PRIVATE EQUITY OWNED
Heartland Dental
Includes Heartland Dental Care, Heartland Dental LLC
dental · Effingham, IL
- PE Firm
- KKR →
- Acquirer
- KKR Core Investments
- Year Acquired
- 2018
Your 'local' dentist might be one of 1,900 offices supported by a KKR-controlled company. Keeping the local name on the sign is part of the pitch.
What They Did
- KKR bought a 58% stake in 2018 at a $2.8 billion valuation. The seller was Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, which had backed Heartland since 2012 (supported-practice revenue grew 126% on its watch), and kept a sizeable piece
- KKR bought in through its 'Core Investments' fund, which it set up for longer holds than a typical PE fund. Translation: no quick flip, and eight years later KKR still owns the majority
- Heartland supported about 850 offices when KKR arrived. It now supports 1,900+ offices across 39 states and D.C. and calls itself the nation's largest dental support organization
- Heartland's business is everything but the drilling: it handles the 'non-clinical' side — staffing, advertising, equipment, HR, and finance — while every office stays officially 'doctor-led'
Since the Acquisition
- Heartland's pitch to dentists who sell to it promises they'll 'retain local branding,' so your office can keep its old practice name
- That same pitch promises 'no quotas or production pressures.' Heartland's recruiting page says dentists get a guaranteed salary plus bonuses tied to their own collections and the office's profits, adding up to an average of 32% of what they personally collect — so your dentist's pay rises with what they collect
- A 2025 class action alleged that patient calls to Heartland-supported offices were recorded, transcribed, and sentiment-scored by RingCentral's AI without callers being told. A federal judge dismissed the case for good in July 2026, ruling the patient hadn't shown it broke federal wiretap law
Sources
- Wall Street Transforms Dentistry Into a Credit-Fueled Gold Rush — Bloomberg(2018-06-28)
- Taking a Deeper Look at KKR's Investment in Heartland Dental — Group Dentistry Now(2018-05-01)
- Heartland Dental and KKR Finalize Majority Interest Deal — GlobeNewsWire(2018-04-30)
- Heartland Dental Celebrates Transformative Growth, Innovation, and Community Impact in 2025 — PR Newswire ('majority owned by KKR')(2026-01-28)
- Sell Your Dental Practice — Heartland Dental ('Retain local branding'; 'no quotas or production pressures')(2026-09-23)
- Earn — Heartland Dental careers ('Supported Doctors Earn 32% of collections on average')(2026-09-23)
- Heartland Dental, RingCentral Beat AI Call-Transcription Suit — Bloomberg Law(2026-01-14)
- U.S. judge dismisses lawsuit against DSO — DrBicuspid(2026-07-30)