Heartland Dental Celebrates Transformative Growth, Innovation, and Community Impact in 2025

EFFINGHAM, Ill., Jan. 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Heartland Dental, the nation's leading dental support organization, proudly celebrates a year of transformative growth, innovation, and community impact. In 2025, Heartland Dental supported practices completed 11.5 million patient visits and expanded its footprint to more than 1,900 supported practices while forging new strategic relationships and deploying cutting-edge technologies that help elevate patient care and strengthen support for doctors and their teams. These milestones underscore the organization's unwavering commitment to its doctor-led culture and support model.

"2025 was a year of momentum, innovation, and impact. Our continued growth is a testament to the dedication of our supported doctors and team members and our commitment to being a doctor-led organization. As we look to 2026, we remain committed to empowering supported clinicians, so they can continue to elevate patient care and make a difference in their communities," shared Pat Bauer, President and CEO, Heartland Dental.

A Year of Significant Growth and Operational Excellence
In 2025, Heartland Dental's supported footprint expanded to over 1,900 dental practices across 39 states and the District of Columbia. The company's long-established, multi-mode strategic growth program enables the building of the nation's leading de novo practices in high-growth, high-need markets, while also affiliating with the nation's highest quality solo, small and large groups, and DSOs. In 2025, this focus remained supporting general and family dentistry, a hallmark of Heartland's legacy in fostering lifetime care between supported practices and their communities.

The Company exceeded its ambitious goals, collaborating to open 75 de novo practices, completing 19 relocations, and expanding 27 existing supported practices. Strategic affiliations added 33 more supported practices, and the acquisition of Smile Design Dentistry, a doctor-founded group in Florida, brought an additional 60 world-class supported practices. These strategic investments expanded Heartland Dental's doctor-led culture and support model to 93 additional practices and strengthened its supported practices' ability to serve diverse patient populations.

"2025 saw the full spectrum of Heartland Dental's growth and operational teams come together to deliver across all footprint modalities and add with its supported practices over 165 oral-care offices to the nation's best markets. Looking ahead to 2026, we expect even greater collaborative multi-mode growth as we continue to see increasing demand for general and family oral care from a population increasingly focused on their health and longevity," shared Mark Greenstein, EVP and Chief Growth Officer, Heartland Dental.

Heartland Dental, along with its supported practices, also maintained retention rates of 80% or higher across its supported practices and support office. Heartland Dental was also recognized by Newsweek as one of America's Greatest Workplaces in Healthcare – an honor that underscores its strong workplace culture and ongoing commitment to inclusion and diversity.

Orahh Care Dental Community
In December, Heartland Dental introduced the Orahh Care Dental Community ℠, a national network of supported dentists dedicated to advancing comprehensive dental care. Dental services are provided exclusively by licensed dentists in independently owned and operated practices that participate in the community.

Given this commitment to accessible, comprehensive dental care and the exceptional patient treatment expected of participating clinicians, AARP has lent its brand to the Orahh Care Dental Community. Both AARP members and non-members can find dentists in this Heartland-supported network, who benefit from Heartland's innovative technology, training, and resources that empower participating dental practices to deliver high-quality care and a positive patient experience.

Driving Innovation with Strategic Partnerships
2025 was an exciting year for innovation at Heartland Dental, as the organization and its supported practices strengthened industry leading partnerships and launched new collaborations that set a higher standard for what is possible.

These efforts continue to fuel sustainable growth for supported practices to continue to advance the future of patient-centered, technology-driven dentistry.

Heartland Dental supported practices and Align Technology, designer and manufacturer of the Invisalign advanced clear aligner system and iTero intraoral scanners, further expanded their longstanding partnership. Together, their partnership supports doctors and teams to have access to advanced technologies and products for diagnostics, treatment planning, and patient experience to create smiles and address malocclusion. 

Notably, Heartland Dental supported practices saw increasing demand in the adult and senior populations as they recognize the ease at which their regular family dentist can help them achieve the smile of their dreams and improve their bite and oral care. To build on its large digital footprint, Heartland Dental invested in the rollout of the next-generation iTero Lumina™ intraoral scanner for its supported practices to elevate digital dentistry to deliver faster scanning speed, higher accuracy, superior visualization and patient comfort at scale. The wand's smaller size and six cameras deliver exceptionally lifelike images, further burnishing the conversation between patient and clinician.

