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Best Dental Practice Loans and Where to Find Them

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  • Get funds as fast as 24 hours
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Loan Amount Up to $500,000
Estimated Repayment Terms 1-5 Years
Interest Rate Starting at 7%
Speed of Funding As fast as 1 day

While you’re in the dental field to help people, altruistic efforts aren’t enough to sustain and expand a business. You need capital.

Investing in new technology, hiring talented staff, advertising for new clientele or expanding to a new office location all cost money. Dental office loans can help you focus on your patients, not your practice’s pain points.

Financing Your Dental Practice for Success

Considering the typical dental practice requires about half a million dollars just to get it up and running, you’ll likely need additional financing at one point or another to continue to grow your business. Innovating your dental practice can offer a positive return on investment (ROI). However, to achieve ROI you need money. That’s where dental practice loans come in.

Consider dental practice financing when you want to:

Update Your Office

Have you been in the same location for what seems like ages? Looking to renovate your existing office or move to a completely new location?

Whether you’re looking to update your waiting room and workspace or purchase a larger office, there are financing options for you.

Upgrade Equipment

Perhaps your X-ray machine has seen better days, and you’ve been eyeing the latest digital panoramic imaging system. It has multipoint laser alignment and a stationery bite block. You know this equipment will benefit your patients — and ultimately your practice.

Whether you’re looking to buy new machinery or need updated front office equipment, a dental practice loan can help you make your purchase sooner rather than later.

Cover Operational Expenses

It’s a slow time of year and you need a little extra cash flow. Maybe you need help making payroll or paying your monthly bills. Or perhaps you had an unexpected expense crop up and you need access to cash fast.

There are financing options that can help you:

  • Make repairs
  • Purchase supplies
  • Pay vendors
  • Making insurance payments
  • Pay rent and utilities
  • Purchase advertising

Consolidate or Refinance Debt

Are you looking for a lower interest rate on an existing loan? Would you like to simplify your finances and roll all of your existing debt into a single loan?

Whatever the case, explore your dental practice loan refinance options. Perhaps a new loan or line of credit would be more suitable for your business’s current financial situation.

How Much Can My Business Qualify For?

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Best Financing and Loan Options for Your Dental Practice

As a dentist, you likely earn more than the average small business owner. Unfortunately, dentists often come out of the gate with the highest student loan debt of any college graduate, averaging just over $285,000, according to the American Student Dental Association.

How do you make your career and small business work against the odds?

Let’s look at the various types of funding for dental practices. Keep in mind, dental practice loan terms can vary depending on the following factors:

  • Lender
  • Loan type
  • Dental practice financials
  • Credit score
  • Collateral available

Some of the best dental practice loans include:

Dental Equipment Financing

Looking to purchase new equipment? Consider dental equipment financing. The machinery serves as collateral to secure your funds. In other words, if you default on repayment, the lender has the right to take back your equipment to recoup their losses. This type of financing can extend to dental equipment leasing as well.

Terms are generally meant to run 18 months or less, though working capital loans may be able to be repaid in 3 years.

Dental practice loan rates for working capital vary, as there are various types of working capital loans. Rates also vary by lender. Credit score and business financials can also affect rates. As an example, short-term working capital loans can have an annual percentage rate (APR) as low as 6% and can go into the triple digits.

Commercial Loans

Commercial loans for dentists are another option for those who want to grow their business. You can use commercial loans as bridge financing, providing you with a “bridge” of capital, so you can get from one month to the next. You might also use it to buy inventory and supplies. In addition to term loans and equipment financing, there are other types of commercial loans and funding options available, including:

  • Lines of credit
  • Small Business Administration loans
  • Business lines of credit
  • Merchant cash advances

Let’s look at these in a bit more detail below.

Lines of Credit

Business lines of credit are similar to personal lines of credit. You’re approved for a certain amount, available when you’re ready to use it, and you don’t need to use it all at once.

For instance, let’s say you’re approved for a $100,000 line of credit. A month after approval, you need $10,000 to cover unexpected expenses. After taking $10,000 from your credit line, you still have $90,000 of remaining available credit. You’re only charged interest on the $10,000 you’ve used. Plus, once you pay down the $10,000, that amount can be replenished so you have a full $100,000 available again.

Rates can vary based on the lender, whether you’re able to offer collateral and your creditworthiness, with APR that could range from 7%-65%.

SBA Loan

You also might consider an Small Business Administration (SBA) loan for your dental practice. SBA-backed loans and financing options are less risky for lenders because the SBA insures up to 85% of the loan value, depending on the amount borrowed. Some of the more common SBA financing options include the following.

