For this 2026 report, the Patient Prism research team reviewed dental practice growth data published from June 2023 through July 2026 by 11 industry, government, and research sources. Planet DDS supplied same-store performance data from more than 8,500 practices and 497 DSOs covering 2024 and 2025.1,2 The ADA Health Policy Institute supplied quarterly dental economy data and dentist practice-model data.3,10 IBISWorld and Grand View Research supplied market sizing,6,7 and MouthWatch and First Page Sage supplied new patient channel and conversion data.4,5 Where sources measure growth differently, we report them separately rather than blend them.

How Fast Are Dental Practices Growing?

The typical U.S. dental practice grew same-store production by 4.0% to 4.9% in 2025.1 The lower figure is a weighted average, which gives larger practices more influence. The higher figure is a trimmed mean, which removes extreme outliers so a few unusual practices can’t skew the result.

How Fast Are Dental Practices Growing? 2025 Same-Store Production Growth

Source: Planet DDS1

Key Takeaways

•       The data shows growth is bifurcated. About one-third of practices grew more than 10%, while more than one-third shrank.1
•       Only 16.5% of practices landed in the slow-growth band of 0% to 5%.1
•       A practice growing faster than 5% is outperforming more than half of its peers.1

The table below presents the core 2026 benchmarks for dental practice growth.

Average Annual Dental Practice Growth Rate: 2026 Benchmarks

Metric	2025 Value	What It Means
Same-store production growth, weighted average	4.0%1	Revenue-weighted, so larger practices count more. The most conservative benchmark.
Same-store growth, trimmed mean	4.9%1	Removes extreme outliers. The best single figure for a typical practice.
Same-store growth, simple average	6.6%1	Counts every practice equally. Smaller, faster-growing practices pull it up.
Share of practices that grew	63%1	Up from 60% in 2024,2 but more than a third still shrank.
Share that grew more than 10%	33.5%1	The high-growth tier: one in three practices.
Share that declined more than 10%	13.6%1	About one in seven practices lost significant ground.
Average new patients per month	461	Up from 43 in 2024.1 Demand is rising at the practice level.
Consumer dental spending, inflation-adjusted, 12-month change	+1% (May 2026)3	The overall market is nearly flat, so practice growth is share won from competitors.
Average new patient wait for first appointment	13.9 days (Q2 2026)3	Up from 12.4 days in Q1 2026 but below the Q2 2024 peak.3 Capacity is tightening again.

 

Key Takeaways

•       The typical dental practice grew 4% to 5% in 2025, depending on how the average is calculated.1
•       Practice growth outpaced consumer dental spending by roughly 3 to 4 points.1,3 Practices that grew took share from those that didn’t.
•       New patient volume and wait times both rose, so most practices are not short on demand.1,3 Converting and scheduling that demand is the harder problem.

Growth benchmarks depend heavily on practice size. The table below breaks down 2025 growth by annual revenue tier.

Dental Practice Growth Rate by Practice Size

Annual Revenue Tier	Average Growth	Share of Practices Growing
Under $500K	23.5%1	70.4%1
$500K to $1M	10.9%1	70.4%1
$1M to $2M	5.3%1	61.5%1
$2M to $5M	3.4%1	60.5%1
$5M+	3.5%1	57.4%1

Revenue tier reflects practice size and maturity, not practice age.

Key Takeaways

•       Practices under $500K grew 23.5%, about seven times the 3.5% rate of practices above $5M.1
•       Growth slows sharply past $1M in revenue, as practices move from expansion to optimization.1
•       The share of practices growing falls from about 70% in the smallest tiers to about 57% in the largest.1
•       For larger practices, 3% to 4% same-store growth is in line with peers. The right benchmark depends on size.

Growth also shifts through the year. The table below compares quarterly growth in 2024 and 2025.

Quarterly Dental Practice Growth Trend, 2024 vs. 2025

Quarter	2024	2025 (Weighted)
Q1	2.4%2	3.5%1
Q2	3.2%2	4.6%1
Q3	5.5%2	4.8%1
Q4	4.6%2	3.4%1

The 2024 and 2025 reports use different samples and methods, so treat this comparison as directional.

Key Takeaways

•       Growth peaked in Q3 in both years and softened in Q4.1,2
•       The first half of 2025 ran ahead of the first half of 2024. The second half ran behind.1,2
•       The data shows a seasonal pattern: production rises through spring and summer and dips in fall and winter.1,2

Dental Practice Growth Rate by Practice Type

A 4% benchmark means little if your specialty grows at half that rate. The chart below shows 2025 same-store growth by practice type, measured against the 4.0% industry weighted average.1

Dental Practice Growth Rate by Practice Type, 2025

Source: Planet DDS1

Key Takeaways

•       Pediatric practices grew fastest, at 4.8%, and 70% of pediatric offices grew.1
•       General and family practices grew 4.0%, matching the industry’s weighted average.1
•       Endodontics (1.3%) and periodontics (2.0%) grew slowest, at half the general dentistry rate or less.1

The next question for multi-location leaders is whether scale helps. The table below compares solo practices with DSO-affiliated practices, then breaks DSOs down by location count.

