Financing

Financing dental equipment

Two separate calculations decide an equipment purchase: what the financing costs, and what the equipment produces. A comfortable payment on a machine that sits idle is still a bad purchase.

Finance Equipment

Tell us what you are financing. Most requests reviewed within 2 business hours.

Find Financing Explore the tools

The payment is the easy part

A $120,000 scanner financed over sixty months at 7% costs about $2,376 a month. That number is arithmetic, and the loan calculator will produce it along with the total interest and the effect of any fees. It is also the least interesting number in the decision.

The interesting question is what the equipment produces, and that has almost nothing to do with the financing. Answer them separately. Equipment that earns its keep is worth financing on ordinary terms; equipment that does not is not made worthwhile by a low rate.

The purchase price is not the cost

Installation and facility work. Electrical capacity, plumbing, shielding for imaging, ventilation, network cabling, a room that has to be reconfigured. Sometimes this rivals the equipment cost.
Training. For you and for the team, including the time nobody is producing while it happens. New technology has a learning curve during which it is slower than what it replaced.
Downtime and disruption. Days of lost production during installation, and weeks of reduced efficiency afterwards.
Staffing. Does this need an operator you do not have, or additional assistant time per procedure? That is a recurring cost, not a one-off.
Consumables and maintenance. Per-case consumables, service contracts, calibration, software subscriptions and licence renewals. Ask what the annual cost of ownership is after the warranty, and get it in writing.
Integration. Whether it actually works with your practice management software and imaging system, and what it costs if it does not.

Utilization decides everything

The same machine can be an excellent purchase and a poor one in two practices across the street from each other. What separates them is how often it is used and what it is used for.

So do the arithmetic honestly: how many cases per month, at what fee, at what incremental cost per case, and what evidence supports that volume? "We refer out about four of these a month" is evidence. "It will grow the practice" is not. Count only the procedures you can point to (cases currently referred out, cases currently declined, or work you are demonstrably losing) and run it through the expansion calculator as a project with its own ramp, its own incremental costs and its own net present value.

Efficiency gains are real but harder to bank. Saving twenty minutes a case is only money if that time is filled with other production, and only if the schedule has demand waiting for it.

Match the term to the useful life

Financing a five-year piece of technology over ten years means paying for it long after it has been replaced, and being unable to replace it because the old loan is still outstanding. Digital equipment in particular ages by obsolescence rather than wear: a scanner that still works perfectly may be two generations behind.

Ask what happens at the end of the term. On a loan you own it. On a finance agreement you usually own it. On a lease you may own nothing, or face a fair-market-value buyout that was never quantified at the start. None of these is wrong, but they are not the same transaction, and a monthly payment comparison between them is meaningless without knowing which is which.

Dealer financing is financing

A manufacturer or dealer offer can be genuinely competitive, and it can also bundle fees, a longer term or a lease structure into an attractive-looking monthly figure. Compare on the same basis: total cash paid, what you own at the end, and the rate implied once fees are included. The loan comparison will hold two structures side by side and mark what makes them non-equivalent. It will not crown a winner, because a lower total cost with no ownership at the end is not automatically better.

Before signing

What is the full first-year cost, including installation, training and lost production?
What is the annual cost of ownership in year three, after the warranty?
How many cases a month, from where, and what is the evidence?
Does the term match the useful life?
What do I own at the end, and at what price?
Does this purchase use up borrowing capacity I will want for something larger?

Run the numbers first

Dental practice loan calculator

What would this loan cost, and how does it compare with another structure?

Scheduled payments, amortization, balloon balances, interest through maturity and up to three side-by-side scenarios.
Dental practice expansion calculator

Does this project produce enough incremental cash to be worth funding?

Incremental project cash flow with a ramp, unlevered NPV, payback, break-even collections and cash after debt service.

What to ask a lender

Take these into the first conversation. A lender that answers them plainly is telling you something useful; one that will not is also telling you something useful.

Is this an equipment loan, an equipment finance agreement, or a lease? What do I own at the end of each?
If it is a lease, is there a purchase option, and at what price, a fixed amount, fair market value, or one dollar?
What is the term, and how does it compare with the useful life of this equipment?
What is the effective interest rate, expressed as a rate rather than a total of payments?
What fees apply, documentation, filing, delivery, a first and last payment in advance?
Is the equipment the only collateral, or do you take a blanket lien on all practice assets?
Is a personal guarantee required for this size of facility?
Can I prepay, and what does that cost?
Are payments deferred or interest-only during installation and training?
Does the manufacturer or dealer financing offer differ from bank financing once fees are included?
Does this facility affect my capacity to borrow for a larger project later?

These are questions to ask, not a set of criteria this site evaluates. Nothing here is a credit assessment or an indication of what any lender will do.