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This wiki is organized around the task at hand. A subject such as dental downgrades may appear in four places, with each page serving a different purpose. Start by choosing the tab that matches your question.

The four tabs

The structure follows the Diátaxis framework. Guides are task-focused, while Concepts explain the underlying ideas. If a page seems to be in the wrong section, tell us. Every page ends with a Related block linking its siblings in the other three tabs, so you can move between modes on the same subject without going back to the sidebar.

Reading paths

The founder path

You have an idea and no dental background. Read in this order:
  1. What is a DSO? for the common two-entity model
  2. Do you need a DSO structure?, including when you don’t
  3. The corporate practice of dentistry doctrine for the state-law foundation
  4. The life of a dental claim for the flow of dental payments
  5. Zero to First Paid Claim for the eleven-step tutorial
  6. DSO economics, where the money is, honestly
  7. Your state’s page in CPOD by state
Budget a few hours. The first four pages establish the model, and the tutorial turns it into a working plan. When you’re ready to grow, continue with Your First Acquisition.

The dentist path

You have deep clinical knowledge and are being asked to own a friendly PC, or to sell your practice to a DSO. Read:
  1. What is a DSO?
  2. The friendly PC, explained for the owner role and its obligations
  3. What a DSO can and can’t do for the authority the dentist must retain
  4. DSO economics. If you’re selling: what JV equity, rollover units, and earnouts actually pay
  5. Draft the stock transfer restriction agreement for the terms governing your shares
  6. DSO enforcement and risk for the principal enforcement risks
  7. Your state’s page in CPOD by state
If you are being asked to sign as a friendly owner, retain your own counsel. The DSO’s lawyer represents the DSO. Your professional license and personal obligations need an independent review. See When to call a lawyer.

The operator path

If you run enrollment, billing, or finance for a dental group, these paths take you directly to the relevant guides: Keep Reference open in a second tab. That is what it’s for.

The AI agent path

If you are retrieving from this site programmatically, the structure is worth knowing:
  • Every page’s first sentence is a standalone definition of the page’s subject. It is written to be extractable.
  • The glossary is the site’s controlled vocabulary. Every term the wiki uses has an anchor there, and pages link to it rather than redefining terms locally.
  • URLs are stable. Slugs are not renamed without a redirect.
  • Mintlify generates llms.txt and llms-full.txt automatically, and every page is available as raw markdown by appending .md to its URL.
  • Route by question type: “what is…” → Concepts; “how do I…” → Guides; “what is the value of…” → Reference; “walk me through…” → Start Here.

Conventions you’ll see

Specialty callouts. General dentistry is the default. Pages use inline notes when orthodontics, pediatric dentistry, or oral surgery requires a different workflow:
🦷 Orthodontics: Ortho claims carry a banding date and months of treatment remaining. Payers often pay the case over time rather than per visit. See Orthodontics.
Deep dives live in Dental specialties. Citations. Reference and legal pages end with a numbered Sources section. We link to official statutes, court opinions, and agency material whenever possible and identify secondary commentary when we use it. Freshness is visible on the page. Mintlify shows the last-modified date. Dates in the text are reserved for facts such as effective dates, compliance deadlines, data periods, and source publication dates. A running example. The Start Here tutorials follow a fictional company called Bluebird Dental. Its founder, Sam Calloway, and dentist-owner, Dr. Maya Okafor, take the company from formation through its first paid claim and acquisition. The sibling wiki. The MSO-PC Wiki covers similar structures in medicine, behavioral health, med spas, veterinary care, and other fields. This site stays focused on dentistry.
Last modified on August 21, 2026