Dental Practice Growth Rate by Ownership and DSO Size

Segment	Average Growth	Share of Offices Growing
Solo practice	3.9%1	63%1
DSO-affiliated (all sizes)	4.2%1	63%1
DSO, 2 to 5 locations	9.0%1	62.1%1
DSO, 6 to 10 locations	6.9%1	66.1%1
DSO, 11 to 25 locations	8.8%1	68.0%1
DSO, 26 to 50 locations	2.8%1	55.3%1
DSO, 51 to 100 locations	7.4%1	64.9%1
DSO, 100+ locations	7.1%1	61.6%1

The solo row stands in for single-location practices.

Key Takeaways

•       DSO-affiliated and solo practices grew at nearly the same rate, and both had 63% of offices growing.1
•       DSOs with 26 to 50 locations grew 2.8%, less than one-third the rate of the smallest groups, and had the lowest share of offices growing.1
•       The data shows growth stalls in this mid-size tier, then recovers to about 7% for groups above 50 locations.1

Portfolio mix matters as much as location count. The table below shows DSO growth by the share of specialist practices in the portfolio.

DSO Growth Rate by Portfolio Mix

Portfolio Mix	Average Growth	Share of DSOs Growing
Pure general (0% specialist)	9.3%1	69%1
Low specialist (0% to 25%)	5.5%1	66%1
Mixed (25% to 60%)	1%1	43%1
Specialist-heavy (60% to 95%)	5.7%1	60%1
Pure specialist (95%+)	9.3%1	76%1

Key Takeaways

•       Focused portfolios grew fastest. Pure general and pure specialist DSOs both grew 9.3%.1
•       Mixed portfolios grew just 1%, and fewer than half of those DSOs grew at all.1
•       The data links a balanced mix of general and specialty practices to slower growth, not faster.1

What Drives Dental Practice Growth

Benchmarks show where a practice stands. Drivers show what to fix. The table below compares growth for lower- and higher-performing tiers on five operating measures. These are correlations, not proven causes, but the patterns are consistent.1

What Drives Dental Practice Growth

Driver	Lower-Performing Tier	Higher-Performing Tier
New patients per month	10 to 20 new patients: 4.5% growth1	75+ new patients: 9.0% growth1
Treatment completion (acceptance-to-completion gap)	50+ point gap: 1.1% growth1	20 to 30 point gap: 7.2% growth1
Cancellation rate	20% to 25%: 6.1% growth1	Under 5%: 8.9% growth1
Daily production consistency	Most volatile 10%: -3.4% growth1	Most consistent 10%: 6.1% growth1
Case acceptance	80% to 100% acceptance: 3.2% growth1	30% to 45% acceptance: 6.1% growth1

Key Takeaways

•       New patient volume tracks closely with growth. Practices with 75+ new patients a month grew at double the rate of those with 10 to 20.1
•       Volume alone is not enough. Dentistry converts 59.8% of prospects into patients, so about 4 in 10 people who reach out never book.4
•       Follow-through separates fast growers from slow ones. Large gaps between accepted and completed treatment, and high cancellation rates, both track with weaker growth.1
•       The most volatile 10% of practices shrank 3.4%, while the most consistent grew 6.1%, a 9.5-point gap.1
•       Case acceptance does not track growth in a straight line. Practices accepting 80% to 100% of cases grew just 3.2%.1
•       Higher no-show rates correlated with higher growth, a pattern consistent with strong demand rather than a cause of growth.1

If new patients drive growth, the next question is where they come from. The table below pairs each channel’s share of practices naming it their top new patient source with that channel’s prospect-to-patient conversion rate.

Where New Dental Patients Come From

Channel	Share of Practices Naming It Their Top New Patient Source	Prospect-to-Patient Conversion Rate
Word of mouth / referrals	65.6%5	Not measured
Google Business Profile (organic)	15.6%5	76.9% (organic search)4
Google Ads	7.6%5	64.2% (paid search)4
Community / sponsorships	3.3%5	Not measured
Loyalty / referral programs	2.2%5	Not measured
Facebook / Instagram ads	2.0%5	66.1% (paid social)4
Organic social	Under 2%5	73.1%4
Video	Under 2%5	60.4%4
Direct mail	Under 2%5	50.9%4

Conversion rates come from First Page Sage data across 15 medical practice types, not dental alone, and measure organic search broadly rather than Google Business Profile specifically.

Key Takeaways

•       Referrals remain the top new patient source, but their share fell from 77.5% in 2025 to 65.6% in 2026.5
•       Google now accounts for 23.2% of top-channel responses, up from about 17% for all digital channels in 2025.5
•       Organic search converts best of any measured channel, at 76.9%. Direct mail converts worst, at 50.9%.4
•       Fewer than 1 in 5 practices track marketing performance closely, so most cannot say which channels produce booked patients.5 For cost per new patient by channel, see our Patient Acquisition Cost: 2026 Benchmarks report.

Dental Industry Size and Market Context

Practice-level growth only means something next to the market it competes in. The table below shows the size and growth rate of the U.S. dental industry.

