Our Cottage Industry Goes Corporate

The sale of Andy and George Hites’ second-generation, California-based MicroDental Laboratories to Riverside Partners in 2001 marked the beginning of the rise of private equity firms in our community.

Since then—spurred by our industry’s financial potential and the fact that the dental market represents one of the fastest-growing segments in the medical technology industry—private equity has proliferated in our community. For example, one of the more recent players to join our field is O2 Investment Partners, a private equity firm that first partnered with Frontier Dental Lab that has locations in El Dorado Hills, CA, and Vancouver, BC, and has since teamed up with several other labs across the country.

Private equity has also played a role in industry consolidation. For instance, after being acquired by Cerberus Capital Management in 2020, National Dentex purchased Dental Services Group the following year, creating an organization with...