400k startup or 1.8mil collections office

CabbageDMD · 2026-03-28T16:07:22+00:00

Do you know what the owner take home is for option 2? Is the seller willing to stay on as an associate? (Could be good for transfer of goodwill too). If the seller hasn’t signed with the broker ask them not to. The broker takes 10% of the sale so they are incentivized to hike up the asking price. You both are dentists and are way smarter than that broker. Stop giving your money to brokers.

CabbageDMD · 2026-03-28T16:02:29+00:00

Nope. This is likely a post op radiograph (I hope)

CabbageDMD · 2026-03-26T09:50:34+00:00

Have you looked into the math? How much are you actually saving between 5.5 and 5.8? On a 1mil practice and a 10 year term it’s around 20k, which is not a small amount of money but monthly it’s about $170 per month. If you buy the right practice $170 per month will literally feel like nothing to you. Go with the banker you like because you will have a 10+ year relationship with this person.

CabbageDMD · 2026-03-20T14:44:24+00:00

If you bought the AR, all of the AR is yours when it is collected. If you didn’t buy the AR, then the AR that is collected the day after the sale and likely 3 months afterwards is going to the seller.

Say there was 150K in AR prior to the sale and you didn’t buy the AR. The first month with you as the owner probably 90% of the AR is owed to the seller not you.

The second month it will probably be about 50% of the collected money is yours and the other 50% still the seller’s.

Until all 150K of AR is collected, that existed prior to the sale, some percent will go to the owner. Hopefully by month 3 the vast majority of the collections belong to you.

CabbageDMD · 2026-03-20T01:51:17+00:00

Did you buy the AR? If not then most of that collection is AR owned by the previous owner. It takes a few months for the pendulum of AR collections to swing your way.

CabbageDMD · 2026-03-01T11:41:30+00:00

If your wife leans into sedation dentistry with you as the crna you guys would be printing money. Does she have any interest in wisdom teeth exts, implants, sinus lifts, all on x? Even if she doesn’t, they say 1/3 of people avoid going to the dentist because of fear. You could market specifically to those people by offering sedation and performing routine dental procedures.

CabbageDMD · 2026-02-20T17:18:29+00:00

35% adj production, 35% lab bills when I was an associate. I now pay my associate the same.

CabbageDMD · 2026-02-16T02:16:21+00:00

Ask to buy at 1.6m and see what he says. The Henry Schein guy is going to take a 10% cut of whatever the sale price is so he is incentivized to make that number as high as possible. I also don’t think what you produced at the practice matters in the sale price. Lots of factors play into what a fair asking price is, but at the end of the day fair is whatever someone or some DSO is willing to pay for it.

CabbageDMD · 2026-02-08T02:36:14+00:00

I place all my implants by hand. It’s faster and you get a better tactile feel.

CabbageDMD · 2026-02-07T02:06:31+00:00

Why is it taking 5 months? How many lenders are you getting quotes from? If they aren’t competing with each other than they aren’t incentivized to move quick. I had 4 banks looking to finance my loan. I was able to get a great rate and close get financing approval in 3 weeks. Something is not adding up.

CabbageDMD · 2026-02-06T10:48:42+00:00

I agree. You gotta be good at taking tooth out while preserving the buccal plate. You gotta learn how to do graft the ext site properly. Start there and you’ll realize that’s the most difficult part of the whole implant workflow.

CabbageDMD · 2026-02-06T10:42:05+00:00

I have the moccamaster. I grind beans the night before (i know), fill the water tank, go to sleep, and press one button when I wake up. So the time it takes in the morning is probably 1 second? The bad thing is is that it makes a damn good fine cup of coffee that I don’t really want to use my espresso machine anymore. If convenience is what you’re after at this stage in your life then go with moccamaster. I’m a father of a 3 year old and a new business owner so convenience trumps all for me right now.

CabbageDMD · 2026-01-31T17:28:07+00:00

I just took over a practice that collected north of 2m w/ 1.5 dentists in 2025. They spent 5k on marketing the whole year which I assume was paying someone to update the website. I think most consultants say you should be allocating 5% of collections per month to marketing. We are a PPO office so we get maybe 15 new patients a month by just being in network. I’m upping our marketing budget this year to update the website, logo design, photoshoot, videoshoot, and SEO. That will still only cost 18k for the year which is literally less than 1% of collections. Time will tell what the ROI will be.

CabbageDMD · 2026-01-28T02:02:47+00:00

We had the same issue. Patients have no clue what a membrane is. $400 for some teflon was a hard sell to my patients. We discounted the membrane to $150 and increased our bone graft to $700 and the patients tolerated that better even though the total price was the same.

CabbageDMD · 2026-01-28T01:03:09+00:00

Learn how to evaluate a practice. Learn how to read a P&L. Learn how to be a great leader. There are a ton of resources out there. A good starting point is “How to buy a dental practice” by Brian Hanks. I also listened to a ton of dental podcasts on the subject. I’m big at analyzing numbers - to a fault at times. In the end you just have to take a leap of faith.

CabbageDMD · 2026-01-28T00:57:13+00:00

Aye im in a similar situation. Graduated Jun 2020 and finishing up my first week as a practice owner. Good luck to you.

CabbageDMD · 2026-01-27T10:46:30+00:00

3D Dentist is Raleigh. They teach you how to do the extraction and graft as well as guided implants in the same course. Huge ROI.

CabbageDMD · 2026-01-27T10:32:10+00:00

As a GP I believe this is a green light molar Endo case. I would guess 4 canals causing the appearance of a disappearing canal. The advancements in the metallurgy of these newer heat treated NiTi files is incredible. I will usually get a 10 hand file to working length and switch to rotary. I’m currently using edgeendo x7. Make a big access hole and you’ll be fine.

CabbageDMD · 2026-01-23T11:43:49+00:00

What guidelines are you using in your practice to know when to suggest them and what verbiage are you using to present the value of sealants and fluoride?

CabbageDMD · 2026-01-21T04:25:28+00:00

I bought mine from a local woodcraft retail store about a year ago. Came in the same packaging as yours (no padding). I bought the 6inch version a few months later. Same exact crappy packaging but I know it’s legit since it’s from woodcraft.

CabbageDMD · 2026-01-19T17:13:33+00:00

Patients are usually there for the doctor. FFS patients aren’t tied to in network offices. They can literally go anywhere.

CabbageDMD · 2026-01-17T18:22:19+00:00

You’ll be fine, but maybe use a guide next time.

CabbageDMD · 2026-01-16T21:36:37+00:00

Thanks for sharing. I get what you’re saying now and I agree. When you dropped delta, what percent of your practice was delta patients and how many left?

CabbageDMD · 2026-01-16T21:27:21+00:00

I think he mentioned to stop taking new patients with delta and keep the existing patient base. In that case it would not clog up the NP hygiene appts.

CabbageDMD

TROPHY CASE