Is the grass really greener on the other side?
Let’s get something straight. If you’re even thinking about selling your practice to buy a “better” one, this report is for you. Not the sugar-coated version your peers post on social media—but the truth that gets whispered in private.
Everything looks fine on the surface… but underneath? It’s a different story.
I talk to a lot of dentists in private—that’s when the real pain surfaces.
On the outside, everything looks fine. They’re successful dentists and practice owners. Passionate about dentistry. Caring for their patients. Earning a respectable income.
They’re not begging for scraps. They won’t starve. They’re not flying private or making money in their sleep—but their dental skills keep food on the table, the mortgage paid, and the kids in private schools and universities. If they’re lucky, maybe there’s even a little left over to invest here and there.
But here’s what you don’t say out loud: You’re exhausted. You’re capped. You feel stuck.
The ceiling is real—and it’s lower than you thought.
Most general dentists I speak with are sitting at $800K to $1.2M in annual production. And they’ve been there for years.
Your take-home? $250K…maybe $300K—then it gets eaten alive by taxes, student and business loan repayments. After all the accounting gymnastics, you’re left with $10K–$15K a month. That might work if you’re in a quiet rural town. But if you live in a major city—Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary—that money gets swallowed whole by grocery bills, mortgage payments, car payments, insurance premiums, and inflation that’s anything but transitory.
And that private school tuition? $36,000 per kid per year. Two kids? Double it. Do the math. Now add sports, extracurriculars, family vacations, a little shopping here and there—and boom… you’re in a line of credit, or worse, drowning in credit card debt.
You thought your practice would be your golden parachute… but it’s barely a paper plane.
Let’s talk exit strategy. You thought one day you’d sell your practice for a hefty sum—your retirement plan, your big payday. But now that you’re looking at the numbers, reality hits hard.
Buyers are getting smarter. Banks are more conservative. And if your practice isn’t systematized—if there’s no hygiene department consistently driving production, no built-in, recurring profit you can count on, no associate pulling their weight during peak hours and seeing new patients while you’re not in the chair—then you’re not sitting on an asset.
You’re sitting on a job that depends on your two hands and 12-hour days.
The real problem? The business runs on duct tape and desperation.
Look under the hood of most dental practices and you’ll find this:
- Hygiene is an afterthought—definitely not generating 40% or more of your production.
- You’re collecting 20% – 30% less than you produce. Why? Your front desk isn’t collecting co-pays, and you’re too afraid to enforce it because you think patients will leave.
- You’ve got no idea how many new patients actually stay. You don’t know how many are walking out the back door while you’re busy trying to get them in the front.
- There’s no referral engine bringing in a steady stream of high-quality new patients who pay, stay, and refer.
- You have zero visibility into your profit centers—because you don’t even know what they are.
The truth?
Everything’s duct taped together. Reactive. Random. Knee-jerk driven by panic and quick fixes. And it’s all powered by you—the dentist. The practice owner. The one who has to be there for anything to function.
Take one day off—everything slows down. Take a week off—and the whole thing collapses. A few months off—and you do not have a practice.
Production stops. Staff starts looking elsewhere having free version of ChatGPT writing resignation letters on the weekend so they can hand them over on Monday at the end of the day. Patients move on, searching for the “dentist near me “on Google.
You don’t have a business. You don’t have a sellable asset. You have a fragile machine that depends on you showing up every single day—and when you’re gone, there’s nothing left to sell.
You’re not running a business. You’re playing high-stakes Jenga—with your livelihood on the line.
So now you’re thinking… maybe it’s time to jump ship.
You look around and wonder: “What if I just sold this practice and bought one that’s already built? One that’s producing, with a hygiene department, with an associate, in a better location, with better patient count?”
You’re thinking maybe this next purchase is your second chance. A fresh start. One last push to make the next 10 years the most profitable of your career.
But before you write that seven-figure cheque—or sign on the dotted line for the bank loan…
Ask yourself these five hard truths:
- Maybe… I didn’t have the right tools or strategies to make my current practice succeed.
It wasn’t lack of effort. You’ve worked hard. But maybe you never had a roadmap—just random tactics, course notes, and marketing gimmicks that went nowhere. - Maybe… all I needed was a fresh pair of eyes and a proven plan.
You don’t know what you don’t know. And it’s hard to see the possibilities when you’re buried in the day-to-day. - Maybe… the “dream practice” I’m about to overpay for used to look just like mine.
The seller you’re admiring? Maybe they built that practice up from a mess just like yours—with the right strategy, systems, and mindset. - Maybe… I’m not ready yet to run that kind of practice.
Buying a high-performing practice means you need the business skills and leadership to sustain it. Otherwise, you’ll burn out or drive it straight into the ground. - Maybe… the answer isn’t buying someone else’s success—it’s building my own.
What if you turned your existing practice into a $2MM+ machine? What if you squeezed every drop of potential out of what you already own?
Still think it’s impossible? Let me give you a few real-world examples.
- A private general practice in a small town—no implants, no ortho—associate-run, in-house specialist-supported, principal dentist working 2 days per week, producing over $6MM+ annually.
- A solo dentist with a hygiene department so tight, there’s a waitlist just to get in. The hygienists track their own benchmarks and bonuses. They do $1MM+ a year in hygiene alone.
- A bread-and-butter practice—producing $2MM+ per year. No website, no advertising. No spending the hard-earned dollars on marketing companies. No fancy equipment. All from internal systems, smart referrals, and strategically engineered reputation.
If they can do it, so can you. If you have the right strategy. If you stop guessing and start implementing.
If you’re thinking “Maybe I can turn my practice around…”—you’re right.
And if you’re ready for the next step—not fluff, not theory, but the real-world, profit-producing playbook—let’s talk.
No pressure. No fluff. Just a real conversation. Let’s find out what your practice is actually capable of.
Because here’s the real question: Why buy someone else’s dream… when you could build your own?
Who am I, and why you should listen to me?
I started with a one-chair solo dental practice and, within a few years, transformed it into a 7-chair, 7-figure, associate-driven business with in-house specialists. While working part-time as an owner-dentist, I reinvested my practice’s profits into cash-flowing investments, creating passive income that eventually outpaced my practice earnings. When the time was right, I sold my practice for a life-changing, walk-away sum.
I’ve been in the trenches, faced the same challenges you’re up against, and found a way to thrive—not just survive.
Why am I doing this?
This phase of my life is about one thing: helping independent dentists take back control of their practices—and their lives.
But here’s the truth: independent dentists can implement business strategies that turn their practices into 7-figure, cash-flowing businesses that run without them grinding in the chair. They just need the right roadmap and skillset.
I founded Dental Business Experts—a coaching and training platform for dentists, built on real-world strategies not theory.
Every day, I work directly with dentists—tackling clinical challenges, staffing issues, patient management, and marketing roadblocks. My training isn’t about fluff or vague advice. It’s about battle-tested, reality-based strategies you can implement immediately.
About the author
Dr. Galia Anderson graduated from the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Dentistry and built a successful private practice in Vancouver, British Columbia, where she served patients for 15 years. Today, as the founder of Dental Business Experts, Dr. Anderson is committed to empowering dentists to achieve substantial growth in their practices. Schedule a no-obligation strategy call with Dr. Anderson to get started: www.yourdbexperts.com/call