The company also deepened its partnership with VideaHealth, empowering clinicians with the opportunity for cutting-edge AI diagnostic and workflow tools that support more complete diagnosis and treatment planning.

Heartland Dental continued to broaden access for supported practices to innovative clinical solutions such as Curodont by vVARDIS, which uses proprietary biomimetic technology to treat early-stage decay non-invasively and promote hydroxyapatite generation, further reinforcing its supported doctors' commitment to preventative, non-invasive care.

In 2025, Heartland Dental and its supported practices advanced its leadership in staffing innovation through the HDflex platform, created in 2024 in partnership with Kwikly. HDflex enables supported offices to fill shifts with internal team members while unifying approved staffing agencies in one place. The expansion of HDflex broadened access to skilled hygienists and dental assistants, improving time-to-fill rates and access to care. This progress unlocked greater flexibility and career opportunities and helped ensure supported offices can continue delivering world-class patient experiences in the communities they serve.

These strategic investments, along with the adoption of Dentira as the enterprise Lab Management Platform, underscore Heartland Dental's position at the forefront of oral care technology, support and innovation. Together, they reflect a clear differentiator: a relentless commitment to equipping and educating supported practices with opportunities for access to tools, technologies and skills that elevate care and shape the future of dentistry.

Always Learning. Always Leading. with Heartland Dental University
Heartland Dental University (HDU) continued its mission to empower supported doctors and their teams through diverse continuing education opportunities. In 2025, HDU offered over 1,300 CE courses with almost 100,000 courses completed in the year. By inspiring and enabling supported doctors and their teams to invest in themselves to operate at the top of their license and capabilities, Heartland Dental creates an engine of organic growth across its supported footprint.

HDU's worldclass educational offerings helped Heartland supported practices be able to increase Invisalign case starts by 20% and contributed to a significant rise in Super GP providers – clinicians who deliver comprehensive foundational care, including endodontics, crowns, clear aligner therapy, and extractions.

Heartland Dental University was also recognized by Metrics That Matter (MTM) – the largest global database for measuring Learning & Development effectiveness. MTM recognized HDU for achieving their Top 5% benchmark, meaning their programs have performed better than 95% of organizations in MTM's global database across all industries.

Community Impact and Recognition
In 2025, the Heartland Dental Foundation – supported by Heartland Dental and its supported practices and teams – provided more than $220,000 in assistance to supported doctors and team members facing unexpected hardship. Since its establishment in 2018, the Foundation has awarded a total of $1.3 million in assistance.

In addition to this support, the Heartland Dental Foundation organized four mission trips in 2025 to Mission Lazarus in Honduras and to Jenkins, Kentucky, with supported Doctors delivering over $260,000 in essential dental care to patients in need. These mission trips are made possible through the generous partnership of Henry Schein Cares and Dentsply Sirona.

In 2025, Heartland Dental's Free Dentistry Day program coordinated more than 350 events nationwide, with supported offices delivering over $2.8 million in free dental care. Free Dentistry Day empowers dental teams to come together to make a meaningful difference in the communities they serve, one smile at a time. Free Dentistry Day is made possible with the help of Heartland Dental's partners, Henry Schein Cares, Leixir Dental Group, Envista, and Colgate. 

Looking Ahead: 2026 and Beyond
As Heartland Dental enters 2026, the company is building on its strong foundation to drive the next chapter of doctor led dentistry. With a continued focus on expanding access to administrative and management support services, investing in operational and technological infrastructure, and strengthening collaborative relationships, Heartland Dental seeks to enable supported doctors to focus on the clinical care of their patients. These efforts are intended to support long‑term sustainability and continuity of care.

About Heartland Dental
Heartland Dental is the nation's largest dental support organization, providing non-clinical administrative support services. What started from the entrepreneurial spirit of Rick Workman, DMD, with his single dental practice, has evolved into affiliating with over 3,000 doctors in over 1,900 locations across 39 states and the District of Columbia. The company is majority owned by KKR, a leading global investment firm. For additional information, please visit heartland.com. 

Media Contact:
Jessica Thompson, Vice President of Communications
[email protected]

SOURCE Heartland Dental