A dental chief executive officer leads a group of dental offices and the central office that runs their business side. The CEO picks where to open or buy offices, raises the money and builds the leadership team, while care decisions stay with licensed dentists.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
Median pay, outpatient health care providers · BLS, May 2025
You'll lead a dental group of eight to ten practices and the central office that supports them. You set the growth plan, raise and manage capital, decide which practices to open or buy, and build the leadership team. You also keep clinical decisions in the hands of licensed dentists.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Set the group's long-term plan: which markets to grow in, and whether to open new practices or buy existing ones.
Raise and manage capital with banks and investors, and report results to the owners or board.
Hire and lead the COO, CFO, Clinical Director and Marketing Manager, and set clear goals for each.
Lead talks with dentists selling their practices, from first meeting through closing, with the CFO and outside advisors.
Follow your state's rules on who may own and direct a dental practice, and keep diagnosis and treatment decisions with licensed dentists.
Decide with the CFO and COO which dental insurance networks the group joins, renegotiates or leaves.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Review the group dashboard: production, collections, new patients and hygiene reappointment by practice.
Meet with the leadership team on practices that are behind plan and what will change.
Visit practices, sit in on a morning huddle, and hear directly from dentists and team members.
Talk with practice owners who may sell, and with lenders, investors and advisors.
Approve major spending, such as new equipment, practice remodels and leadership hires.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Group collections: [your target].
Group EBITDA: [your target].
New patients across the group: [your target].
Associate dentist retention: [your target].
New practices opened or acquired on plan: [your target].
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
[10+] years of leadership experience, including [5+] years running a multi-location business.
A record of growing revenue and profit across several locations.
Experience raising capital or working with bank lenders or private equity investors.
Understands how a dental practice makes money: hygiene, restorative treatment, insurance fee schedules and collections.
Bachelor's degree in business, finance or a related field, or equal experience.
6. Preferred Experience
Senior leadership experience at a dental service organization (DSO) or multi-practice dental group.
Has bought practices and moved them onto shared software, policies and payroll.
A DDS or DMD, or long experience working side by side with practicing dentists.
MBA or similar graduate degree.
7. Physical Requirements
Sit at a desk and computer for long periods, with time on your feet during practice visits.
With or without reasonable accommodation.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Based at the central office in [city].
Regular travel to every practice, plus occasional overnight trips for [acquisitions, conferences and investor meetings].
Business hours [Monday through Friday], with evening calls when a deal or urgent issue needs it.
9. Compensation and Benefits
Pay: [range and hourly or salary basis].
Additional pay: [overtime, bonus or incentive terms, or none].
Benefits: [health, dental, vision, retirement, paid time off, and when they start].
10. Company Culture and Overview
[Two or three sentences on what your company does, the area you serve, and the support a new chief executive officer gets in the first 90 days.]
11. How to Apply
[Apply link or email]. Our process: [phone interview, in-person interview, and next steps]. Contact [hiring contact] if you need an accommodation during the application process.
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Running eight to ten dental offices turns on three questions most CEOs never face: who is allowed to own them, who pays for the care, and which dentists stay.
State law decides who may own and control the offices
Each state decides who may own a dental office, and the rules differ. In North Carolina, owning, managing or controlling a business where dentistry is done counts as practicing dentistry, and that takes a dental license. Arizona lets a business offer dental care if it registers each office with the state board, names the dentist responsible for care there, and licensed providers do the work. Have your lawyer set the structure before the CEO signs a deal. Source: North Carolina General Statutes § 90-29: dentistry defined.
Growth often means buying practices
Much of the plan runs through deals with dentists who are ready to sell. The CEO leads those talks with the CFO and outside advisors, and the selling dentist may stay on to treat patients for a while. How the group handles that first year decides whether the dentist, the team and the patients stay.
Capital comes from banks or private equity
Buying several practices usually takes outside money. ADA News describes DSOs as either privately held or partnered with private equity firms that supply capital. Bank debt leaves ownership with the founders but comes with covenants. Private equity brings money and a board, and its investors expect a return on a timeline. The CEO picks the mix with the owners. Source: ADA News: DSO 101, what to know about dental support organizations (2024).
Taking Medicaid brings federal fraud rules
Medicaid must cover dental care for enrolled children. Each state chooses whether to cover adults, so the mix of payers differs by state. Once the group bills Medicaid, the federal Anti-Kickback Statute applies. Under it, knowingly and willfully paying anything of value to bring in referrals for that care, or as a reward for them, is a crime. Have a healthcare lawyer review referral deals, marketing partners and purchase terms. Source: HHS Office of Inspector General: Fraud and abuse laws.
