Dental Office Feasibility Study in the Provo-Orem-Lehi, UT Metro Area

A one-county dental market with a national-sized ticket

Utah County is the whole of the Provo-Orem-Lehi dental record: every one of the 58 loans, worth $53.1 million, carries Utah County as its project county. Dentistry ranks 3 of 39 among the area's classes, the metro sits 34 of 562 for dental loans, and a location quotient of 1.60x says practices take a bigger bite of Utah County borrowing than of borrowing nationwide. What distinguishes the cell is the ticket. The median of $513,500 is 1.01x the national median for the class, so Provo loans are neither small nor oversized, and the weight comes from how often dentists borrow.

Real estate in the mix

The central half of loan amounts begins at $201,750 and tops out at $1.3 million. Practices here lean on property financing more than the typical class: 34 loans came through 7(a) and 24 through 504. None is tagged as a franchise (0.00%). Central Bank (UT) appears against 11 7(a) loans worth $8.7 million, while Live Oak Banking Company is logged at 6 loans worth $16.6 million, so its average loan is far larger. These holder lines are SBA's bookkeeping, not statements about either bank's approach.

Only a handful of years clear the disclosure threshold: 6 loans in FY2017 ($6.7 million), 9 in FY2018 ($6.4 million), 11 in FY2020 ($5.6 million), 5 in FY2025 ($2.1 million) and 5 in FY2026 ($13.1 million). The FY2026 dollars are striking against a count of 5, a sign that a few large projects can move a small metro's totals. FY2019 and FY2021 through FY2024 stay out of view, and so do both outcome rates. Absence from the page is not a claim of zero, and nobody should read it as one. The metro is built from counties, with Utah County alone supplying every loan here.

Questions for a Provo-area dental study

A dental plan in this metro should treat the 504 share as a cue to separate two valuations: the building, if the practice buys one, and the practice as an operating business. The study needs patient volume forecasts that respect competing offices in the catchment, a build-out budget set against a median of $513,500, and cash flow shown against debt service under a gentle ramp. Lenders compare the study with an appraisal, so each assumption needs a source. History here is context for size and mix, not a promise of a decision.