Chris Barrow warns that dental practice values may be heading for a crash as speculative buying begins to outpace real business performance.
In every market cycle, there comes a point when a sensible trend starts to attract an irrational narrative.
In UK dentistry, the rapid rise of small dental groups is not, in itself, a problem. Consolidation can bring better systems, deeper management, improved buying power and clearer career paths.
But when expansion is driven less by patient care and operating discipline, and more by the promise of a quick re-rating on exit, it is reasonable to ask a difficult question: who, exactly, is the end buyer?
