The non-compete is the clause in an associate agreement that matters least on your first day and most on your last. It decides whether you can keep practicing near the patients, staff, and community you have built, or whether leaving a job also means moving your career.
If you have read headlines about a nationwide ban, set them aside. As of September 2026 there is no federal rule banning non-competes, and enforceability depends on the law of your state, the exact wording of your contract, and the facts of how you leave. This post explains the current federal picture, the main state approaches (with verified examples), and the mechanics you need to understand: radius, duration, non-solicitation, liquidated damages, and buyouts. It builds on the contract overview in our New Dentist Guide.
Key takeaways
- The FTC's 2024 rule banning most non-competes never took effect. A federal court set it aside in August 2024, the FTC dropped its appeals in September 2025, and the rule was formally removed in February 2026.
- State law controls. Some states ban employee non-competes broadly, some ban or restrict them for dentists specifically, and most still enforce "reasonable" covenants case by case.
- Examples verified for this article include Colorado and New Mexico (dentists protected), Texas (strict conditions for dentists since September 1, 2025), and Washington (all non-competes void beginning June 30, 2027).
- Radius, duration, where the radius is measured from, and what triggers the covenant matter as much as whether one exists.
- Non-solicitation clauses and liquidated damages often survive even where non-competes are limited.
- Laws are changing quickly. Verify your own state's current law with a dental-specific attorney before you sign.
The federal picture in 2026: no nationwide ban
In April 2024 the Federal Trade Commission issued a rule that would have banned most worker non-competes nationwide. It never took effect. Here is the sequence, based on the FTC's own records:
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| April 2024 | FTC issues the Non-Compete Clause Rule. |
| August 20, 2024 | A federal district court in Texas sets the rule aside and blocks enforcement nationwide. |
| October 18, 2024 | FTC appeals. |
| September 4, 2025 | FTC issues a public request for information on employee non-competes and announces an enforcement action against a single employer's non-competes. |
| September 5, 2025 | FTC votes to dismiss its appeals and accept the court's vacatur of the rule. |
| September 10, 2025 | FTC Chairman sends warning letters to healthcare employers and staffing firms urging them to review their non-compete agreements. |
| February 12, 2026 | Federal Register notice formally removes the rule to conform to the court decisions. |
What this means for a dentist: there is no federal rule voiding your non-compete. The FTC has signaled it will look at non-competes case by case, and it has specifically called out healthcare employers, but that is enforcement against particular employers, not a blanket rule you can rely on. You can read the rule's status on the FTC's non-compete rule page.
How state law approaches dental non-competes
States fall into a handful of broad approaches. The examples below were verified against state statutes or official legislative sources for this article. This is not a complete list, and several other states have passed laws limited to physicians or other clinicians that may or may not reach dentists. Always read the definitions section of any law: a statute that protects "physicians" usually does not protect dentists.
| Approach | How it works | Verified examples |
|---|---|---|
| Broad ban on employee non-competes | Employee non-competes are void, usually with exceptions for the sale of a business or dissolution of a partnership | California; Minnesota (agreements on or after July 1, 2023); North Dakota; Oklahoma (bars non-competes but allows limits on directly soliciting the former employer's established customers) |
| Ban or near-ban for dentists specifically | Health care statute voids non-competes for listed clinicians, with dentists named | Colorado (2025 law effective August 6, 2025, names dentists and removes the high-earner exception for them); New Mexico (dentists covered since 2015, with an exception for owners, shareholders, partners, or directors of the practice) |
| Allowed only under strict statutory conditions | Non-compete enforceable only if it meets specific requirements set by statute | Texas (for dentists, covenants entered or renewed on or after September 1, 2025 must include a buyout capped at annual salary and wages, expire within one year, cover no more than five miles from the primary practice location, and be clearly stated in writing) |
| Income thresholds and procedural conditions | Enforceable only above a pay threshold, with notice or other conditions | Washington (currently limited by an inflation-adjusted earnings threshold and other conditions; a 2026 law makes all non-competes void beginning June 30, 2027) |
| Common-law reasonableness | Courts enforce covenants that protect a legitimate business interest and are reasonable in time, area, and scope; some courts rewrite overbroad terms, others strike them | The approach in many states; results vary by court and facts |
A closer look at the dentist-specific examples
Colorado. Colorado already restricted non-competes to highly compensated workers. Senate Bill 25-083, signed June 3, 2025 and effective August 6, 2025, generally prohibits non-competes for physicians, advanced practice registered nurses, and dentists even if they earn above that threshold, and protects a provider's ability to tell patients about their continuing practice and new contact information. There are limited exceptions tied to ownership and the sale of a business. See the bill page at the Colorado General Assembly.
