Ultimate week, an advisory company made headlines with a declare that dentistry is roughly 35% consolidated, at the side of a prediction that train valuations will decline because the business matures. In case you are an affiliate interested by possession, or an proprietor interested by promoting, that quantity most likely made your abdomen drop somewhat.
Here is the object. I am an accountant. When a host makes my abdomen drop, my first intuition is to move to find out the place it got here from. So, let’s test the maths, for the reason that American Dental Affiliation publishes its personal consolidation figures, they usually inform a distinct tale.
3 other numbers, 3 other questions
The ADA’s Well being Coverage Institute reviews that 16.1% of US dentists have been affiliated with a dental give a boost to group in 2024.1 A separate ADA-affiliated find out about revealed in Well being Affairs2 discovered that the proportion of dentists affiliated with personal fairness more or less doubled from 6.6% in 2015 to twelve.8% in 2021. And ADA group of workers knowledge3 display that about two in 3 dentists now paintings in crew practices of a few type.
So, which is it? Is dentistry 35% consolidated, 16% consolidated, 13% consolidated, or 66% consolidated?
The fair resolution is that those numbers are answering other questions. “What percentage of dentists paintings for a DSO” isn’t the similar query as “what percentage of dentists have personal fairness someplace upstream,” and neither is equal to “what percentage of dentists train in teams.” A 3-dentist train owned by way of the 3 dentists is a gaggle train. It’s not a DSO, and no personal fairness fund is concerned. Counting it towards “consolidation” tells you one thing about how dentists love to paintings. It tells you not anything about who owns dentistry.
The 35% determine used to be revealed with out figuring out which measure it used. That does not make it flawed. It makes it unverifiable, and unverifiable numbers deserve your skepticism, particularly after they arrive connected to predictions about your monetary long run.
What the verifiable numbers in fact say
Take the strictest definition of consolidation, possession by way of company or investor-backed organizations, and the image seems like this: more or less one in six dentists is DSO-affiliated, and more or less one in 8 has personal fairness involvement. Each numbers are rising. Nor is anyplace close to a majority. For comparability, in industries we might all agree are consolidated, like pharmacy chains or sanatorium programs, the company percentage of the marketplace handed the midway mark way back.
Now, is consolidation actual? Completely. The DSO percentage has climbed frequently for a decade, and the new wave of cross-border and personal fairness offers displays the passion within the dental business nonetheless exists.
However, within the first part of 2026 on my own, a number of of the most important DSOs within the nation entered restructuring agreements with their collectors. Reasonably priced Care, the dad or mum of Reasonably priced Dentures & Implants, on my own erased more or less $975 million of a $1.4 billion debt load, with lenders taking regulate of the corporate.
However this is the quantity that by no means makes the feared headlines. In step with the ADA’s personal possession knowledge,1 just about 3 in 4 US dentists personal their train nowadays. And the Well being Coverage Institute’s 2025 group of workers document discovered that possession amongst more youthful dentists is not on time, now not deserted. Maximum dentists nonetheless transform homeowners. They only do it later than the era earlier than them did.
What this implies if you are interested by purchasing
In case you are an affiliate studying consolidation headlines and questioning whether or not the window for possession is final, the verifiable knowledge say it’s not. Practices are moving at a gentle clip, and they are going to stay moving, as a result of dentists stay retiring. The true alternate is at the different aspect of the desk: the contest for high quality practices is best arranged and higher funded than it was. The DSO having a look on the identical train you might be has an acquisition group and a line of credit score. You could have a dream and a preapproval letter.
That isn’t a reason why to attend. It is a reason why to organize. The consumers who win in a extra aggressive marketplace are those who know their numbers, transfer decisively, and do not spend two years hoping the easiest train falls of their lap.
And at the valuation prediction, this is one accountant’s warning. Forecasts that train values will fall serve some marketplace individuals higher than others. A supplier’s marketing consultant advantages when dealers rush to marketplace. Learn each and every prediction with one query in thoughts: what does the individual making it need me to do subsequent?
Consolidation is actual. However in truth, I don’t assume it ever will get above 20% of all dental practices. I in my view assume dentists are too good to surrender regulate in their profession to companies. It is usually, by way of each and every verifiable measure, a ways from 35%. Earlier than you’re making a profession resolution according to a headline, test the maths. It generally tells a calmer tale.
References
- Dental train examine. American Dental Affiliation Well being Coverage Institute. https://www.ada.org/sources/examine/health-policy-institute/dental-practice-research
- Nasseh Ok, LoSasso AT, Vujicic M. Share of dentists and dental practices affiliated with personal fairness just about doubled, 2015-21. Well being Affairs. August 5, 2024. https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2023.00574
- The U.S. Dentist Personnel. American Dental Affiliation Well being Coverage Institute. https://www.ada.org/-/media/venture/ada-organization/ada/ada-org/information/sources/examine/hpi/US_dentist_workforce_2025.pdf
