How TUSK Helped a Surgeon Exit and His Associate Build in One Transaction

Dr. G wanted to exit the practice he built, but he did not know what his options were when it came to selling a plastic surgery practice. A local dentist who had long trusted TUSK pointed him to the right advisor, and a competitive process gave him five unique offers to choose from.

The Practice

Dr. G is the founder of one of the most established aesthetic plastic surgery practices in the Southeast: a single-location, multi-surgeon group built over more than 25 years into a regional referral destination. Dr. G opened the practice in the late 1990s on a premise that was unusual at the time, that patients make better decisions when they understand their options. He built the practice around open patient education and held the clinical program to strict standards of safety, honesty, and predictability.

That reputation compounded. The practice grew to three board-certified surgeons offering the full range of facial, breast, and body surgery, an on-site accredited operating facility, and a nationally recognized aesthetics and injectables team whose non-surgical business had become a substantial revenue line of its own. Leadership was already shifting from the founder to a younger associate surgeon, and the practice was still in growth mode. Dr. G was not leaving a business in decline. He wanted to exit one at its strongest.

How Dr. G Got To Know TUSK

Dr. G began by asking a question: what could his future look like? He wanted to exit the practice, and he started the conversation with a local dentist he knew and respected.

That dentist had stayed connected to TUSK for years. He knew TUSK’s work and he knew a plastic surgery owner in Dr. G’s position needed more than an opinion. He needed accurate information on his options before deciding on his next step. He sent Dr. G to TUSK because he trusted TUSK to provide it.

The first conversation was about information. TUSK walked Dr. G through how buyers in plastic surgery and aesthetics view a practice like his, what a partnership could look like for a practice still growing, and what each path would mean for him, his associates, and his team. Dr. G left with a clear picture of what his exit could be, and he made his decision from there.

Aligning a Practice Owner and His Associates

For the transition to work, a single transaction had to make whole two surgeons at opposite ends of their careers, and a third provider had to see a future in it.

A plastic surgery practice owner exiting after 25 years and an associate surgeon who plans to practice for another twenty want different things from the same deal. If that gap is not surfaced early, it surfaces in diligence, when it is expensive. TUSK worked with Dr. G and his associate to define what a good outcome looked like for each, then modeled what each surgeon’s post-close economics, clinical autonomy, and time horizon would look like under every structure on the table.

That took longer than a standard process allows. It also meant the practice reached the market with its physician group aligned rather than merely consenting.

Running a Competitive Process

TUSK prepared the practice for market and positioned the surgical business and the aesthetics and injectables business on their own merits. The outreach was confidential and ran across a buyer universe that included aesthetics platforms and sponsor-backed groups. 

The process produced five unique offers. Each came with its own structure, its own answer on clinical autonomy, its own plan for the aesthetics business, and its own role for his associates. TUSK helped Dr. G compare them on what the surgeons would actually experience after the transaction, not only on what was on the first page of each offer.

The Outcome

Dr. G chose a platform positioned to support both sides of the business: the surgical program and the fast-growing aesthetics and injectables line. The surgeons retained the clinical autonomy and standard of care the practice was built on, the long-tenured team carried forward, and Dr. G monetized a 25-year build on terms that also worked for his associates.

He made that choice with five offers in front of him, for a practice at the height of its value. That is the leverage a competitive process creates.

Why It Worked

Three things drove this outcome, and they are the same three behind most TUSK engagements.

Trust was built before the need existed. The introduction came from a dentist who knew that TUSK, with more than 200 healthcare transactions behind it, could give a plastic surgery owner the right information to make the best decision for his next step. 

Alignment came before the market. With a plastic surgery practice owner and his associates, there is no single seller to satisfy. Each surgeon has to see his own future in the deal.

Competition produced choice. Five unique offers let the surgeons decide on structure, autonomy, and fit, not on a single bid. There are dozens of plastic surgery and aesthetics platforms acquiring practices in today’s market, but not every one of them will be the right fit for you. 

For aesthetic and plastic surgery owners weighing a partnership, particularly those with an associate in the wings, the lesson is that structure matters as much as the price. The right advisor makes that structure visible before you sign, not after.

Interested in what a sale process could look like for your practice? Contact TUSK Practice Sales to learn more here: https://tuskpracticesales.com/contact-us/