A dental practice buyer checklist covers who the provincial dental college allows to own the practice, how patient charts and the recall list transfer under privacy law, the condition of clinical equipment, the practice’s dental-lab relationships, and whether the seller’s non-compete is likely to be enforceable.
Reviewed
This checklist covers what to verify before buying a Canadian dental practice. A dental practice’s value sits in things a general healthcare-practice review does not fully capture — who is legally allowed to own it under the dental college’s own rules, how the patient recall list and imaging records actually transfer, and the practice’s relationships with its dental lab and its insurers — and those are the places this checklist goes deeper than a generic clinical due diligence review.
Confirm who is actually allowed to own the practice
Confirm the buyer, or the buyer’s designated licensed dentist, meets the provincial dental college’s ownership requirements before signing a binding agreementMost provincial dental colleges require the shares of a dental professional corporation to be held by licensed dentists, which is why non-dentist buyers commonly need a separate management-company structure rather than direct ownership of the practice entity itself.
Where the practice operates through a professional corporation, confirm every shareholder on record is eligible to hold shares under the college’s current rulesAn ineligible shareholder left on the corporate record from an earlier transaction is a structural problem the college can require fixed before it will approve a change of ownership at all.
Ask whether any dentist or hygienist at the practice has an open complaint, condition or restriction on their registration with the collegeAn undisclosed practice restriction can limit what services the new owner is actually able to offer, or create reputational exposure that surfaces only after closing.
Confirm how patient records and the recall list transfer
Confirm how patient charts and imaging will transfer to the new owner in compliance with the applicable privacy law, and whether patient notice or consent is required firstIn Ontario, patient health information is governed by the Personal Health Information Protection Act, a stricter regime than the general federal privacy law that applies outside health care; other provinces have their own comparable health-privacy statutes.
Get the active patient-of-record count and recall compliance rate, and confirm they are calculated the same way the seller is presenting themThe recall list is close to the core asset in a dental practice sale, and a recall rate calculated to flatter the numbers looks very different once a buyer applies a consistent definition.
Confirm ownership and transferability of the practice-management and imaging software, and whether historical patient data can actually be exported into a system the buyer intends to useA records system with a licence that does not permit a change of ownership, or that cannot cleanly export imaging history, can leave a buyer unable to access years of clinical history right when it is needed.
Check the facility, equipment and lab relationships
Confirm the operatories, sterilization area and any radiographic equipment meet current infection-control and radiation-safety standards, and request equipment maintenance and calibration recordsDental equipment that is out of calibration, or a sterilization process that does not meet current standards, is both a compliance issue and a clinical liability the new owner inherits along with the chairs.
Review agreements with dental laboratories and confirm pricing, turnaround expectations and whether they are tied personally to the seller’s relationship with the labA practice’s crown-and-bridge turnaround time and cost depend heavily on its lab relationship, and a favourable arrangement built on the seller’s own history with the lab does not automatically carry over on the same terms.
Ask how the practice’s fee schedule and direct-billing arrangements with dental insurers are structured, and confirm there is no history of billing audits or clawbackA pattern of insurer billing disputes is a red flag a buyer can inherit as an audit target, even for claims submitted entirely before the sale.
Confirm associate arrangements and enforceable protections
Review any associate dentist or hygienist agreements, including compensation formulas and notice periods, and confirm which associates intend to stay after the saleA practice generating meaningful production from associates, not just the owner, tends to keep running more smoothly through a change of ownership than one that depends entirely on the departing dentist’s own chair time.
Review the seller’s proposed non-compete and confirm, with a lawyer, whether it is likely enforceable against a regulated professional in the provinceCourts scrutinize non-competes against regulated professionals more closely than an ordinary business non-compete, and an unenforceable clause offers far less protection than it appears to on paper.
Deavo is an advertising and listings platform, not a brokerage, law firm or valuation firm. This page is general information, not legal, tax, accounting or valuation advice, and rules differ by province. Confirm anything you rely on with a qualified professional before you act on it.