New Mexico. New Mexico's health care practitioner statute makes non-compete provisions that restrict clinical practice in the state unenforceable after the agreement or employment ends, and its definition of health care practitioner includes dentists. The same statute expressly allows several things you should still expect to see: repayment of loans, relocation costs, signing bonuses, or recruiting and training costs if you leave within an initial period of less than three years; confidentiality provisions; non-solicitation of patients and employees for up to one year; and reasonable liquidated damages. It does not apply to agreements between practitioners who are owners, shareholders, partners, or directors of the practice.
Texas. Senate Bill 1318, effective September 1, 2025, extended Texas's health care covenant rules to dentists, nurses, and physician assistants. For a dentist's covenant entered into or renewed on or after that date to be enforceable, it must provide a buyout no greater than the dentist's total annual salary and wages at termination, expire no later than one year after the contract or employment ends, limit the area to a five-mile radius from where the dentist primarily practiced, and state its terms clearly and conspicuously in writing. Older agreements remain under prior law. The enrolled bill text is on the Texas Legislature site.
Washington. Washington's statute currently makes non-competes unenforceable for workers below an inflation-adjusted earnings threshold and imposes disclosure and duration conditions. A 2026 amendment goes further: beginning June 30, 2027, all non-competition covenants are void regardless of when they were signed. See RCW 49.62.020.
Verify your own state. Non-compete law has changed in many states since 2023 and continues to change. Effective dates often apply only to agreements signed or renewed after a certain day, so two associates in the same office can be under different rules. Ask a dental-specific attorney licensed in your state which law governs your agreement.
Anatomy of a dental non-compete
Where non-competes are allowed, four drafting choices decide how much a covenant actually restricts you.
Radius
The radius is the distance around a location where you cannot practice. The number on the page is only half the story. Ask how it is measured (straight-line miles or driving distance) and, more important, from where. A radius measured from the office where you primarily worked is very different from one measured from "any office owned, managed, or affiliated with the practice, now or in the future."
Radius also grows faster than it looks. Area increases with the square of the radius, so doubling the radius roughly quadruples the restricted area.
| Radius | Approximate area covered around one office |
|---|---|
| 3 miles | About 28 square miles |
| 5 miles | About 79 square miles |
| 10 miles | About 314 square miles |
| 15 miles | About 707 square miles |
| 20 miles | About 1,257 square miles |
Multiply that by the number of offices the radius is measured from, and a multi-location group's covenant can cover most of a metro area. Density matters too: five miles in a dense city may include hundreds of practices, while five miles in a rural county may include the only other office in town.
Duration
Duration is how long the restriction lasts after you leave. Look for tolling language that pauses or extends the clock during any period you are found in breach, and for automatic renewal clauses that restart the whole contract (and covenant) each year.
Restricted activity
Does the covenant bar "the practice of dentistry" in any form, or only general dentistry in a competing private office? Broad language can capture specialty residency, teaching, public health clinics, and volunteer care. Narrower language is easier to live with and, in many states, more likely to be enforced as written.
Trigger
Some covenants apply however the relationship ends. Others apply only if you resign or are terminated for cause. The trigger is one of the most valuable things to negotiate, because it decides whether the practice can end your job and your local career at the same time.
Non-solicitation: the clause that usually survives
A non-solicitation clause does not stop you from practicing nearby. It stops you from actively recruiting the practice's patients or employees for a period after you leave. Because it is narrower, it is often enforceable even where non-competes are limited. New Mexico's statute, for example, expressly allows patient and employee non-solicitation for up to one year.
Questions to settle:
- What counts as soliciting? Mailing the practice's patient list is solicitation. A patient finding your new office on their own usually is not. Many contracts leave the gray area in between (social media posts, announcements) undefined.
- Which patients? "Any patient of the practice" may include people who were your patients before you joined, or family members. Ask to exclude them.
- Patient notice. Patients have a right to choose their dentist, and some state laws, including Colorado's 2025 law, protect a provider's ability to tell patients about continuing practice. Check your state board's rules on patient notification and records when a dentist leaves.
