Note: This program is only available to Orthodontic Residents and Practicing Orthodontists. At this time, we do not provide matching assistance for General Dentistry or any other dental specialty.

How did this program come to be?

Our position as lecturers for 3M Unitek’s Bottom Line University Program and 3M Unitek’s Annual Regional Summit meetings has put us in front of all of the orthodontic residents in the country since 1997. Over the years, the residents continually asked us if we knew of any practices for sale or if any Associate positions were available in a particular state. Finally, we decided to create a list of all of the residents, where they wanted to practice and what type of transition they were interested in. With that, our Free Practice Matching Assistance Program was born.

What is the purpose of this program?

The intent of this program is to empower Practicing Orthodontists who are looking to hire an Associate, bring in a Partner or Sell their practice, by providing them with a no-cost means of finding Orthodontic Residents and Recent Graduates who are seeking those types of opportunities. It is expected that the parties involved (Registered Buyers and Registered Sellers) communicate with one another and decide on their own with whom to continue discussions, ultimately resulting in a finalized Practice Transition. At all times, Registered Buyers and Registered Sellers are to respect the sensitive nature of this endeavor and are not to discuss or share, whether intentionally or otherwise, any of the information we have provided in this effort. This program relies on the basic ethical nature of orthodontists and the integrity of the orthodontic community. The only way we can continue to provide our matching assistance program is by all parties involved respecting and adhering to strict confidentiality regarding the information being shared.

Note: We do not guarantee that a Practice Opportunity will be found and/or result in a finalized transition for any Registered Buyer; nor do we guarantee that listing a Practice Opportunity will result in a finalized transition for any Registered Seller.

How does this process work?

When a Seller submits information regarding his/her Practice Opportunity, we use that information to create two (2) e-mails for the purpose of marketing that opportunity (more details under Listing a Practice Opportunity below). The first e-mail is a basic description of the opportunity which is designed to provide minimal information to Registered Buyers. That basic description will be e-mailed to all Registered Buyers monthly in the "General Notice of Practice Opportunities" e-mail which contains brief descriptions of all of the Practice Opportunities we currently know of. From that basic description, Registered Buyers will decide whether or not the opportunity is one he/she is interested in. If the Registered Buyer is interested in a particular opportunity, he/she will request more information regarding that Practice Opportunity by clicking on a specific link within the General Notice of Practice Opportunities e-mail. That request for more information triggers the release of the second e-mail which details the specifics of a particular Practice Opportunity (the "Practice Opportunity Details" e-mail). If a Registered Seller desires to list ANONYMOUSLY, a signed Non-disclosure Agreement will be required of the Registered Buyer prior to releasing the Practice Opportunity Details e-mail (more details under Listing Anonymously and Listing Publicly below). The Registered Seller's contact information may or may not be included in the Practice Opportunity Details e-mail. If the Registered Seller's contact information is displayed, then Registered Buyers should contact the Registered Seller directly to pursue discussions regarding the Practice Opportunity. If the Registered Seller's contact information is not displayed, then Registered Buyers should contact Ziegler Practice Transitions' staff directly to pursue discussions regarding the Practice Opportunity. It is always the responsibility of the Registered Seller to engage the Registered Buyer(s) in discussions and to determine with whom to move forward.

Note: Upon registration, Registered Sellers will also receive a current list of the Registered Buyers seeking Practice Opportunities in that Registered Seller's state. The Registered Seller may contact anyone on that list at any time to begin discussing the Practice Opportunity.

How do we find Buyers & Sellers?

An essential step in any practice transition is finding a Buyer or Seller with whom to transition. This is a difficult process and very few companies provide this service, let alone for free. However, in an effort to get the message out to Potential Sellers, we send annual mailers (Abobe Acrobat® or Adobe Reader® is required) to all orthodontists in the US, aged 45 to 70 years old, requesting that they let us know if they are looking to hire an Associate, bring in a Partner or if they are ready to Sell their practice and retire.

In an effort to get the message out to Potential Buyers, we offer Free Live Lunch & Learn Webinars to all of the orthodontic programs in the US and Canada several times annually; we lecture to all of the residents (as well as practicing orthodontists) at the four (4) regional 3M Unitek Summit Meetings; and each year we are sponsors / vendors at the Graduate Orthodontic Residents’ Program (GORP) and the American Association of Orthodontists (AAO) Annual Session.

How much does this service cost?

There is no fee for this service, nor is there any obligation to use our Practice Transition Services, even if we provide you with a Practice Match. We are providing this service as a courtesy to the orthodontic profession and we strongly advise seeking out Practice Opportunities on your own as well as registering with the AAO Practice Opportunities Online.

Note: We strongly advise against using a brokerage firm that charges a percentage of the purchase price for Matching Services. These firms are typically geared toward General Dental Sales and we feel that a "finder's fee" of ten percent (10%) of the purchase price is just too high for this service; especially considering there are so many free resources available.

Practice Listing Considerations

The best thing a Seller can do prior to listing his/her practice for sale is to allow us to Appraise the practice and to make copies of that Appraisal available to be sent to interested parties. Any interested parties would be required to sign and return a Non-Disclosure Agreement in order to receive a copy of the Practice Appraisal.

Note: Having a defined Fair Market Value for a practice listing is an eventual necessity. Choosing to do this step prior to listing creates a stronger response once the practice is listed.

