You have the degree, the license and an associate position that pays well. You also have student loan debt that would make a mortgage lender flinch and, depending on the year, a practice acquisition loan sitting on top of it.
And when you asked about the doctor loan programs your medical school friends used, you got a blank look.
Dentists are on the list. Under CMG Financial's MedPro Premier guidelines (NMLS #1820, revised 09/11/2026), the eligible professional designations expressly include Doctor of Dental Science or Surgery (DDS) and Doctor of Dental Medicine (DMD), alongside MD, DO, PharmD, DVM or VMD, DPM, CRNA with a DNAP or DNP, and Nurse Practitioners with an MSN or DNP. Residents, fellows and interns holding one of those degrees are included too.
So the answer to "does this apply to me" is yes. The answer to "does it work the way it works for my medical friends" is usually no, for one specific reason.
The exclusion that does not reach most dentists
The single most valuable feature of a physician program for a resident is that student loan payments in deferment, in forbearance, or reporting $0 under an income-based repayment plan may be excluded from the debt-to-income ratio entirely. Six figures of debt stops mattering.
Read the condition carefully. That exclusion applies if the borrower is currently in residency, or currently in training in a medical clinical fellowship program.
Most dentists are not. General dentistry graduates go straight into associate positions or practice ownership. There is no residency in the path. Which means the exclusion does not attach, and for all other student loans that do not meet the criteria, whether deferred, in forbearance, or in repayment, a monthly payment must be included in your monthly debt obligations. If the credit report shows a payment, that figure may be used. If it shows no payment or $0, a payment has to be calculated another way.
Specialists are the exception. If you are in an orthodontic, oral surgery, periodontic, endodontic or pediatric dentistry residency program, the exclusion is squarely worth confirming on your file, because it is the difference between qualifying and not.
This is the single most important thing for a dentist to establish before shopping, and almost nobody tells you.
If you are paid on a 1099, a second rulebook applies
A large share of associate dentists are paid as independent contractors. The guidelines handle that separately, and the requirements are exact. For a medical professional hired as a contractor or 1099 employee:
- You must have a fully executed employment contract.
- The contract must specify your rate of compensation, whether salary, hourly, per unit, per assignment or per production measure, and give enough information about the minimum work, hours, units, assignments or production expected to be available to you.
- It must contain enough detail to reasonably determine the minimum income expected in your first 12 months.
- A satisfactory letter from the practice or contracting entity, or the contract itself, must confirm that you are not responsible for any unreimbursed business expenses required to perform your contracted duties. Normal professional expenses such as licensing fees, continuing education and association dues are excluded from that requirement.
- The start date must be within 60 days of loan closing.
And then the line that ends a lot of files:
If you filed taxes using 1099 income in the previous year, you must qualify under standard self-employment guidelines. If those returns show unreimbursed business expenses, a letter cannot be used to document that there are none.
So a first-year associate with a signed contract and no 1099 history can use projected income. A third-year associate who has been filing Schedule C with equipment, lab fees and continuing education written off is going to be underwritten on the net, like any self-employed borrower. Those are two entirely different approvals, and the difference is a tax return, not a job.
If you own the practice
Practice ownership makes you self-employed, and self-employed borrowers frequently do better outside the physician programs entirely. Bank statement and third-party P&L documentation exist precisely for a business whose tax return understates what the owner actually earns.
Run all three before you choose: the physician program on documented net income, a bank statement calculation on the practice deposits, and a validated 12-month profit and loss with depreciation and amortization added back. A practice with real equipment and buildout depreciation can produce dramatically higher qualifying income on the third route than on the first.
Practice debt and your ratio
A practice acquisition loan is a business obligation, and whether it lands in your personal debt-to-income ratio depends on how it is documented and who is legally obligated. Business debt paid by the business, with evidence of payment from business funds and the business obligated on the note, is treated differently from a note you personally signed with no such evidence.
