Sonrava Health and Your Dental Practice: What Owners Should Know in 2026

The call comes in through the front desk, which is how you know it is not a patient.

Someone from business development. Warm, unhurried, complimentary about your hygiene numbers in a way that suggests they have looked at something.

They would love to have a conversation.

You say you will think about it. Then you sit in your office with the door shut and type the name into your phone.

And what comes back is strange. Because the press releases are not about practices like yours.

They are about the company buying other companies.

Here is what that actually means for you.

Key takeaways

• Sonrava Health does acquire existing practices. Its own announcements name doctor-founded groups of two to nine offices that affiliated, alongside far bigger deals.
• It also grows by acquiring whole DSOs. The Mid-Atlantic Dental Partners acquisition added 215 offices in 17 states in a single transaction.
• A platform buyer and a fill-in buyer behave differently. Knowing which one you are to a given buyer changes what you should expect and what you should ask for.
• Geography is the tell. Sonrava’s independent-practice affiliations cluster in metros where its brands already operate. Houston is the clearest example.
• Multi-brand does not automatically mean your name survives. Some affiliated offices kept local brands. Others were folded into a regional one.

Does Sonrava Health buy dental practices? Yes. Its brands have affiliated doctor-founded practices of two to nine offices, and it has also acquired entire DSOs, including the 215-office Mid-Atlantic Dental Partners.

It supports close to 600 offices across roughly 20 states, and New Mountain Capital owns it.

Who Sonrava Health actually is

Start with the label, because the whole structure depends on it.

A DSO is a dental support organization. The management company owns the non-clinical side of a practice and runs everything outside the operatory.

A licensed dentist keeps ownership of the clinical entity.

That is not branding. Most states restrict who may own or control a dental practice, under the doctrine known as the corporate practice of dentistry, and the DSO structure exists to operate inside those rules.

Sonrava Health is the parent organization. The name is newer than the company.

On 9 June 2022 the parent of Western Dental & Orthodontics was renamed Sonrava Health. The lineage runs back through Western Dental, which has operated out of Orange, California for well over a century.

Today Sonrava describes itself as a national family of health and wellness companies. Its dental brands include Western Dental & Orthodontics, Brident Dental & Orthodontics, DentalWorks, Perfect Teeth, Mid-Atlantic Dental Partners and Vital Smiles, plus vision and benefit-plan arms.

Scale, as the company and its sponsor report it: more than 580 affiliated offices across roughly 20 states, over 1,400 dentists, more than 7,200 team members, and close to three million patient visits a year.

Ownership sits with New Mountain Capital, which has been the majority owner since November 2012. That is a long hold by private-equity standards, and it is worth noting plainly rather than reading anything into it.

Becker’s puts Sonrava among the largest DSOs in the country heading into 2026, at nearly 600 offices. Large, but well below the top three.

Does Sonrava buy existing practices, or build new ones?

Both. And it buys other DSOs as well.

All three are documented, and an owner needs to hold all three in mind at once.

The de novo side is real. De novo means a brand-new office built from scratch rather than an existing practice acquired.

Brident opened its first Colorado location in Englewood, an eight-operatory office, and has opened new locations across Texas and New Mexico. Western Dental has opened and expanded offices in California.

But the acquisition side is equally documented, and this is the part the headlines bury.

Summit Dental Center, seven Texas offices built over 23 years by Dr. Essa Kawaja and Dr.

William Gomez, joined in October 2021.

Crown Dental, nine Houston offices founded by Dr. Emily Lee, joined that December.

Royal Dental, seven Houston offices built over thirty years by Dr. Ayeez Lalji and Shelena Lalji, joined in September 2022.

Sahara Dental Center and Las Vegas Smile Center, founded by Dr. Shiva Keshmiri in 2006, joined that November.

None of those were DSOs. They were practices owned by dentists.

One honest caveat, because you should not read a stale record as a current one. The publicly announced independent affiliations cluster in 2021 through 2023.

More recent public news from the company skews toward new office openings and executive appointments. Its affiliate page still openly invites both practice owners and DSOs to get in touch.

So the record is clear that Sonrava buys practices. Whether it is buying yours, this quarter, is a question only their team can answer — and it is a fair one to ask on the first call.

What it means when a buyer grows by acquiring other DSOs

This is the part of the profile that has no equivalent elsewhere, so it is worth slowing down for.