Finding a Practice Opportunity

If you are seeking a Practice Opportunity, please fill out the Buyer Registration Form (Abobe Acrobat® or Adobe Reader® is required). Your profile will be sorted according to the various categories (Area of Interest, Transition Type, Date of Availability, etc.) and distributed among the relevant Registered Sellers. The information you provide will be made available to any Registered Seller offering a Practice Opportunity that matches what you are seeking. Unless we have been instructed by the Seller to contact you on his/her behalf, the Registered Seller will contact you directly.

Additionally, Registered Buyers will receive the General Notice of Practice Opportunities e-mail each month. The General Notice of Practice Opportunities e-mail will consist of a brief description of all of the Practice Opportunities that we know of. Registered Buyers are to request further information about a specific listing by clicking on the link associated with that listing in the General Notice of Practice Opportunities e-mail.

Once a Registered Buyer has clicked on a link to request more information about a specific opportunity, we will send the Practice Opportunity Details e-mail. The Practice Opportunity Details e-mail will contain all of the information the Registered Seller is willing to share regarding the opportunity. From the Practice Opportunity Details e-mail, a Registered Buyer is to further decide if this is an opportunity worth pursuing. If the Registered Buyer does want to pursue the opportunity, the Practice Opportunity Details e-mail will provide either the Registered Seller's contact information or refer the Registered Buyer to Ziegler Practice Transitions, Ltd. for further inquiry.

Note: Registered Buyers are not to forward or otherwise share any information provided in the General Notice of Practice Opportunities e-mail or the Practice Opportunity Details e-mails. If a Registered Buyer believes that another individual might be interested in or benefit from the information, he/she should refer that individual to our website where that individual can register for this program and begin receiving information on their own.

Listing a Practice Opportunity

If you are providing a Practice Opportunity, please fill out the Seller Registration Form (Abobe Acrobat® or Adobe Reader® is required). The information you provide as part of the registration process will be stored securely offline and will not be made available to anyone other than Ziegler Practice Transitions' staff, except for the information used in the creation of the two (2) marketing e-mails (more details under How does this process work? above). We will work with the Registered Seller to create the marketing e-mails which must be approved by the Registered Seller prior to our sending the e-mails to our Registered Buyers. The Registered Seller may choose to list his/her Practice Opportunity ANONYMOUSLY or PUBLICLY (more details under "Listing Anonymously" and "Listing Publicly" below). Whether listing ANONYMOUSLY or PUBLICLY, a basic e-mail description of the Practice Opportunity will be included in the General Notice of Practice Opportunities e-mail sent each month to all Registered Buyers in an effort to market the listing. The Practice Opportunity Details e-mail contains specific information about the Practice Opportunity and will be sent to only those Registered Buyers who request more information about that particular opportunity.

Listing Anonymously:

When listing Anonymously, the Registered Seller's exact city and state will be exchanged for a geographic description in the General Notice of Practice Opportunities e-mail (e.g. instead of "Cincinnati, OH", it might say "Major City in Ohio"). A signed Non-disclosure Agreement will be required of Registered Buyers prior to our sending the Practice Opportunity Details e-mail. The Non-disclosure Agreement states that a Potential Buyer may not make copies of the information, must return the information when asked to and that the Potential Buyer may not share the information with anyone other than family and advisors for the purpose of making a decision.

When listing Anonymously, Registered Sellers may also choose to withhold their name and contact information from the Practice Opportunity Details e-mail. Doing so will require Ziegler Practice Transitions' staff to inform the Registered Seller each time a Registered Buyer inquires about the Practice Opportunity and then work with the Registered Seller in preparing a response. This further restriction results in a far more time consuming process than allowing the Registered Buyers to contact the Registered Seller directly. A Registered Seller's decision to withhold his/her contact information and have Ziegler Practice Transitions, Ltd. handle the responses to e-mails or to provide his/her contact information and handle the responses to e-mails directly will be made during the Practice Listing creation process. If a Registered Seller decides to withhold his/her name and contact information from the Practice Opportunity Details e-mail, then Registered Buyers will not be required to sign and return a Non-disclosure Agreement prior to receiving the Practice Opportunity Details e-mail because that e-mail will not contain any identifying information.

Listing Publicly:

Registered Buyers are not required to sign a Non-disclosure Agreement until they request a copy of the Practice Appraisal (if applicable). The Registered Seller's city and state (e.g. Cincinnati, OH) will appear in the General Notice of Practice Opportunities e-mail. The Practice Opportunity Details e-mail will be sent to Registered Buyers upon request without delay.

When listing Publicly, Registered Sellers may not elect to withhold their name and contact information from the Practice Opportunity Details e-mail. Registered Sellers must reply directly to inquiries made by Registered Buyers in order to decide, ultimately, the right candidate with whom to move forward.

Registered Sellers will also receive a detailed list of the current Registered Buyers seeking opportunities in the Registered Seller’s state. At any time, Registered Sellers may request an updated list of Registered Buyers. Registered Sellers may do so by contacting Steven Ziegler.

Note: It is always the responsibility of the Registered Seller to engage the Registered Buyer(s) in discussions and to determine with whom to move forward. Our only role in this effort is to provide Registered Sellers and Registered Buyers with a means of contacting one another for the purpose of Practice Transition.