Dental Practice Valuation Calculator: Private vs DSO Sale

Tell Us About Your Practice

No contact information is needed until you reveal your results. Results are ranges, not an appraisal; an actual valuation requires an advisor's review of your financials.

Annual collections

Total collected in the last 12 months, before any expenses. Use your practice management report, not production.

Do you know your owner's cash flow?

I know itNet income plus everything the practice pays you and for you. Estimate it for meWe'll estimate it from your overhead percentage.

Owner's cash flow (SDE)

Net income plus your salary, distributions, retirement contributions, auto, insurance and personal expenses run through the practice.

Specialty

Number of operatories

Equipped rooms, including hygiene. Group buyers look for room to add providers.

Payer mix (must total 100%) — currently 100%

Fee-for-service

PPO

Medicaid

Share of collections from fee-for-service, PPO and Medicaid patients.

Where is your practice?

Major metro or its suburbsA large city and the suburbs around it. Regional city or large townA secondary city with its own economy. RuralA small town or county seat.

Market type sets how many buyers can realistically be recruited to your practice.

How much of your collections do you personally produce? 75%

Your production divided by total collections. The rest comes from associates and hygiene. Buyers of every kind look at how much of the practice walks out the door with you.

State

Do you own the building and want to include it?

Real estate is valued separately by appraisal.

Would you stay on after a sale?

DSO offers normally require a 3-to-5-year term.

Here is what your practice is likely worth on each path.

Private sale to a dentist

—

What moved this range

Sale to a DSO or private-equity group

—

What moved this range

What a DSO offer actually looks like

What you give up for the DSO valuation

Transition term. 3 to 5 years as an employee of the buyer, at a set percentage of your production, versus a few months to a year in a private sale.
Equity at risk. 20% to 40% of the price is rollover equity or earnout. It can be worth more on the group's next sale, or less if the group stumbles.
Control. Clinical autonomy is usually protected on paper; scheduling, staffing, supplies and the fee schedule are not.
Taxes. Rollover equity is often tax-deferred, which flatters the DSO valuation. A private sale is usually a cleaner capital-gains event, and allocation of the price affects both. Review the after-tax figures with your CPA before comparing offers.

Want the real number? Your advisor already has your results.

Request my full valuation Schedule a call

Prefer to talk now? Call (800) 815-0590.

These ranges are estimates generated from the figures you entered and from published 2026 transaction benchmarks, adjusted for specialty, payer mix, production and market. They are not an appraisal, an offer, or a guarantee of price. An actual valuation requires an advisor's review of your tax returns, profit-and-loss statements and practice reports, and the final price is set by the market. Real estate, equipment leases, accounts receivable and working capital are handled separately in a transaction.

How This Calculator Values Your Practice

Private sale: the percentage-of-collections method

An individual dentist buys your practice to own and run it. Banks lend against collections, so private buyers price on a percentage of collections, typically 60% to 90% for a general practice depending on the market, and check the result against owner cash flow (usually 1.8 to 3.0 times SDE). Payer mix, overhead, how much of the production depends on you, and how deep the buyer pool is in your market all move the number inside that band. How selling a dental practice to another dentist works.

DSO sale: the normalized EBITDA method

A DSO or private-equity group buys your practice as an investment. It first pays a market-rate dentist to replace your production (roughly 30% to 35% of what you produce), then values what is left, called normalized EBITDA, at a multiple that rises with size: about 5 to 7 times for a single location under $1 million of EBITDA, 7 to 9 times from $1 million to $3 million, and higher above that. Specialty, payer mix, market and whether you will stay on all shift the multiple. What to expect when selling your practice to a DSO.

The calculator runs both methods on the figures you enter and shows you the ranges, the drivers, and the gap. Where a DSO sale is not realistic for a practice like yours, it tells you why instead of inventing a number.

Private Sale vs. DSO Sale: What the Gap Really Means

In a private sale, an individual dentist buys the practice, usually with an SBA loan, pays close to 100% cash at closing, and you transition out over a few months to a year. The buyer is purchasing your chair and your patients, so the price is anchored to what a bank will lend against collections.

In a DSO sale, a group backed by private equity buys the practice, pays 60% to 80% in cash with the rest in rollover equity or an earnout, and employs you for 3 to 5 years at roughly 30% to 35% of your production. The DSO valuation is often higher because the group can add your cash flow to a platform that trades at a higher multiple; the cash and the control are not.

Practices above roughly $1 million in collections or $250,000 in normalized EBITDA usually draw both kinds of buyer. The best price comes from putting them in competition, which is the process our advisors run. Request a full valuation when you're ready.

Questions? Our Transition Advisors are available — call us: (800) 815-0590.

Valuation Calculator FAQ

Most general practices sell to another dentist for 60% to 90% of annual collections depending on the market, which usually works out to 1.8 to 3.0 times owner's cash flow. A practice with $1.5 million in collections in a major metro, for example, typically sells privately for $1.0 million to $1.3 million. A DSO values the same practice on normalized EBITDA and may pay more, less, or nothing at all depending on size, margin and market. Enter your figures above to see both ranges.

