Professional incorporation · Dental
A DPC is a BC corporation approved by the College of Dental Surgeons of BC to provide dental services. The legal work parallels a Medical Professional Corporation: a standard BC incorporation plus the College application plus the ongoing reporting that keeps the College happy.
The structure
Share ownership. The dentist must hold all voting shares.
Corporate name. The name has to identify the dentist and the professional nature of the corporation. CDSBC reviews and approves the proposed name before incorporation.
Scope of services. The corporation can only provide dental services and services incidental to dentistry. Other ventures (real estate holdings, investment portfolios, unrelated businesses) need to live in separate corporate entities.
The process
We confirm the proposed corporate name with CDSBC before filing the BC company. This sequencing avoids the case of having a BC-cleared name that CDSBC declines.
Standard BC incorporation with the share structure designed for the DPC: voting shares for the dentist, non-voting share classes for family members where the structure makes sense.
College application form, supporting documents (corporate records, declarations from the dentist), application fee. CDSBC reviews and may follow up.
On approval, CDSBC issues a Permit confirming the DPC can practise dentistry. Billing through the corporation can now begin.
Notify dental insurers, billing platforms, and patients (where required) of the new billing entity. Update banking and accounting. Your accountant takes over from this point.
Frequently asked
A Dental Professional Corporation (DPC) is a BC corporation approved by the College of Dental Surgeons of BC (CDSBC) to provide dental services. The corporation has the structure of any BC company but adds CDSBC-specific rules: only the dentist can hold voting shares, the corporate name has to follow CDSBC naming requirements, and the corporation has to report annually to the College.
Structurally, very similar — both are BC corporations approved by their respective regulators (CDSBC for dentists, CPSBC for physicians) to provide regulated services. The differences are in the regulator-specific rules: each College has its own naming conventions, its own form of College application, its own annual reporting obligations, and slightly different rules on family member share ownership. The financial benefits are similar.
Incorporation has tax obligations and tax consequences, and the decision should be confirmed with your accountant. Based on our understanding, once your professional income passes a certain threshold above what you need for personal living costs, incorporating can become more advantageous for tax reasons — earnings retained in the corporation are taxed at corporate rates rather than personal rates. The threshold and the math are specific to you. Confirm with your accountant before incorporating; our role is to set up the corporation correctly once the decision is made.
The dentist must hold all voting shares.
CDSBC requires the name to identify the dentist and indicate it is a professional corporation. Common formats include 'Dr. Jane Smith Dental Corporation Inc.' or similar. The name needs to be cleared through both BC Registries and CDSBC before the BC company is filed and approved.
BC company filing: 1 to 3 business days. CDSBC approval as a DPC: typically 2 to 6 weeks after the College application is submitted. The dentist cannot bill through the corporation until College approval is granted. We coordinate the timing — usually filing the BC company first and submitting the CDSBC application in parallel.
Multiple dentists can be shareholders of a single DPC, or each dentist can have their own DPC with the DPCs forming a partnership or corporate group. The right structure depends on how the practice is organised and what each dentist wants from the arrangement. Group structures add shareholder-agreement complexity that should be drafted at the same time as incorporation.
Tell us your name (for CDSBC pre-clearance), whether family members will hold non-voting shares, and the timeline. We'll come back with a quote covering the BC company, the CDSBC application, and the minute book.