If you are an associate wondering whether owning a practice is a normal next step, here is what the research says. Every figure has its source and year. Where we do not have a verified number, we say so instead of guessing.
The ADA Health Policy Institute followed dentists by graduation year. Newer classes own at lower rates early in their careers, but the difference shrinks the longer they practice. Share of each group who owned a practice:
Source: ADA Health Policy Institute, Practice Ownership Trends in Dentistry: A New Look at Old Data (June 2025), as reported by ADA News, June 17, 2025. The ADA's HPI page links the full brief. The brief names increased educational debt among the factors that may affect early-career ownership. We publish no debt figure here because we have not verified one at its source.
There is no single official figure for the average age at which a dentist buys a first practice, and we will not invent one. We also do not publish price ranges, multiples or what a practice is worth. Each listing carries its own broker's asking price, and that broker is the right person to explain it.
Source: TheDentalPracticeMarket.com listing index, as of Oct 16, 2026. This counts what TDPM carries, which is a large subset of the market and not all of it. It measures supply on this site, not how many practices change hands.