Shared Practices | Your Dental Roadmap through Practice Ownership

Latest Episodes:

How One Decision Can Change Your Trajectory: A Dentist Guide to Dental Practice Ownership Reality Jun 23, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, Richard Low sits down with Dr. Brian Belsterling to unpack his journey from a VA hospital residency to successful dental practice ownership. Many ambitious young professionals feel pressured to rush into buying a clinic, but Brian proves that strategic patience pays off for the modern dentist. By prioritizing clinical maturity during his associate years, he avoided combining clinical anxiety with the heavy administrative stress of immediate acquisition.

Whether you are actively searching for an acquisition or currently navigating the hurdles of the associate to owner transition, Brian’s story is the ultimate blueprint for mitigating risk in dental practice ownership. To succeed in dental practice management, you need an objective perspective when evaluating clinics and transitioning operations.

Here is your survival guide to mastering dental business strategies during an acquisition:

Build Clinical Confidence First: Use your associate years to master high-value procedures, such as surgical extractions and implant placement, before taking on the administrative burden of dental practice ownership.
Stockpile Liquidity: Save personal cash to weather inevitable transition bumps, such as cash flow dips caused by insurance re-credentialing delays.
Eliminate Emotional Buying: Utilize buyer representation services to objectively validate opportunities and prevent costly, emotion-driven mistakes.
Modernize Wisely: Prepare to upgrade legacy systems, like transitioning from paper charts to digital software, while actively managing your team's morale.

Ready to take the next step in your dental practice journey? Visit https://sharedpractices.com to learn more about our Buyer Representation and Coaching services, designed to help dentists buy, grow, and optimize profitable practices. You can also use our Free Look to evaluate dental practice opportunities with real data before making a decision. For daily Dental Moneyball insights, strategy tips, and updates, follow us across our social channels.

Acquisitions in Dentistry: Turning Around Cash-Bleeding Offices with Nesto Part 2 Jun 16, 2025

Show notes

Welcome back to Practice Underwater, where host Dr. George Hariri joins guest Nesto to analyze the messy operational realities of expanding your portfolio through acquisitions in dentistry.

They break down critical dental practice management changes at Nesto's second office, exploring how he reversed a historical cash loss into a break-even operation while mapping out sustainable dental practice growth.

The conversation dives into a massive debate surrounding acquisitions in dentistry: whether Nesto should follow his CPA's financial management for dentists advice to downsize into a single clinic, or stay committed to his long-term vision of multi-provider group practices.

For clinicians navigating an associate to owner transition, managing team bottlenecks, or scaling multiple acquisitions in dentistry, this is a must-listen for scaling clinical efficiency and portfolio profitability.

In this episode:

Managing a two-office portfolio solo after a partnership split doubled the expected ownership workload.
Shifting a slower second practice from a historical cash loss to a stable financial break-even status.
Solving front desk and assistant staffing bottlenecks to protect clinical production schedules.
Executing a four-point plan centered on targeted hiring, phone conversions, hygiene retention, and case acceptance.
Migrating to an all-in-one cloud practice management software to slash administrative hours.

Whether navigating an associate to owner transition or vetting acquisitions in dentistry, this is your survival guide. Ready to scale your dental practice ownership?

Visit https://sharedpractices.com/ for our "Free Look" service and follow our social channels for roadmap updates. Join the community and turn your clinical skills into a thriving business.

Acquisitions in Dentistry: Turning Around Cash-Bleeding Offices with Nesto Part 1 Jun 09, 2025

Show notes

Welcome back to Practice Underwater, a solo episode where host Dr. George Hariri steps up to detail the unconventional acquisitions in dentistry journey of Mastermind member Nesto.

George explores the stark contrast between Nesto's two acquisitions in dentistry: a thriving $1.1M office with seven hygiene days and a slower practice losing $80,000 annually after a massive post-sale collections drop from $690,000 to $338,000.

They analyze a critical decision in dental practice ownership: whether Nesto should cut his losses by shifting debt to his profitable office, or stick to his gritty pseudo-specialist vision through disciplined dental practice management and targeted cost-cutting.

This is a must-listen for anyone undergoing an associate to owner transition or evaluating acquisitions in dentistry who wants to master portfolio financial management for dentists.

