Opening a dental clinic: business plan and bank financing

By the JeanKali Santé CPA team · Published October 24, 2026 · 4-min read · Resources

Opening your own clinic means starting a business with a team, premises, expensive equipment and a patient base to build. It almost always involves bank financing, and so a solid business plan. Here is how we prepare it with dentists, and the obligations to plan for from the start.

1. Start with the project, not the numbers

A good business plan first answers a few simple questions:

• Where? The area, the population served, the existing offer and access (transit, parking).
• For whom? Your target patients: families, paediatrics, surgery, cosmetic, CDCP-covered patients.
• With whom? The number of chairs at opening, hygienists, assistants, front desk, a possible partner.
• How? Opening hours, services offered, how you will attract and keep patients.

These answers drive the size of the premises, the equipment and therefore the amount to finance.

2. The start-up budget

We build the budget from real quotes rather than averages. It generally includes:

• leasehold improvements and fit-out: plumbing, electrical, partitions, sterilization, waiting room;
• dental and imaging equipment, IT, practice management software and furniture;
• supplies and opening inventory;
• professional and start-up costs: incorporation, insurance, permits, launch marketing;
• working capital to cover payroll, rent and loan payments while the patient base grows.

Working capital is the line most often underestimated. A clinic can be profitable on paper and still run short of cash in the first months.

3. Financial projections

Your bank wants monthly projections for the first year, then annual ones for the following years: expected production per dentist and per hygienist, new patients, expenses (lab, supplies, payroll, rent) and, above all, cash flow after loan repayments and your own pay. We present a base case and a cautious case, to show the project holds up even if patients arrive more slowly than planned.

4. What the bank looks at

• Consistency between the project, the budget and the projections.
• Your repayment capacity and your down payment.
• Your clinical experience and your plan to build the patient base.
• The risks and how you plan to manage them: lease, construction delays, hiring.

We prepare the business plan and projections; the financing decision rests with the bank. With a complete file, you can present the same project to more than one institution and compare terms.

5. The Ordre's requirements for the practice

The regulation on practice premises, records and ceasing practice (CQLR, c. D-3, r. 16) sets requirements that shape the layout and the budget. Among other things, the dentist must:

• display their licence and proof of registration on the roll where the public can see it (s. 2);
• provide a waiting room and lay out the practice to protect confidentiality (ss. 3 and 4);
• store medications safely and keep controlled substances locked (s. 5);
• have the equipment needed for sterilization and disinfection, and emergency supplies (ss. 8 and 9);
• have sterilization, imaging and sedation equipment checked as often as required, and keep a log for at least 5 years (ss. 11 and 12).

6. The corporation and registrations

Most dentists opening a clinic do it through a corporation. The Ordre's rules apply (CQLR, c. D-3, r. 9): voting rights held by dentists, an initial declaration to the Ordre and the corporation's coverage through FARPODQ. As soon as you hire, you also need to:

• register for source deductions with Revenu Québec and open a payroll account with the CRA;
• register with the CNESST: the legal deadline is 60 days after your first employee's first day of work;
• if you bill insured services (notably for children under 10), open a collective administrative account with RAMQ in the corporation's name.

For the Canadian Dental Care Plan, a provider can either sign up formally or submit claims on a claim-by-claim basis; either way, they bill the plan administrator directly. That choice affects your collections and belongs in your projections.

7. The timeline

1. Project, premises and quotes.
2. Business plan, projections and bank meetings.
3. Incorporation, filings with the Ordre, insurance.
4. Lease, construction and equipment orders.
5. Hiring, employer registrations, software and bookkeeping.
6. Opening, then monthly tracking of results and cash.

Torn between opening and buying? Our guide to buying a dental practice walks through the other route.

8. The first 12 months

Once the clinic is open, the business plan becomes your tracking tool. Each month, we compare actual results with the projections you showed the bank: production per chair, new patients, lab and supply costs, payroll and cash. A gap spotted early is easy to fix; a gap discovered at year-end costs much more.

This is also when you decide how to pay yourself (salary, dividends or a mix), how fast to repay the loan, and when to hire a second hygienist or open another chair. Those decisions are better made with current numbers than with estimates.

The mistakes we see most often

• Building the budget on averages instead of real quotes.
• Planning too little working capital for the ramp-up in patients.
• Signing the lease before the project is validated with the bank.
• Leaving the Ordre's requirements out of the fit-out plans.
• Opening without bookkeeping and payroll in place, then catching up at year-end.

Our offer when you open a clinic

When you open your practice or clinic, we prepare the business plan for your bank at no cost, along with the free incorporation, in return for a 12-month engagement to the annual package. Afterwards, if you want closer follow-up, our fractional CFO service is available separately.

General information only, not advice. This content is not tax, legal or accounting advice; your situation needs an individual review. Free incorporation, start-up fees included, plus a business plan for your bank if you're opening your practice or clinic, in return for a 12-month engagement to the annual package. Full terms