Acquisition course:How to buy a dental practice
An online course on how to buy a dental practice, built to be used while you do it. Thirteen modules take associate dentists from a broker's listing to a practice you own and run, organized in the exact order the decisions arrive.
The community is free to join and includes Foundations, our course on whether to own and whether to build or buy. Available today.
The full dental practice acquisition track curriculum
Find the deal
Finding practices for sale
Learn how broker compensation works, build an off-market pipeline alongside listed deals, and evaluate internal transitions and partner buyouts.
Initial practice screening
Screen a listing in ten minutes on a one-page worksheet, and learn which red flags end the conversation and which green flags earn a site visit.
Evaluate the deal
Practice valuation fundamentals
Learn what drives an EBITDA multiple, where asset and income methods diverge, and how to value the practice independently of the broker.
Financial due diligence
Read three years of tax returns, reconcile the P&L to bank statements, normalize owner compensation, and work a checklist that surfaces undisclosed liabilities.
Operational and clinical due diligence
Audit active patient charts rather than raw chart counts, evaluate staff workflows, and price equipment upgrades before closing.
Negotiate the deal
LOIs and offer strategy
Read a letter of intent clause by clause: price, terms, seller financing, earnouts, and the structure decisions that change your tax bill.
The purchase agreement
Compare asset and stock purchases, negotiate reps, warranties, and non-competes, and work a redline checklist through the agreement before you sign.
Financing the acquisition
Compare SBA 7(a) against dental-specific cash-flow lenders, and calculate the working capital you need to hold back for transition costs.
Close the deal
Closing and the tech stack transition
Plan the software, imaging, and billing migration, and sequence credentialing under your NPI to protect your month-one cash flow.
Transition and the first 90 days
Inherited associates and seller transitions
Decide whether the seller stays on, evaluate the associates you inherit, restructure compensation where it is needed, and manage the doctor change with patients.
Staff retention through the transition
Set up pre-close staff communications, structure day-one conversations, and use targeted incentives to retain key team members.
Patient retention and day-one operations
Send patient communication before and after close, hold the schedule together through the billing transition, and avoid the day-one mistakes patients notice.
First 90 days post-acquisition
Learn what to change in the first 30 days and what to leave alone, read the early operational signals, and work an operational playbook through day 90.
Taught by people who do this for a living
Every module is taught by a practitioner who works specifically in that field, covering brokerage and due diligence, transaction law, lending, PPO credentialing, tech migration, HR, and post-close operations.
Built specifically for dentists buying an existing dental practice
This track is built around one path to ownership. It assumes the decision between buying and building is already made, or close to it.
Associate dentists committed to an acquisition
You want day-one revenue and an established patient base, along with the legacy team and existing equipment that come with them.
First-time buyers with a deal already in front of them
Work the screening, valuation, and due diligence modules against the packet the broker sent you, before you sign anything.
Dentists buying into a dental practice as a partner
Internal transitions and partner buyouts run on the same valuation and agreement terms as an outside sale, with a harder negotiation.
Foundations covers that decision and is free inside the DOC Community. If a ground-up build looks more likely, learn about our Dental Practice Startup Track.
No, and earlier is better. The screening and valuation modules are most valuable before you sign an NDA or get locked into a specific practice. If you already have a deal in motion, the five phases map to a live transaction in order, so you can work them alongside it.
The course includes 9 hours and 48 minutes of video across 69 lessons. At an average of nine minutes per lesson, you can fit them in between patient appointments.
Foundations answers whether to own and which path fits: readiness, P&Ls, lending, business structure, market analysis, and a capstone that lands on a decision. It is free inside the DOC Community. The Acquisition course focuses entirely on execution: screening, valuation, financial and operational due diligence, LOI and purchase agreement terms, financing, closing, and the first 90 days after.
Once you create your account, you can revisit any lesson whenever you need it.
Join the Acquisition Track waitlist, or start Foundations today
The Dental Practice Acquisition Track opens fall 2026. Foundations is free in the DOC Community and available right now.
Foundations free today