Get this right before the application rather than arguing it in underwriting. It is frequently worth more ratio than anything else on a dentist's file.
The sequence that works
- Establish whether you are in a residency the exclusion recognizes. That decides everything downstream.
- Pull how you filed last year. W-2, 1099 or K-1 changes which rulebook applies.
- If 1099, read the associate agreement against the five requirements above before you submit anything.
- Document practice debt and who pays it, with evidence, up front.
- Price the physician program against a self-employed structure if you own anything.
Common questions
Do dentists qualify for physician home loans? Yes. DDS and DMD are both named on the eligible designation list in the MedPro Premier guidelines, along with residents, fellows and interns holding those degrees.
Can a dentist exclude student loan payments from the debt-to-income ratio? Only while in a residency or a clinical fellowship training program. A general dentist in an associate position or practice ownership does not meet the condition, so a payment has to be included in the ratio.
I am an associate paid on a 1099. Does that disqualify me? No, but it changes the rules. You need a fully executed contract specifying compensation and expected volume, confirmation you carry no unreimbursed business expenses required to do the work, and a start date within 60 days of closing. If you filed 1099 income last year you are underwritten under standard self-employment guidelines instead.
Does my practice loan count against me? It depends on who is obligated and who demonstrably pays it. Business debt paid by the business with proper documentation is treated differently from a personal note. Document it before the application.
Is a physician program the best structure for a practice owner? Frequently not. Practice owners should price bank statement and third-party P&L documentation against the physician program, because a practice with significant depreciation can qualify for considerably more on those routes.
Related reading
- Physician and medical professional home loans, the full index for this topic
- Physician Home Loans in Scottsdale: How Doctors Buy With No Down Payment and No Mortgage Insurance
- 1099 and Locum Tenens Physicians: Qualifying When You Are Paid as a Contractor
- Medical Residents and Fellows: How Student Loan Payments Are Excluded From Your Mortgage Qualification
Why bring this file to us
- We read the associate agreement before the application. The contractor rules below turn on what that document says, and rewriting it after submission is not an option.
- We check how you filed last year first. One box on a prior tax return can move you out of the physician program and into self-employment guidelines entirely.
- We separate practice debt from personal debt properly, which is where dentist files usually gain or lose their ratio.
- Broker model. Multiple investors rather than one bank's shelf, which is what a file like this needs when the first answer is no.
- You talk to the principal. Ricky Khamis is President of EPiQ Lending and a Certified Mortgage Planner, NMLS #173141, originating mortgages since 1999. Direct line: (480) 999-9842.
EPiQ Lending is NMLS #1936984, at 7975 N. Hayden Road, Suite A-101 in Scottsdale. Verify all of it before you trust any of it: Ricky's EPiQ Lending profile, the Scottsdale branch, and the license itself at NMLS Consumer Access. Hold every lender to that standard, including us.
Send me your degree, your associate agreement and how you were paid last year, and I will tell you in one call which of the three routes your file belongs in.
Program figures in this post come from the CMG Financial (NMLS #1820) guideline set named above, as published on the revision date given. CMG Financial is the parent company of EPiQ Lending. These figures describe one investor's program at one point in time. Other investors price and underwrite the same borrower differently, guidelines change without notice, and nothing here is an offer of any specific program or terms. Confirm current eligibility on your own file before you plan around any of it.
Equal Housing Opportunity. This is general information, not a commitment to lend or an offer to extend credit. Rates, terms, and program guidelines change and depend on credit approval, property appraisal, income and asset verification, and other qualifying factors. Not all applicants will qualify. Non-QM, asset-based and business purpose financing carry different pricing, terms and consumer protections than agency financing. Consult your tax advisor regarding the tax treatment of any income or distribution strategy.
Find out what you qualify for before you start looking
Tell me where you are in training or practice and I will tell you which structure fits your file, what it needs, and what it does not. No credit pull to have the conversation.