There are two. Private buyers use a percentage of collections, checked against a multiple of seller's discretionary earnings (SDE): price = collections x 60% to 90%, set by market type and adjusted for specialty, payer mix, overhead and owner production. DSOs use a multiple of normalized EBITDA: price = (SDE minus market-rate clinical pay for the owner's production) x 5 to 12, depending on EBITDA size, specialty, payer mix and market.

A calculator gives a range from the figures you enter, so it is as accurate as those figures and the benchmarks behind it. This one uses published 2026 transaction data calibrated against 1st Med Transitions' closed sales. It is a starting point. An actual valuation requires an advisor's review of your tax returns and practice reports, and the final price is set by buyers in your market.

In a private sale, an individual dentist buys the practice, usually with an SBA loan, pays close to 100% cash at closing, and you transition out over a few months to a year. In a DSO sale, a group backed by private equity buys the practice, pays 60% to 80% in cash with the rest in rollover equity or an earnout, and employs you for 3 to 5 years at roughly 30% to 35% of your production. The DSO valuation is often higher; the cash and the control are not.

A DSO buys cash flow it can add to a larger platform that itself trades at a higher multiple, so it can pay 5 to 9 times EBITDA where a dentist can only borrow against 2 to 3 times cash flow. The DSO also keeps you producing for 3 to 5 years, so it is buying your future work as well as the practice. That is also why the premium shrinks or disappears for small, rural or owner-dependent practices.

Yes. A rural or regional practice with strong margins and a fee-for-service patient base often has little or no DSO interest, because groups need nearby locations to share management. The same practice can be highly financeable for a dentist buyer. The calculator shows that case plainly instead of assuming the DSO number is always higher.

SDE, or seller's discretionary earnings, is net income plus your compensation, benefits and discretionary expenses: what the practice produces for one owner-dentist. Normalized EBITDA starts from SDE and subtracts what a DSO would pay a dentist to do your clinical work, typically 30% to 35% of your production. SDE is the private buyer's number; EBITDA is the DSO's.

Fee-for-service above 60% of collections puts a practice at the top of the private range and adds 1 to 2 turns to a DSO multiple. A PPO-dominant mix lands in the middle. Medicaid above 40% places the practice at the bottom of the private range. On the DSO side, Medicaid above 10% of collections removes most or all group buyers unless the practice is pediatric, where it subtracts 0.5x to 1.0x from the multiple instead.

Market type changes how many buyers you can reach more than it changes profitability. Major metros carry the deepest pool of associate buyers and the strongest DSO interest. Regional markets trim the top of the range to about 85% of collections for a general practice. Rural practices top out near 65% and rarely draw DSO offers below about $2 million in collections, even when margins are excellent.

Nothing. A 1st Med Transitions advisor reviews your financials, tightens the ranges, and shows you what buyers are paying now, with no fee and no long-term listing contract.

Michael Furlong, Founder of 1st Med Transitions

A Message From Our Founder

Two Numbers Beat One

Every week I talk to a dentist who has been handed one number — usually by the buyer — and asked to decide the rest of their career on it. A DSO valuation and a dentist's offer are built on different math, and the right question isn't which is bigger. It's which trade you actually want to make.

This calculator shows you both, and tells you plainly when one of them isn't realistic for a practice like yours. It doesn't replace an advisor's review of your financials, and it doesn't obligate you to anything. When you're ready to know your real number, my team and I are here.

Michael S. Furlong

Founder & CEO, 1st Med Transitions

30 +

years of industry experience

374

satisfied clients and counting

$575 Million

in closed practice transactions

What Our Seller's Have To Say

Dr. Brian Glover, DDS

sold his practice in Raleigh, NC

"I can honestly say that I have zero regrets.

I can’t imagine why anyone would go with one of the large ‘Old School’ brokers that wanted to charge me twice as 1st Med Transitions."
Dr. Najib Adi, DMD

sold his practice in Gainesville, VA

"The professionalism, patience and tolerance David demonstrated... was remarkable.

His commitment to our practice well-being and our professional future well-being was truly unmatched"
Dr. Martha Murphy, DDS

sold her practice in Gaithersburg, MD

"Mike is proof that you don't need a broker who lives in your immediate area. I would highly recommend him and 1st Med Transitions."
Dr. Ricardo Guillen, DDS

sold his practice in Portland, TX

"I am very grateful to 1st Med Transitions and, especially, to Mr. David Goldstein for the relentless effort he dedicated in selling my dental practice in a very short amount of time."
Dr. Oqba Tujjar, DMD

sold his pracitce in Odenton, MD

"I have worked with other brokers in the past but working with David was a true pleasure.

He managed to make an inherently stressful process as smooth as possible and was consistent in sincerely seeking my best interest every step of the way."