Employee ownership for independent dentists
Take control of your future. Own the outcome.
Most dentists retire later than they should, leaving millions on the table.
Multiple liquidity events
A staged exit lets you take value off the table more than once instead of betting everything on a single closing date.
Preserve autonomy
You keep control of your practice. No corporate owner setting your schedule, your materials, or your treatment plans.
Reward your team
Employee ownership gives the people who built the practice a real stake, which builds loyalty that a bonus never buys.
The exit most dentists are offered
DSOs lead with a high multiple. What follows is often an earnout, a clawback, and a set of post sale controls that quietly move the practice out of your hands.
What the offer sounds like
- A headline multiple that looks life changing.
- Keep practicing exactly as you do today.
- Your team is taken care of after closing.
What often happens
- Much of the price sits behind an earnout you have to work for.
- Clawbacks and post sale controls narrow your decisions.
- You work longer for less reward, and the team gets nothing.
- Culture gets traded for capital.
What employee ownership can do
Tax treatment under IRC 1042
Section 1042 lets a selling owner defer gain on a qualifying sale to an ESOP by reinvesting the proceeds in qualified replacement property, subject to the rules and your own advisors' review.
Retained autonomy
You stay in the operator's seat. The plan changes who owns the shares, not who runs the practice day to day.
Team equity
Your staff become beneficial owners through the plan, so growth in the value of the practice shows up in their accounts.
Roll up with other high performers
Joining other strong independent practices inside one structure creates scale that a single practice cannot reach alone.
Proven well beyond dentistry
Employee ownership is not an experiment. Some of the most durable companies in the country are owned by the people who work in them.
Supermarkets, employee owned.
Retail, employee owned.
Grocery, employee owned.
Dentistry, employee owned.
The silent ESOP
Nothing on your front door changes. Patients see the same practice, the same team, and the same doctor. What changes is who owns the equity and what support you can pull from.
Keep what matters
- Your brand and identity
- Your staff and culture
- Your hours and schedule
- Your clinical decision making
Gain access to
- Regen3DX
- RegenAOX
- Wisdom teeth protocols
- Orthodontic programs
- Hub and spoke patient flow
- Marketing support
- Treatment coordinator training
- Real estate expansion
How we get there, in four steps
- Step 1
Assessment
We look at your production, overhead, team, and timeline to see whether employee ownership is even the right conversation for you.
- Step 2
Valuation
An independent valuation establishes what the practice is worth today and what would move that number.
- Step 3
Structure
Counsel and advisors design the plan, the financing, and the staging so the exit fits your life, not a fund's clock.
- Step 4
Execute
The transaction closes, the plan goes live for your team, and you keep operating the practice you built.
The other path
Real estate is the other path
Ownership of the building you practice in runs alongside ownership of the practice itself. The two are separate decisions and either one can come first.
Explore real estateAbout the numbers on this page
- Any figures or ranges shown here are illustrative examples. They are not a forecast, a promise, or a typical result.
- Nothing on this page is an offer to buy or sell securities, or an offer to enter a transaction of any kind.
- What a practice is actually worth, and how a sale is structured, depends on that practice's own performance, market, and deal terms.
- Talk to your own tax advisor and your own attorney before making a decision. We are not providing tax, legal, or investment advice.
Own the outcome, not just the chair.
Independence is the bigger story. Employee ownership is one way to finish it on your terms.