Student loan debt levels have exploded over the last decade. According to the American Dental Education Association (ADEA), the average 2019 dental school graduate had $292,169 in student loan debt. And many specialty program graduates had over $500,000 in student loan debt. Even if this debt is repaid over a 20-30 year period, the payments can be substantial, often amounting to thousands of dollars per month.

Struggling under this heavy student loan debt burden, many young doctors simply assume there’s no way they can qualify for a loan to buy a practice. After all, if their goal is to get out of debt, why would they even think about taking on even more debt? And corporate (DSO) recruiters feed...