- Staff. A no-hire clause for employees can prevent your favorite assistant from following you. Understand how long it lasts.
Liquidated damages: the price tag on a breach
Liquidated damages are an amount agreed in advance that you owe if you breach the covenant. Courts generally enforce them when the amount was a reasonable estimate of hard-to-prove harm when the contract was signed, and refuse to enforce them when they function as a penalty. New Mexico's statute states this principle directly.
Hypothetical example: A contract sets liquidated damages at 40% of the associate's collections for the 12 months before departure. An associate who collected $600,000 in their final year would owe $240,000 for practicing inside the radius. Compare that with a negotiated flat buyout of $30,000 in the first two years, dropping to $15,000 after that. Both put a price on leaving. Only one is a price you could realistically pay.
Read the formula, calculate the number for your expected production, and decide whether you would sign a promissory note for that amount. That is effectively what you are doing.
Buyouts: a planned exit instead of a lawsuit
A buyout lets you pay a set amount to be released from the non-compete. Texas now requires one for dentists' covenants, capped at annual salary and wages. In other states it is a matter of negotiation. A good buyout clause has:
- A fixed dollar amount or a clear formula you can calculate on the day you sign.
- A declining schedule, since the practice's investment in you shrinks the longer you stay.
- Payment terms (lump sum or installments) and a written release upon payment.
Employment non-competes vs. sale-of-practice non-competes
Buying or selling a practice is treated differently almost everywhere. Even states that ban employee non-competes, including California, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Colorado, allow reasonable restrictions on a seller who sells the goodwill of a business, because the buyer is paying for the patient base. If you buy a practice, expect the seller's non-compete to be a central term, and expect lenders to care about it. See our practice acquisition guide and how practices are valued.
The same logic can apply to associates who buy in. A covenant attached to your purchase of equity is analyzed differently from one attached to your employment, and New Mexico's statute excludes owners entirely.
What to negotiate
Practices often have more flexibility on covenant terms than on base percentage. Reasonable requests:
- Measure the radius from your primary office only, and exclude offices acquired after you sign.
- Shorten the duration, or tie it to your length of service.
- Void the covenant if the practice terminates you without cause, fails to pay you, materially breaches the agreement, or is sold.
- Add a declining buyout in place of, or as a cap on, liquidated damages.
- Carve out residency, teaching, public health, government service, and specialty practice.
- Limit non-solicitation to active solicitation, for a defined period, excluding patients you brought with you.
- Remove tolling and evergreen renewal of the covenant.
For how to present these asks, see How to Negotiate an Associate Dentist Offer. For the other clauses to catch, see Associate Contract Red Flags.
Questions to bring to your attorney
- Which state's law governs this agreement, and is the choice-of-law clause enforceable here?
- Does my state ban or restrict non-competes for dentists, and does the effective date cover my agreement?
- Is this radius, duration, and scope likely to be enforced as written, rewritten by a court, or thrown out?
- Does the covenant apply if I am terminated without cause?
- Is the liquidated damages figure likely to be treated as a penalty?
- What exactly counts as solicitation of patients and staff?
- What happens to the covenant if the practice is sold or the contract is assigned?
- What are my obligations to notify patients, and what records access will I have?
Use a dental-specific attorney. General employment lawyers know non-compete law. Dental attorneys also know how these clauses play out with patient records, state board rules, PPO credentialing, and DSO structures. The review fee is small compared with a covenant that forces a move.
Educational only. This article summarizes laws verified as of September 2026 and is not legal advice. Laws, effective dates, and court interpretations change. Confirm the current law in your state with a licensed attorney before signing or acting on a restrictive covenant.
The practical bottom line
Before you sign, calculate your worst case: if this job ended on bad terms in 18 months, where could you work the next day, and what would it cost to stay local? If the answer is "nowhere within a 30-minute drive" or "a six-figure payment," negotiate now, while the practice still wants you. Covenants are far easier to change before signing than after.
Related reading: associate contract red flags, DSO vs. private practice (where multi-location radius clauses are common), startup vs. acquisition, and the New Dentist Guide.
Educational content only. It is not legal, financial, tax, or clinical advice. Prices and ranges are approximate and vary by region, condition, and year. Verify current rules with your state dental board and qualified professionals. ChairsideSource is not affiliated with any manufacturer, the ADA, or the DAT.