100% Dental Practice Financing: Costs and Cash Needed

What does 100% dental practice financing mean?

It refers to the portion of a defined cost that a lender may finance. The definition matters as much as the percentage. A program may address eligible practice costs while leaving other fees, reserves or household needs outside that amount. The borrower and the specific acquisition still need approval.

Huntington's dental lending page advertises up to 100% financing for practice and real-estate needs and states that lending is subject to credit application and approval. Wells Fargo's current practice-finance page also describes up to 100% financing. These are conditional public product descriptions, not offers to finance every reader's complete purchase budget. (Sources: Huntington: Dental practice loans; Wells Fargo: Practice finance.)

Before comparing proposals, write down the amount to which each percentage applies. Ask the lender to mark the costs included, excluded or still under review. That produces a practical question: how much of this buyer's total need is actually covered by the written proposal?

Define the denominator before trusting the percentage

A purchase price, total project budget and all-in personal cash need are different measures. They should not be used interchangeably. The price may cover existing equipment and goodwill, while the project also requires transaction costs and operating funds. Personal living reserves can sit outside both.

Build a line-item cost schedule first. Tie the asset price to the purchase documents, fees to adviser estimates and opening needs to the operating plan. Record whether equipment is already included in the price. A second equipment row should represent a separate need, not the same chairs and systems counted again.

Do not calculate a financing percentage from a credit limit that has not been approved for this purpose. Likewise, do not count the seller's payment deferral as a deposit of new cash. Its effect belongs in the closing payment and future repayment schedule.

Compare two complete funding proposals

The following invented acquisition contains a $700,000 asset purchase, $55,000 for operating funds and $25,000 of transaction costs. The total project budget is $780,000. Existing equipment is assumed included in the asset price. There is no separate building purchase or new equipment project.

Assume two hypothetical proposals cover all of their respective eligible costs. Proposal A covers only the asset purchase. Proposal B also covers the specified operating funds, but not the transaction costs. These are teaching assumptions, not the terms of any named lender.

Both proposals fund 100% of the costs defined as eligible in this example. Relative to the same total project budget, however, Proposal A funds 89.74% and Proposal B funds 96.79%, rounded to two decimals. Those measures answer a different question from the advertised eligible-cost percentage.

Now assume the buyer also chooses a separate $30,000 household reserve. Under Proposal A, the buyer needs $110,000 for the project contribution and that reserve combined. Under Proposal B, the amount is $55,000. The reserve is not spent at closing and is not included in the project cost; it is cash the buyer elects to retain outside the practice.

Proposal B also creates $55,000 more practice debt than Proposal A. The lower upfront contribution does not make that funding free. Compare the repayment schedule and the purpose of retaining cash before preferring either structure. The example establishes no credit decision or recommended reserve.

Identify what the headline leaves unanswered

Request the lender's treatment of professional fees, deposits, working capital, repairs and property costs. A category that appears in your budget may be absent from its eligible-use schedule. Mark unresolved items as unresolved; do not quietly treat them as funded to make the cash requirement smaller.

Bank of America's dental page describes acquisition and working-capital financing and says qualifications vary with the financing sought. Its published terms remain subject to credit approval. That is a reason to request a proposal for the actual transaction rather than infer cash coverage from a program name. (Source: Bank of America: Dental practice loans.)

The correct answer may differ between purchasing a whole practice, buying a partner's share and acquiring a building. Explain the ownership structure and the assets early. A proposal for a general practice purchase should not be assumed to cover a different entity, ownership interest or property closing.

Avoid deposit and reimbursement mistakes

Keep earlier payments visible in the funds flow. A deposit credited against the purchase price reduces what remains payable to the seller; it is not automatically an extra acquisition cost. Whether a loan reimburses the buyer for that deposit is a separate question requiring written lender and closing instructions.

In a separate invented example, the purchase price is $700,000 and the buyer has already paid a $20,000 deposit credited to that price. The unpaid seller amount is $680,000. Assume the lender's gross acquisition facility is $700,000 and the closing team has approved reimbursement of the buyer's deposit from it. The planned disbursements would be $680,000 to the seller and $20,000 back to the buyer.

If reimbursement is not approved, that allocation cannot be assumed. The lender and closing team must provide a different permitted funds flow. Do not send the seller the full purchase price again while also treating the deposit as paid. Do not count a possible reimbursement as available savings before the conditions and timing are confirmed.

