Buying a dental practice in New York

Eligibility first, valuation second

A New York dental practice is a professional entity, and the Office of the Professions requires an attestation listing every shareholder, officer and director with their professional licence number, signed under penalties of perjury ^[1] . The Certificate of Authority can only be applied for by mail, and filers are asked to allow 8–10 weeks for review before the Department of State step.

Our professional practice guide sets out the full sequence. Read it before agreeing dates, because in this profession the regulator sets the calendar.

New York licenses three categories here — Dentists, Dental Hygienists and Registered Dental Assistants ^[2] . Each has its own scope, and your schedule depends on who can lawfully do what. Verify every clinical team member at source.

Production is not collections, and the gap is the deal

The single most common way a dental practice is presented misleadingly is by quoting production — what was charged — when the number that pays you is collections.

In a practice with meaningful insurance participation the two diverge structurally, because a contracted rate writes the fee down before any money moves. Add write-offs, adjustments, patient balances that age and never arrive, and the difference is not a rounding item.

Hygiene is the part that transfers

This is the most useful structural insight in a dental acquisition, and it is why two practices at the same production can be worth quite different amounts.

A practice whose value rests on a strong hygiene base with a broad restorative schedule is a far safer acquisition than one where a single dentist's elective work carries the earnings, even at identical revenue. Price the difference.

Payer mix is a business model, not a detail

Insurance participation changes revenue per procedure, patient demographics and the practice's growth constraints all at once.

• Get the payer mix by collections, not by patient count. A payer that is 30% of patients and 15% of money is telling you something.
• Understand which plans the practice participates in, and on what terms. Participation agreements are contracts with rates in them.
• Ask what happens on a change of ownership. Credentialing and participation are practitioner-linked, and re-credentialing takes time you must plan for — it can be the binding constraint on when you can actually start billing.
• Test the growth case honestly. A plan that involves dropping plans to raise fees is a plan to lose the patients those plans brought. Sometimes right, never free.

The team is most of what you are buying

A dental practice runs on a small number of people who are individually hard to replace — and the hygienist relationship with patients is often longer than the dentist's.

• Tenure by role, and what each person is paid against what the local market pays.
• Associate agreements, if there are associates: notice, restrictions, and what happens to their patients.
• The hygienist. If one hygienist has seen the same patients for a decade, that relationship is a genuine asset and a genuine risk. Speak to them, with the seller's agreement.
• What the team has been told and when. In a practice this small, uncertainty travels fast.
• The seller's own chair time. If the owner produces four days a week, your model needs someone doing that work at market cost — run it through the SDE calculator before you accept an add-back at face value.

Dental-specific diligence red flags

• Production quoted without collections, or a reconciliation the seller cannot produce by month.
• Active patient count conflated with total charts. Ask for patients seen in the last 12 and 24 months.
• Recall system not measured. If nobody knows the pre-appointment rate, the hygiene base is weaker than it looks.
• Aged patient receivables carried at face value on the balance sheet.
• Unearned treatment. Orthodontic contracts and prepaid plans are obligations you take on. Quantify them and adjust the price.
• Equipment near end of life across several operatories, or imaging on finance that does not appear in the accounts.
• Practice management software that is unsupported, or whose data you cannot extract and verify.
• Sterilisation, radiography and infection control records incomplete. These are regulated obligations and gaps are a live problem.
• A lease shorter than the equipment's remaining life, in premises fitted out at real cost that cannot move.

New York-specific items

• Professional entity filings with the 8–10 week Office of the Professions review, by mail ^[1] .
• Dentist, hygienist and registered dental assistant licences verified individually ^[2] .
• Bulk-sale notice at least 10 days before you take possession ^[3] . See the bulk-sale guide.
• Workers' compensation, disability and Paid Family Leave from day one ^[4] , and the seller's unemployment experience rating, which follows the business — see the experience rating guide.
• Patient records retention and transfer obligations, which are both an asset you receive and a duty you assume. Confirm the current requirement with counsel.
• If the practice comes with the building, see buying the real estate with the business — the appraisal sets the split.

SBA financing

Dental practices are among the most familiar acquisitions to SBA lenders, and finance readily where collections support the debt. Buyer equity injection is 10% of total project cost on a first acquisition, which SOP 50 10 8.1 states cannot be reduced or eliminated, with no more than half from a standby seller note ^[5] .

Note the interaction that shapes the transition: the same SOP provides that the seller may not remain as an officer, director, stockholder or employee, with a consultancy capped at 24 months in aggregate. Where the selling dentist produces most of the restorative work, design the handover inside that window — and be sure the re-credentialing timetable does not eat it.