In this episode:

The operational danger of buying a clinic with inflated collections built on high-ticket procedures but only one hygiene day .
How a sudden dental school partnership dissolution doubled Nesto's expected ownership and clinical workload .
Analyzing the $80,000 annual cash drain triggered when a less-productive associate doctor entered the schedule .
Breaking down George's three strategic options for diagnosing and resolving a deeply distressed dental asset .
A CFO-driven framework to aggressively cut expenses in a slow office and reinvest cash flow from a busy clinic .

Whether navigating an associate to owner transition or vetting acquisitions in dentistry, this is your survival guide. Ready to scale your dental practice ownership?

Visit https://sharedpractices.com/ for our "Free Look" service and follow our social channels for roadmap updates. Join the community and turn your clinical skills into a thriving business.

Ask George - Private Practice vs DSOs: Dental Practice Ownership for Wealth Jun 02, 2025

Show notes

In this episode of Ask George, Richard Low and Dr. George Hariri map out the complete financial timeline of a dentist's career. For the ambitious professional, understanding the financial phases of dental practice ownership is essential to building long-term wealth. The hosts break down the crucial transition from wealth accumulation—where you grow the clinic and pay down debt—to wealth stagnation, where your practice's equity naturally plateaus.

Whether you are choosing traditional private dental practice ownership or considering a partnership with a DSO, this episode provides absolute clarity on how to maximize your net worth.

Here is your guide to mastering the financial stages of dental practice ownership:

Secure a High Income First: Before aggressively paying off student loans, focus on securing a high income position to comfortably support your lifestyle while building initial savings.
Maximize Wealth Accumulation: During the first decade of dental practice ownership, you build massive net worth by simultaneously growing your practice's value and paying down your bank debt.
Navigate Wealth Stagnation: Recognize that once a solo clinic reaches its maximum capacity and debt is paid off, the equity value plateaus, requiring you to actively invest your high cash flow into other assets like real estate or index funds.
Private Practice vs. DSOs: While private practice wealth is physically constrained to its four walls, partnering with a DSO allows you to trade practice equity for platform stock that continues to accumulate value as the larger company expands.

Building Culture that Persists - Is it Possible in Dental Practice Management? May 26, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, Richard Low and Alex Sharp reveal how a resilient dental practice culture is the true engine behind elite dental practice management. Building a team of "missionaries" rather than "mercenaries" transforms your daily operations and ensures sustainable dental practice growth, even when facing unexpected staff turnover. For any dentist navigating the hurdles of dental practice ownership, creating concrete, daily winnable games for your team is essential.

If your office feels chaotic, it is time to upgrade your dental practice management. Stop relying on an inspiring poster on the wall and start implementing real dental business strategies. Here is your guide to building a culture that persists:

Define Daily Wins: Give every team member measurable goals, like tracking new patient wait times, so they know exactly how to succeed each day.
Embrace Crucial Conversations: Sprint toward personnel problems and address toxic behavior directly instead of sweeping it under the rug to save chairside convenience.
Implement Checklists: Use temporary task tracking to build operational habits and ensure everyone knows their exact inputs.
Remove the Fear of Turnover: Understand that your culture will survive departures, and replacing a net-negative employee ultimately strengthens your clinic.

A blank canvas is an opportunity to co-create expectations with your staff. Master these dental practice management skills to build an unstoppable and highly profitable practice.

Thinking About Dental Practice Ownership? Financing Secrets Every Aspiring Owner Should Know May 19, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, Richard Low sits down with Steve Steinbrunner and Brian Carroll from Provide to demystify financing for the modern dentist. If you are preparing for dental practice ownership, navigating banks and loan requirements can feel overwhelming. However, securing the right funding is the ultimate key to unlocking sustainable dental practice growth.

Whether you are planning a startup or evaluating an acquisition, understanding how lenders view your profile is critical to dental practice ownership. Many ambitious associates make the mistake of aggressively paying down student debt instead of saving cash, inadvertently destroying their chances for competitive financing.

Here is your blueprint for mastering dental business strategies and securing capital for dental practice ownership:

Preserve Liquidity: Banks typically want to see 7% to 10% of your total loan amount in cash.
Check Your Credit: Maintain a minimum credit score of 680 and ensure you have a clean history without major financial blemishes.
Leverage Gift Funds: If you lack the cash minimums, use family gift funds to bridge the gap and satisfy strict lender requirements.
Startups vs. Acquisitions: Understand that startup loans rely heavily on personal projections and runway, while acquisition loans are driven by the target clinic's historical cash flow.

