SBA 7(a) Dental Office Feasibility Study in Louisiana

Louisiana dentistry: a Live Oak story

Dental offices rank fifth among the classes SBA financed in Louisiana under the 7(a) program, and a single specialist lender leads the holder table. The file shows 69 loans for FY2017 to FY2026 and $63.9 million in gross dollars, a large total for the count. The median of $427,500 is 0.87x the national median for dental offices, with half of the loans between $150,000 and $1.4 million; the upper end reaches the scale of a purchased building and a full set of operatories. The franchise share stands at 0.00%. Louisiana places 28th among states by loan count.

Live Oak and the metro parishes

Live Oak Banking Company holds 17 loans, JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association holds 5, with no other holder listed; both are the holders SBA shows today. Orleans Parish is recorded as Orleans, with 13 loans, followed by East Baton Rouge with 10, Jefferson with 9, Caddo with 8 and Saint Tammany with 7. Yearly counts open at 15 in FY2017 and fall to 2 in FY2022, then climb again to 9 loans in FY2025 and 6 worth $9.5 million in FY2026.

Outcomes so far

Louisiana dentists cancelled 9.3% or more of their approvals in the FY2017 to FY2024 range, a ceiling that does not move when unfunded loans are added. The 39 practices that funded in the early years show no recorded charge-offs: the floor is 0.00% overall and 0.00% inside five years. A spotless record across 39 loans still rests on a modest cohort, and it promises nothing to a new practice.

What a Louisiana dental study has to test

The question that decides a dental purchase or startup is the patient base: how many active patients the practice has, how they are insured, how many will stay after a sale, and how many new patients the location can add. Louisiana's mix of metro and rural parishes means very different demand, so the study should use the parish and the actual drive times. Chair count, imaging and the dentist's own production must be set against the loan, and a scale close to $427,500 suggests an acquisition or a leased startup, while one near $1.4 million suggests real estate. The payment has to be covered through the dip that follows a change of ownership. Valuation should split goodwill, equipment and property. No coding limit is noted for this cell.