This example excludes fees and operating funds to isolate the deposit issue. Add those uses in the full transaction model. Reconcile the final schedule to the actual settlement documents and bank movements rather than treating an illustrative table as closing instructions.

Distinguish funded costs from cash available today

A facility can permit a cost without paying it immediately. The lender may require invoices, completion evidence or another condition before releasing funds. Ask for the actual disbursement process. Public references to project support or a line of credit do not tell you when your payroll account will receive cash.

For every conditional allocation, identify who pays first, what proof is needed and when funds can be released. If the buyer must advance money, show that temporary need separately. Do not assume a credit-card limit or a future reimbursement is the same as cleared cash.

The working-capital guide follows operating cash by date and tests the lowest balance. This guide addresses the earlier coverage question: which costs are funded, by which facility and under what conditions? Use both schedules together without counting the same reserve twice.

Compare the full repayment obligation

Request the complete payment schedule, including any initial payment phase and later change. Compare the amount borrowed, rate basis, repayment term, maturity, fees and early-payment conditions. A smaller buyer contribution may be paired with more debt or a different repayment structure.

Deferred payments and interest-only payments are distinct arrangements. Ask how interest is treated, when principal starts and what happens at maturity. Do not assume that an early low payment represents the ongoing cost of ownership. Use the lender's actual schedule in the cash model.

The loan-payment calculator illustrates a fixed-rate, fully amortizing loan. Its assumptions do not reproduce every offered structure. If the written proposal includes a balloon, changing rate or irregular draw, request a schedule that models those features and reconcile it to the planning budget.

Avoid describing the largest permitted loan as the best loan. Compare the cash retained with the repayment burden created. A buyer who uses all savings can face a difficult transition; a buyer who borrows more than the practice can support faces a different problem. The evidence needed for the decision includes both liquidity and recurring cash capacity.

Keep borrower approval separate from practice fit

A lender can advertise a high financing share while still reviewing the dentist, the practice and the deal structure. Provide complete information about debts, liquidity, clinical readiness and the proposed operating plan. An informal conversation about a program is not confirmation that the specific acquisition will be funded.

Student debt belongs in that review and in the household budget. It does not disappear because practice costs are highly financed. Use the student-debt acquisition guide to test education payments beside owner cash rather than deducting them inconsistently across several worksheets.

Keep a separate decision about the practice itself. Review collections, required staffing, premises, equipment and transition responsibilities. Financing can help pay for an acquisition; it cannot establish that the assumptions behind its operating results are sound. The due-diligence checklist organizes that wider review.

Ask which program and policy the proposal uses

Identify whether the proposal is a dedicated practice product, an SBA-backed facility or another structure. Similar financing language does not make the programs interchangeable. Ask the institution to identify the applicable policy, permitted uses and required borrower contribution for the actual transaction.

Do not transfer a percentage from a conventional lending page into an SBA equity calculation. Also avoid treating a training slide or a future policy version as the rule for a loan being processed now. The financing-options guide retains the dated SBA version-index observations and their limits. Full program application still needs the lender's current review.

The SBA version index reviewed on September 7, 2026 lists version 8 with a June 1, 2025 effective date and version 8.1 with an October 1, 2026 effective date. Those index dates do not replace a review of the governing text, intervening notices or the loan's facts. No SBA equity rule is calculated here. (Source: SBA: SOP 50 10 version index.)

For a practice and building purchased together, ask whether the two approvals depend on each other. Use consistent rent and occupancy assumptions across the models. The practice facility may not remain usable on the same terms if the proposed property transaction changes.

Summary: turn the proposal into a closing decision sheet

Prepare one page that lists total project costs, the funded amount by category, buyer cash, retained household cash and unresolved conditions. Add the current proposal date and the party responsible for each open item. Keep quotations and supporting schedules behind that summary.

Ask the lender to confirm corrections in writing. If a cost is excluded, revise the buyer contribution or the project scope before relying on the total. If the solution changes the loan amount, obtain the revised repayment schedule as well. A cash solution should not enter one worksheet while its debt consequence is omitted from another.

Share material changes with the people managing the purchase. A price change, new seller note or different ownership structure can affect the funding review. Keep the latest agreed version identifiable so the seller, accountant, attorney and lender are not making decisions from conflicting assumptions.

The practical value of a high financing share is the approved funding it supplies for defined costs. Judge the complete proposal by the cash it releases, the obligations it creates and the conditions still to be met. That provides a clearer basis for a purchase decision than the percentage by itself.