Execution vs Overthinking: Dental Business Strategies for the Ambitious Dentist May 12, 2025

Show notes

In this episode of Coach's Corner, Richard Low and Caitlin Embree tackle the ultimate productivity killer for the ambitious dentist: analysis paralysis. It is easy to confuse listening to podcasts or reading leadership books with executing actual dental business strategies. The hosts explain how endless "edutainment" acts as a sneaky form of procrastination, preventing you from implementing the dental business strategies that drive sustainable dental practice growth.

If you are overwhelmed by the chaos of dental practice ownership, you must learn to filter the noise. This episode provides the framework to stop overthinking and start acting.

Here is your guide to executing elite dental business strategies and improving your dental practice management:

Filter by Leverage: Prioritize tasks that either eliminate your biggest current stressor or permanently solve recurring operational bottlenecks.
Stop Changing Systems: Repeatedly overhauling software or protocols after every CE course destroys team trust and causes initiative fatigue. Pick one system and fully implement it.
Limit Brainstorming: Do not workshop new ideas with the entire staff, as it breeds rumors and drama. Finalize decisions with leadership behind closed doors before presenting them to the team.
Block Distractions: Use app-blocking tools to shut off social media and email after hours, protecting your mental bandwidth for high-level decision-making.

Ask George - Ready to Grow vs Ready to Shrink: How to Buy a Dental Practice May 05, 2025

Show notes

In this episode of Ask George, Richard Low and Dr. George Hariri reveal how to buy a dental practice correctly to avoid acquiring a "ready to shrink" clinic. Too many buyers rely solely on financial profit and loss statements without evaluating the true health of the active patient base, resulting in massive post-acquisition revenue drops. A prime example discussed is a doctor who bought a $690,000 practice with only one day of hygiene per week, causing collections to plummet to $310,000 in the first year.

If you are wondering how to buy a dental practice that ensures sustainable dental practice growth, you must implement rigorous due diligence. Here is your blueprint to ensure you buy a "ready to grow" clinic rather than an overvalued lemon:

Start with Your Vision: Never acquire an office without a clear understanding of your long-term goals and how the specific practice aligns with that vision.
Audit the Patient Base: Go beyond tax returns by remoting into the practice management software to count actual cleanings and hygiene days. A healthy clinic should service around 800 active patients per four days of hygiene.
Evaluate the Procedure Mix: Look at the three-to-four surface filling to crown ratio to determine if the seller's production is highly specialized or overly aggressive. Buying dentistry you cannot replicate will instantly devalue the asset.
Exercise Strategic Patience: Knowing exactly how to buy a dental practice dictates that waiting an extra year for the right off-market opportunity is vastly superior to rushing into the wrong purchase and setting your career back multiple years.

Bold Moves, Light Laughs: How One Dentist Found His Calling Apr 28, 2025

Show notes

In this episode of Shared Practices, Richard Low interviews the multi-talented Dr. Brady Smith, a dentist who has mastered the art of bold pivots. From acquiring and eventually decoupling from a Comfort Dental franchise to launching a national stand-up comedy tour, Brady proves that successful dental practice ownership does not require a rigid, traditional playbook. Instead, true fulfillment comes from adapting your dental practice management strategies to fit your personal strengths.

If you are a burnt-out dentist seeking alternative dental business strategies, this conversation is a breath of fresh air. Brady breaks down his highly controversial, yet immensely profitable, hygienist-free practice model.

Here is your guide to outside-the-box dental practice management:

The Hygienist-Free Model: Learn how maximizing highly trained dental assistants and performing hygiene checks simultaneously with cleanings can drastically reduce overhead and eliminate staffing shortages.
Efficiency is Everything: Brady explains how performing procedures daily—like prepping a molar in five minutes—allows the modern dentist to rapidly execute high-value scaling and root planing cases.
Navigating Franchise Ownership: Understand the hidden restrictions of franchise dental practice ownership, such as the inability to collateralize equity, and how to successfully buy out your own location.
Leverage Social Media Controversy: See how leaning into polarizing dental topics online can drive massive engagement and help build a unique personal brand.

The Entrepreneurial Dentist: Balancing Wealth, Risk, and Fulfillment Apr 21, 2025

Show notes

In this episode of the Shared Practices Podcast, Dr. Richard Low and Dr. Alex Sharp tackle an important question: Once you’ve built a thriving practice and reached financial success, what’s next?

Most dentists focus on growing their practice and increasing income, but after hitting a financial milestone, the next steps become less clear. Richard and Alex explore the challenges, mindset shifts, and opportunities for investing beyond the dental practice.