Yes. A Champaign dental office can finance chairs, scanners and imaging separately from a practice loan, usually as equipment loans or leases secured by the equipment itself. Keeping them separate lets each one be paid off over its own useful life, and leaves a practice loan for ownership costs such as a buy-in.
Flintrun Lending Group in Champaign, Illinois answers whether a dental office can finance chairs, intraoral scanners and imaging separately from a practice loan, how separate notes compare with one loan, and where an associate buy-in fits. Figures are invented.
Dental Chair Finance: What Champaign, IL Dental Offices Should Know
Dental chairs come as a package with the delivery unit, light and stool, and vendors usually quote them per operatory. Chair packages finance as equipment, and a partner looks at the make, model and quantity, whether they are new or refurbished, and the installation the vendor includes.
Offices of dentists in Champaign County, IL counted 62 employer establishments and 629 paid employees in 2023, and 22 of the offices had fewer than five employees (CBP). In ZIP 61820, the office ZIP, there were 14 (ZBP).
Many dental-focused equipment lenders and the large dental supply companies offer chair financing. A funding service can put the same chair quote in front of several partners, which helps when comparing terms.
Dental Equipment Loan When a Champaign, IL Dental Office Needs Intraoral Scanners
An intraoral scanner is a smaller purchase than a CBCT unit but costs more than a single chair package. The scanner itself finances as equipment; the software subscription and any lab connection fees are operating costs.
Illustration only, invented figures: an invented $31,000 scanner at an invented annual rate of 9.4% over 48 months costs about $777 a month (our arithmetic). Equipment financing explains how the scanner secures the loan.
Scanners also change other costs. Fewer impression materials, fewer remakes and faster lab turnaround can offset part of the payment, and an office that tracks those costs for a few months before buying can show a partner how the purchase pays for itself rather than asserting it.
Dental Office Working Capital Loan When a Champaign, IL Dental Office Needs Operatory Cabinetry
Operatory cabinetry often comes with a remodel, and a remodel can take rooms out of service. A working capital loan or a line can cover payroll during those weeks while production is down, separate from the cabinetry financing.
Keeping a business line of credit open for supplies and lab bills also helps, because those costs repeat. A line that is already in use for equipment cannot cover them.
An Associate Buy-In and Where It Shows Up in a Champaign, IL Dental Office's Funding File
CBCT imaging is the priciest of these three items. It often needs a room with shielding, a dedicated workstation and training, and some offices weigh it against continuing to refer patients out for scans. The referral count over the last year is the number that frames that decision.
An associate buying into the practice is buying ownership, not equipment. The buy-in is usually financed with a term loan reviewed on the practice's collections, the buy-in agreement and the associate's own finances. Equipment the practice already owns is part of what the associate buys a share of.
In the funding file, the buy-in shows up as the agreement, a practice valuation if one was done, the practice's tax returns and the associate's personal financial statement. A buy-in is scheduled much like any business term loan.
If the practice plans to add imaging soon after the buy-in, the associate and the owner should agree on who carries that payment, because it changes the practice's cash flow after closing.
Separate Equipment Notes or One Practice Loan: an Invented Champaign, IL Comparison
Illustration only, invented figures: a practice buys an invented $42,000 of chairs and an invented $31,000 scanner. Financed separately, the chairs at an invented 8.9% over 60 months cost about $870 a month and the scanner at an invented 9.4% over 48 months about $777 a month, together about $1,647 a month at first (our arithmetic).
Folded into one invented $73,000 loan at an invented 9.6% over 84 months, the payment is about $1,197 a month, lower each month but paid for longer. Total paid: about $89,501 for the separate notes against about $100,536 for the single loan (our arithmetic). The lower monthly payment costs more overall in this invented case, and the scanner would be paid for well after it is likely to be replaced.
- Ask for each item's useful life from the vendor.
- Match each note's term to that life, or shorter.
- Keep the line free for supplies and lab bills.
- Price the buy-in separately from the equipment.
Read dental office loans, the Champaign, IL figures or all six funding types, or call (217) 334-8194.
By Flintrun Lending Group · Updated
