buys a dental practice at each size
Associate or outside dentists financed by practice lenders or SBA loans; DSOs (general and specialty); dentist-owned groups; occasionally a neighboring practice merging patient bases. See who is buying dental practices for named acquirers and their sponsors.
| SDE / EBITDA size | Most likely buyer | How they usually pay |
|---|---|---|
| Under ~$300K SDE | Individual dentist (practice loan or SBA) | SBA or bank loan plus buyer cash; sometimes a seller note |
| ~$300K-$1M SDE | Dentist buyer or DSO affiliation | SBA loan, seller note, or cash from a larger buyer |
| $1M+ EBITDA | DSO add-on or dentist-owned group | Mostly cash at close; rollover equity and earn-outs are common |
Thinking about selling your dental practice?
See the step-by-step sale process, license transfer rules and documents buyers will ask for.
Frequently asked questions
How much is a dental practice worth?
On BizBuySell, dental practices sold between 2021 and 2025 for a median of 2.48x seller’s discretionary earnings, with the middle half between 1.60x and 3.37x. Dental brokers more often quote price as a share of collections: most private sales land around 70-85% of annual collections.
Do DSOs pay more than private dentists?
Often on headline price, not always on cash. DSO offers are typically a multiple of adjusted EBITDA (single practices 5-8x per FOCUS Investment Banking) paid partly in cash and partly in rollover equity, with a multi-year employment commitment. See DSO vs private buyer.
What is the 70% of collections rule?
It is an old shorthand that a general practice sells for about 70% of one year’s collections. Dental Economics describes it as outdated; value depends on profit, hygiene, payer mix and how dependent patients are on the selling dentist.
Does my DEA registration transfer to the buyer?
No. Under 21 CFR 1301.52 a DEA registration cannot be assigned or transferred without DEA’s written consent. In practice the buying dentist registers on their own.
Is this an appraisal?
No. It is an educational estimate built from published data. Lenders, courts and the IRS may require a credentialed appraisal; see appraisal vs estimate.
Sources
- BizBuySell Valuation Benchmarks - Dental Practice (accessed 2026-09-23)
- BizBuySell - Business valuation multiples by industry (sold Q3 2021-Q2 2026) (accessed 2026-09-23)
- BizBuySell Insight Report data tables (FY2025 closed transactions by industry) (accessed 2026-09-23)
- FOCUS Investment Banking - Dental practice EBITDA multiples 2026 (accessed 2026-09-23)
- DDSmatch - How to value a dental office before selling (2025-06) (accessed 2026-09-23)
- Dental Economics - How to know what your practice is really worth (2025-09) (accessed 2026-09-23)