Dental Industry Size and Growth Rate

Market Measure	Value
U.S. dentists industry revenue, 2026	$195B to $200B6
2026 change	+1.9%6
2021 to 2026 CAGR	1.2%6
U.S. dental services market, 2023 base	$190B to $195B7
Forecast CAGR, 2024 to 2030	3.3%7
2030 forecast	$240B to $245B7
10-year consumer spending growth	Dental +24% vs. health care +39%3

Key Takeaways

•       The U.S. dental market is growing in the low single digits: 1.2% a year since 2021, with 3.3% forecast through 2030.6,7
•       A practice growing 4% or more is outpacing the market and gaining share.1,6
•       Dental spending has lagged overall health care spending for a decade, so growth has to be won from competitors.3

The competitive landscape is also shifting. The table below tracks DSO affiliation and the number of dental businesses over time.

DSO Consolidation and Number of Practices Over Time

Measure	Value
DSO affiliation, share of U.S. dentists	8.8% (2017),8 10.4% (2019),8 13.0% (2022),8 nearly 14% (2023),9 16% (2024)10
Early-career dentists DSO-affiliated, 2024	More than 1 in 411
Dental businesses, 2026	About 180K, 1.0% CAGR 2021 to 20266

Key Takeaways

•       The share of U.S. dentists affiliated with a DSO nearly doubled from 2017 to 2024, rising from 8.8% to 16%.8,10
•       The pace is picking up. Affiliation rose about two points from 2023 to 2024, faster than in earlier years.8,9,10
•       Early-career dentists lead the shift. More than 1 in 4 within 10 years of graduation were DSO-affiliated in 2024.11
•       The number of dental businesses is still growing about 1% a year, so competition for each patient is not easing.6

What the Data Means for Multi-Location Dental Leaders

The data shows that every high-growth lever in dentistry is operational. Fast-growing practices bring in more new patients, convert more of the people who reach out, complete more accepted treatment, and keep daily production steady.1,4 None of these levers depends on market growth, which remains in the low single digits.6,7 For DSO, MSO, and PE-backed dental leaders, the harder problem is consistency across locations: performance differences between offices, staff training gaps, scheduling bottlenecks, and uneven conversion. The data shows this challenge peaks in the 26- to 50-location range, where growth stalls.1

Patient Prism data points to the same operational gap: four barrier categories drive 84% of all non-bookings.12 BI tools provide valuable insight into where those patients were lost, but they are not built to act on it. BI shows what happened. Activation changes what happens next. Patient Prism is a Revenue Activation System that flags at-risk patient inquiries across phone calls, texts, web forms, and online scheduling, then activates the fix through prioritization, follow-up, team support, and workflow intervention before that revenue is lost.12

Over more than a decade, Patient Prism has analyzed more than 300 million patient interactions.12 Multi-location dental organizations including Heartland Dental and Dental Care Alliance use Patient Prism, and DCA’s Meredith Troy calls it an “invaluable partner” in growing new patient demand across its practices.12

Healthcare networks using Patient Prism typically see a 15 to 30% increase in same-store appointment volume within 90 days, depending on adoption.12

Explore how Patient Prism supports Dental and DSO organizations and revenue recovery for CEOs, or request a demo to see where your locations are losing booked appointments.

References

1. Planet DDS. 2026 Dental Industry Outlook: Deep Dive. May 2026. https://www.planetdds.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/PDDS-2026-DSO-Outlook-DeepDive-051526.pdf
2. Planet DDS. 2025 Dental Industry Outlook (press release via Business Wire). March 2025. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250313922618/en
3. ADA Health Policy Institute. State of the U.S. Dental Economy, Q2 2026. July 2026. https://www.ada.org/resources/research/health-policy-institute/dental-care-market/state-of-the-us-dental-economy
4. First Page Sage. Patient Conversion Rate by Practice Type. 2025. https://firstpagesage.com/reports/patient-conversion-rate-by-practice-type/
5. MouthWatch. 2026 Dental Practice Marketing Survey. July 2026. https://www.mouthwatch.com/resources/dental-practice-marketing-2026
6. IBISWorld. Dentists in the US: Industry Report. 2026. https://www.ibisworld.com/united-states/industry/dentists-in-the-us/1557/
7. Grand View Research. U.S. Dental Services Market Report. March 2024. https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/us-dental-services-market-report
8. ADA News. “More dentists affiliating with DSOs.” June 2023. https://adanews.ada.org/ada-news/2023/june/more-dentists-affiliating-with-dsos/
9. Dr. Bicuspid. “How dentistry’s practice models continue to evolve.” 2024. https://www.drbicuspid.com/dental-practice/office-management/practice-trends/article/15683050/how-dentistrys-practice-models-continue-to-evolve
10. ADA Health Policy Institute. Dental Practice Research. 2025. https://www.ada.org/resources/research/health-policy-institute/dental-practice-research
11. ADA News. “HPI: More new dentists affiliated with DSOs.” November 2025. https://adanews.ada.org/new-dentist/2025/november/hpi-more-new-dentists-affiliated-with-dsos/
12. Patient Prism. Homepage. Accessed October 2026. https://www.patientprism.com/