What actually moves your dental practice valuation multiple

Two practices with identical revenue can be worth wildly different amounts.

The gap isn't luck. It's a short list of things buyers are demonstrably paying more for right now:
→ Hygiene revenue above 30% of collections can add 0.5x–1.0x to your multiple on its own.
→ Getting the owner below 70% of chair time — building real associate-led production — adds another 0.5x–1.5x.
→ Scale matters more than people think: 3+ locations can command a 2x–4x platform premium over a single site.
→ A trained, non-owner management team with written systems and a KPI dashboard can add 1x–3x EBITDA.
→ Deferred technology and infrastructure does the opposite — it can compress your multiple by 0.25x–0.5x.

Notice what's not on that list: total revenue.

Every one of these is an operating decision, not a market condition.
Which means the multiple isn't something that happens to you at the negotiating table — it's something you build for 2-3 years before you ever get there.

Whether you're planning to sell in five years or never plan to sell at all, these are just the traits of a well-run practice.

Building enterprise value and building a practice you're proud of turn out to be the same project.