If you’ve owned a practice long enough, you know nothing derails growth faster than associate turnover. Recruiting, onboarding, and then watching a doctor walk away a year or two later is not only exhausting—it’s expensive. Retaining great associates isn’t just about money. It’s about creating the right mix of mentorship, opportunity, and, when appropriate, ownership. 

Let’s talk about what that can look like in today’s dental world.

Beyond the Standard Associate Deal

Every associate package needs a solid baseline: a fair percentage of adjusted production (30–35%), a daily minimum that fits your market, and the usual benefits like 401(k), health insurance, malpractice coverage, and a CE stipend. Those things get you in the game, but they won’t keep a talented doctor around for the long haul.

What keeps them? Feeling valued, supported, and invested in. That’s where non-partnership retention strategies become powerful.

Mentorship and Connection

Too many associates feel like they’ve been dropped on an island. They were promised mentorship during recruitment, but the senior doc is never around. If you truly value your associate, prove it with a cadence of conversations. Shadow their cases, check in regularly, and provide real mentorship. Most young doctors want to sharpen their skills and increase their income; help them get there, and they’ll stay.

Big-Ticket Continuing Education

Everyone offers a continuing education stipend. But what happens when your associate wants to take a $20,000 implant continuum or orthodontic program? Many owners shut it down. I take the opposite approach. If the course makes sense for the practice, I’ll fund it, and in return, we’ll draft a simple agreement that ties that investment to commitment. For every $5,000 I put in, the associate commits to another year. If life circumstances force them to leave early, they pay back the remainder on a prorated basis. It’s fair, it builds loyalty, and it grows the practice’s capabilities.

Customizing Benefits

Not every associate values the same perks. Some don’t need health insurance because they’re covered by a spouse. Others don’t care about 401(k) matching but would love help with technology or even student loan payments. We created a customizable benefit bucket: about two percent of adjusted production is set aside, and associates choose how to use it. The freedom to design their own package makes them feel more like owners without the pressure of ownership.

Sharing in the Upside

If you really want to treat associates like partners, you can share profits without handing over stock. Profit-sharing models give doctors a percentage of earnings above a set profitability threshold. Others experiment with “phantom equity,” where an associate gets distributions as if they owned equity, but without the legal paperwork. I like phantom equity best as a short-term trial—an opportunity to see how someone handles leadership, decision-making, and cash flow philosophy before offering a true partnership.

A Modern Approach: The Restricted Stock Unit Model

The model we’ve implemented in my organization is based on restricted stock units (RSUs), a structure borrowed from law and accounting firms. Instead of writing a big check, associates earn equity by exceeding a production hurdle. For example, if the hurdle is $800,000 and the associate produces $1 million, the $200,000 overage converts—say 20%—into company shares. Those shares vest over five years, creating both immediate reward and long-term retention.

The beauty of this model is that associates get a real ownership stake without upfront debt. They control how much equity they earn based on their performance. As the founder, I still control distributions, which protects the practice’s financial health while rewarding productivity and loyalty. Over time, an associate can build up a meaningful stake—5, 10, even 15 percent—without ever writing a check.

Final Thoughts

Associate retention is about more than money. It’s about mentorship, opportunity, and aligning incentives. Whether it’s funding advanced continuing education, customizing benefits, sharing profits, or rolling out a structured restricted stock unit program, the goal is the same: to make great doctors want to grow with you instead of somewhere else.

If you’re wrestling with turnover or wondering how to structure partnerships, I’d encourage you to explore these models. There’s no one right answer, but ignoring the question altogether almost always leads to losing talent.