SBA 7(a) Loan

With an SBA 7(a) loan, you can request to borrow up to $5 million. SBA 7(a) loans are a great option for dental practices who have time on their side, as these loans can take up to 3 months for approval. However, rates are typically lower than you’d find with other financing options.

Interest rates for SBA 7(a) loans can be fixed or variable. As of July 2019, the maximum allowed fixed interest rates ranged from 10.5% for loans greater than $250,000 to 13.5% for loans of $25,000 or less.

Loan Amount Maximum Fixed Interest Rate for 7(a) Loan*
$25,000 or less 13.5%
$25,001-$50,000 12.5%
$50,001-$250,000 11.5%
$250,001 or greater 10.5%

*As of July 2019

Variable interest rates must be approved by the SBA. Borrower percentage rates can be tied to the lowest prime rate, which as of July 2019 was 5.5%.

Also, repayment is often over 10 years but may extend up to 25 years under certain circumstances. Collateral isn’t required for loans less than $25,000.

SBA 7(a) financing can also function as a dental equipment loan, real estate purchase loan, refinance option and more.

SBA Express Loan

A faster alternative to the 7(a) is the SBA Express loan, which can be funded in as little as 30 days. The downside is you’re limited to requesting a max of $350,000. Additionally, loan repayment terms don’t exceed 10 years. Interest rates for the SBA Express loan are the same as those for the 7(a) program.

Dental practices also might consider a working capital lines of credit insured through the SBA, which can be offered on a one-time or revolving basis.

Merchant Cash Advance

If you have self-paying patients, you likely have future credit card sales. A merchant cash advance (MCA) is an advance against your future sales. If you need access to cash fast, this might be an option for you. Payments will need to be made daily or weekly and aren’t fixed.

There’s no fixed maturity date. Also, repayment is based on a factor rate (e.g., 1.14), not an interest rate. With factor rates, repayments are calculated by multiplying the factor rate by the amount borrowed.

  • Dental Practice Loan and Financing Options

    If you’re looking for a short-term solution, consider working capital financing:

     

    If you’re looking to fund a project requiring significant capital, consider:


Where to Find Dental Practice Loans

Today, you have many options when it comes to financing your small business. Thanks to the Internet, you can easily search and apply for multiple loan offers. Keep in mind, though, that dental practice bank loans can be more challenging to apply for and obtain than alternative loans.

Conventional Banks

With banks, dental practice loan requirements generally call for more financial documentation, a longer time in business and higher credit score. You may also need to provide collateral to establish your commitment to repayment. Time to approval is also longer and can take 3-6 months depending on the loan type. However, if you’re approved rates are generally lower and term lengths are typically longer than you’d find with an alternative lender.

Online Lenders

In contrast, online lending marketplaces are able to provide quick access to capital, sometimes within a day of approval. Also, they generally have less stringent requirements than banks — lower credit score, less financial documentation, less time in business. Plus, collateral may not be required. In exchange for these benefits, though, you’ll likely have shorter term lengths and higher interest rates.

  • What Our Customers Say

    “At times when reimbursement was low, the funds from Fast Capital 360 held us through.”

    – Fast Capital 360 customer Dr. Eileen Conti, private practice owner

    Opthalmologist holding a folder

What You Need to Apply for Dental Practice Financing or a Loan

Because requirements can differ depending on the loan and lender, it’s important to know how to qualify for dental practice financing. With Fast Capital 360, you’ll need the following qualifications and documentation to get started:

Minimum Requirements:

  • Time in Business 4 months
  • Annual Revenue $100,000+
  • FICO Score 500+

What You'll Need to Apply

  • Bank Statements 4 months
  • Basic Information Personal and business

Apply With Fast Capital 360

Fast Capital 360 can provide the right amount of financing to give your dental practice what it needs to expand. How does it work?

Complete a Short Application

Take about 5 minutes on our secure application portal to tell us a little about yourself and your business. In about the time it takes to check-in a patient, you’ll have completed your application.

Even better, preapprovals are available within 24 hours.

Get Multiple Offers Fast

We have partnerships with reputable lenders throughout the country, so we’re able to provide you with loan offers tailored to your specific needs. After submitting your application, you could receive preapproval for up to 20 financing offers.

Receive Expert Advice

With Fast Capital 360, you’ll have a dedicated Business Advisor throughout your loan application and approval process. We’ll work with you to understand your finances, what you can afford, what you need and what type of repayment structure would be best for your specific financial situation. When you’re ready to review offers, your Business Advisor can help you understand applicable loan terms so you can make the best decision for your practice.

One application. Multiple loan offers.

Quickly compare loan offers from multiple lenders without impacting your credit score.

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