By Dr. Bridgett Jorgensen
Founder, Dental Practice Matchmaker
June 17th, 2025
Promoting a collaborative and transparent approach to selling a dental practice for a positive and successful transition.
I sold my practice seven years ago and had a great experience. Here’s some of the things I learned from the process.
If you want the best person to take over your practice, invite them in while it’s still yours and give them the opportunity to work in the environment (with your equipment, your team). Pull back your days and give them more days to work. It’s impossible to really evaluate their dentistry, ethics, team work unless they actually have patients to treat. If you are truly on the path to sell the whole practice – reducing your days should not be a hardship.
Share financial information early (have them sign a non disclosure). Involve them in hiring/firing. You have experience in this, they likely do not. Talk to them about marketing, staff turnover, equipment frustrations – this is all real world stuff; don’t hide any of the difficult stuff. Also share the good stuff – money, control of the schedule, no one telling you how much you need to produce. Explain overhead and how many costs there are to running a business. Be HONEST.
No matter what cone beam or scanner you just bought for mega $$$ , your practice is worth 75 to 85% of last years COLLECTIONS. It matters if the new dentist can’t do the procedures you are currently doing, so try to find someone that does at least as many different procedures that you do, and preferably more.
Sell your accounts receivable to them at a slightly discounted rate, they will need that recurring money coming in the mail.
Don’t hide the fact that you are selling from your staff. If they feel like it is a team approach to get the new dentist up and going, it will be more pleasant. Nobody likes the surprise of “guess what, this is your new boss!”. If you’ve hired them and the team has worked with them for a year before the sale, they will either stay or go when you tell them you are selling. This is good information for the incoming dentist to have.
Be a cheerleader and help with problems. This is likely the first business your new owner has ever run. If they have a problem, tell them how you solved it and then they’ll make their own decision.
I still work at my practice ( a few days a month) and I’m available via text or phone call for anything she needs and work for her anytime she wants to go on vacation. It’s been a great transition, and we did not pay a broker 10% to do an introduction. We paid an attorney (recommended by our bank) a few thousand dollars to write up a contract, but we came up with all the terms ourselves. Being honest goes a long way. It has to be a win/win for everyone.
Selling your practice can be a pleasant experience but you have to put research and effort into the transition- don’t expect to hire a broker and have them find the absolute best person to take over your “baby”. A broker’s goal is to find ANY buyer who is in the ballpark of your price range, and then to push along the deal as quickly as possible until close. They will walk away with their 10% cut of the practice you spent years building, and you will never hear from them again.
We launched our member website and mobile app so that private practice dentists looking to buy/sell/hire can EASILY find each other and connect WITHOUT going through a broker. Our exclusive member site is completely organized by location, and we have an extensive filterable member directory of over 3500 private practice dentists. Become a member here.
