Private Equity Health Care Acquisitions – March 2025

In light of continued investor interest in healthcare and the risks associated with private equity ownership of healthcare companies, the Private Equity Stakeholder Project is tracking private equity-backed healthcare acquisitions. Below is a list of private equity healthcare buyouts, growth investments, and add-on acquisitions completed during March 2025. We will continue to track acquisitions on a monthly basis.

See February 2025 acquisitions here. 

In March 2025, PESP tracked 8 buyouts, 54 add-on acquisitions, and 15 growth/expansion investments.

Many dental companies completed roll-up acquisitions last month

Dental care was among the busiest sectors for acquisitions in March, with at least 15 add-on acquisitions made by private equity-owned platform companies. 

Private equity firms have invested in the US dental industry through Dental Services Organizations (DSOs), which handle the administrative and business tasks for dental practices, including marketing, bookkeeping, financial services, and other functions. The DSO industry appears to have been created, largely by private equity firms, to avoid regulation that prohibits investor ownership of dental practices.

PESP identified 9 DSOs active during March:

1. Dental365 (owned by private equity firm TJC), which acquired one practice in Pennsylvania.
2. Parkview Dental Partners (owned by Cathay Capital Private Equity), which acquired a periodontist practice in Florida.
3. Heartland Dental (owned by KKR), which operates across 39 states and Washington, D.C., added a practice in Arizona and another in Florida to its +1,800 location portfolio.
4. MB2 Dental Solutions (owned by Charlesbank Capital Partners, KKR, and Warburg Pincus) acquired three practices in Missouri, Illinois, and New York, adding to its more than 750 locations across 45 states.
5. Riccobene Associates Family Dentistry (acquired by Comvest Private Equity in November 2024) acquired two North Carolina dental offices in March.
6. Smile Partners USA (owned by Silver Oak Services Partners), which acquired the Northwestern Dental Center located in Chicago’s Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
7. Specialized Dental Partners (owned by Quad-C Management), which acquired two periodontist practices in Missouri and Washington in March.
8. The Smilist Management (owned by Zenyth Partners), which acquired a three-location multi-specialty group operating in Buffalo, New York.
9. Texas-based U.S. Oral Surgery Management (owned by Oak Hill Capital Partners), which provides operational, financial, and administrative support services to oral and maxillofacial surgeons, acquired two practices in Wisconsin and Oregon. The company currently provides services across 29 states.

Last year, seven of the 13 most active private equity-backed platform companies were dental care companies. Dental care saw the highest number of deals among the healthcare sectors tracked by PESP in 2024, with 137 add-on acquisitions, 6 buyouts, and 18 growth/expansion investments.

Private equity-backed dental practices may come with risks. In November 2024, KFF and CBS published an exposé detailing how multiple private equity-owned dental care chains may be contributing a growing trend of dentists pulling out “healthy” teeth in order to profit from implants. Patients around the country have reportedly been encouraged to get dental implants, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars, instead of keeping their teeth and getting treatments like root canals. 

According to the report, one of the private equity-backed companies allegedly used salespersons, or “patient education consultants,” to meet with patients about options like dental implants before the patient had even seen a dentist, according to one lawsuit. The company, ClearChoice, is currently owned by Ares Management, American Securities and Leonard Green & Partners.

Private equity has been acquiring dental practices for at least a decade. A recent study published in Health Affairs has found that private equity affiliation with dental practices nearly doubled for the period 2015-2021, from 6.6% in 2015 to 12.8% in 2021. The study found the highest growth among dental specialties such as endodontists and oral surgeons, which more than doubled during the period. 

According to the study’s authors, “One possible reason for PE interest in dental specialist practices may be the high prices that specialists can earn for procedures such as root canals and implants, as opposed to routine exams from general practice dentists. PE firms may believe that they can get a higher return on investment from acquiring specialist practices.” 

A 2021 report from PESP documented extensive issues at private equity-owned dental care providers. For more information, see: “Deceptive Marketing, Medicaid Fraud, and Unnecessary Root Canals on Babies: Private Equity Drills into the Dental Care Industry.”