Associate dentists decide whether the plan works
Production depends on dentists who stay. An associate can move to a rival office or open their own. When one leaves, that office loses treatment days until a new dentist starts. The CEO watches associate retention as closely as EBITDA and backs the Clinical Director on mentoring and fair schedules.
How much dental chief executive officers make
The closest BLS group for dental chief executive officers is chief executives. Chief executives who work for outpatient health care providers earned a median of $218,810 a year ($105.20 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s about the same as the $213,990 median for chief executives in all industries. About 6,510 of the 204,350 chief executives in that survey work for outpatient health care providers.
Salary and bonus, with the bonus measured on group EBITDA, practices added and associate retention. Where private equity owns the group, the CEO may also get equity that vests over several years and pays out at a sale.
Outpatient health care providers
$218,810$218,810 median Middle half $141,500–$334,610 10th–90th $92,590–$457,510
All industries
$213,990$213,990 median Middle half $129,540–$356,200 10th–90th $75,700–$507,730
10th–90th percentileMiddle halfMedianAnnual pay, May 2025. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
Annual pay by percentile
Group
10th
25th
Median
75th
90th
Outpatient health care providers
$92,590
$141,500
$218,810
$334,610
$457,510
All industries
$75,700
$129,540
$213,990
$356,200
$507,730
BLS counts too few chief executives at dental offices for a steady figure, so these figures cover outpatient health care providers. Post a real range for your market in the ad.
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Has run many locations at once and grown profit, not only sales
Knows how hygiene, restorative work and fee schedules drive a practice's profit
Has closed financing for acquisitions, whether bank debt or private equity
Earns dentists' trust without second-guessing their clinical calls
Can lead a practice purchase from the first meeting to closing
Teach these on the job
How your dashboard defines production, collections and active patients
Which insurance networks each office belongs to, and why
Each office's history, dentists and local competitors
Your board's reporting calendar and format
Your group's legal setup in each state, as your counsel explains it
Group numbers come out of the practice management system (Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Open Dental and others) and the CFO's monthly package, and deals live in a pipeline of practices that might sell. If your offices don't all run the same system yet, say so, because mixed systems make group numbers harder to trust.
Each KPI line in the template ends in a blank. Fill it in with the owners when the yearly budget is set, and read every number office by office as well as for the whole group.
Group collections
Total money collected from patients and insurers across all offices for the month. Pull it from the practice management system, check it against bank deposits, and compare it with last year's figure for that month.
Group EBITDA
Take it from the CFO's monthly statements, for each office and for the central office. Show one-time deal costs apart from the rest, so a purchase doesn't blur the trend.
New patients across the group
First visits completed, not calls booked, by office and by source each month. A new patient who never sits in the chair shouldn't count.
Associate dentist retention
Of the associate dentists on staff twelve months back, how many remain today. Go over each departure with the Clinical Director and record the reason given.
New practices opened or acquired on plan
Deals closed and new offices opened against the year's plan, by date. Also check whether each one reached its first-year production goal.
Career path
Practice owner or multi-site healthcare executiveGrows a few offices, or runs operations for a medical or therapy group.
The CEO decides where the group grows, raises and manages the money, and leads practice purchases. The CEO also hires and leads the COO, CFO, Clinical Director and Marketing Manager. A typical week has a practice visit or two, a leadership meeting on offices behind plan, and calls with dentists who might sell. Big spending, such as remodels and new equipment, needs the CEO's sign-off.
How much does a dental chief executive officer make?
Chief executives who work for outpatient health care providers earned a median of $218,810 a year ($105.20 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $141,500 and $334,610 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and bonus terms.
Does the CEO of a dental group need to be a dentist?
That turns on your state's law and how the group is set up. The template puts a DDS or DMD among the nice-to-haves. A CEO who isn't a dentist has to accept one hard limit: diagnosis and treatment plans stay with licensed dentists, led here by the Clinical Director. Where state law limits who may own a practice, your lawyer may have the CEO lead the management company that serves the offices.
What is a DSO?
A DSO (dental support or service organization) runs the business side of dental practices, such as administration and marketing, so dentists can focus on patients. ADA News notes that DSOs do not provide clinical care; licensed dentists do. A group of eight to ten offices with one central office works much like a small DSO, so leaders from DSOs often fit this role.
How does a dental group decide which practices to buy?
Start with the market: population growth, competing groups and the insurance plans local patients carry. Then the practice: hygiene production, how many patients return for cleanings, room to add chairs, and the selling dentist's plans for the next few years. The CFO tests the numbers. The CEO judges whether the dentist and team will fit the group's way of working.
What should a dental CEO job ad say?
Describe the legal setup in plain terms, such as dentist-owned practices served by a management company. Name the states you work in. Give the number of offices and associate dentists, how many purchases you expect, and how the CEO works with the Clinical Director. Candidates who have led DSOs will ask about debt and the board before a first interview.