In June 2022, Sonrava completed the acquisition of Mid-Atlantic Dental Partners. That single transaction brought 215 offices across 17 states.

Combined with the existing Western Dental, Brident and Vital Smiles offices, the group went to 572 offices in 20 states overnight. California to Delaware.

Michigan to Texas.

A year later it acquired 24 locally branded general dentistry and orthodontic offices in Arizona, Florida and Pennsylvania, previously part of Pure Dental Brands. That took the group to 588 offices in 21 states, and put it into Florida for the first time.

Now hold those two numbers next to each other. Two hundred and fifteen offices in one deal.

Seven in another.

Both are growth. They are not the same activity, and they do not use the same people, the same capital, or the same attention.

A platform acquisition is a head-office project. It runs for months, involves an investment bank on the other side, and consumes senior leadership.

A single-practice affiliation is a regional pipeline activity. Different team, different scale, different urgency.

Here is what that means for you, stated plainly. When a buyer’s growth engine is capable of adding 215 offices in one signature, a four-operatory practice is not going to move their year.

That is not a criticism. It is arithmetic, and it applies to every large acquirer in dentistry.

What it changes is your expectations about pace, attention and negotiating posture. And it makes one question far more important than owners usually realize.

How to tell whether you are a platform or a fill-in

There is a way to work this out before you ever get on a call, and it takes about ten minutes.

Open a map. Find every office the buyer’s brands already operate within an hour of you.

Then count.

Zero nearby offices. You are being considered as an entry point into a new market. That is the hardest sale for them to justify internally, because a single scattered location gets none of the shared-cost benefits that make consolidation work.

A handful nearby. You are a fill-in. This is the strongest position an owner can be in with a large acquirer, and most owners never realize they are standing in it.

Dozens nearby. You are a fill-in in a market they already dominate. Still valuable, but their alternative — opening a new office instead — is cheaper and more available to them.

Sonrava’s own record shows the fill-in pattern working exactly as theory predicts.

When Crown Dental’s nine offices joined Brident in December 2021, Brident went from 24 Houston offices to 33.

When Royal Dental’s seven joined in September 2022, Brident reached 50 offices in Houston and 130 across Texas.

That is not a company planting flags in unfamiliar territory. That is a company thickening a market it already runs.

The same regional managers. The same marketing spend.

The same lab and supply contracts, spread across more chairs.

Every one of those shared costs is worth real money to the buyer, and it is worth more in a dense market than a thin one. That is why regional density is the single most reliable predictor of who will pay well for your practice.

So do the map exercise. It tells you more about your leverage than any conversation will.

The arithmetic, walked through

Abstract talk about buyers is useless without numbers. So here are some.

Take a three-location group doing $4.1 million in collections. Two associates, four hygienists, a stable PPO-heavy payer mix, and an owner who still produces four days a week.

Now do the bridge that dentists almost never do.

Collections means the money actually collected, not what was billed or produced. Start there.

Overhead runs at 64 percent, which covers staff, supplies, lab, rent, marketing and everything else. That leaves roughly $1.48 million.

But that number is not what a buyer is valuing, because it still includes the owner’s own clinical production as if it were free.

So subtract what it would cost to hire an associate at market rate to do that production. Call it $310,000.

What is left is about $1.17 million of adjusted EBITDA — the operating profit after paying a market-rate dentist to do the work the owner currently does personally.

That single number is what any acquirer is actually buying. Not collections.

Not production.

And here is the error that costs dental owners the most money. A “percentage of collections” figure quoted at a study club is not comparable to an EBITDA multiple.

They measure different things.

Now illustrate a structure. Say the practice is valued at 8x — a purely illustrative figure, not attached to any named buyer.

The headline becomes $9.33 million.

Split it. Seventy percent cash at close is $6.53 million.

Thirty percent as rollover equity — keeping a slice of ownership in the buyer’s company instead of taking all cash — is $2.80 million of paper.

Then ask the question almost nobody asks. What is the paper worth?

If the organization grows and a liquidity event arrives at a higher valuation than when you joined, that stake can be worth meaningfully more than its face value.

If it arrives flat, you get your money back years later, having carried the risk and lost the use of the cash in between.

If liquidation preferences rank ahead of you, common equity can return a fraction of its stated number. That is not a prediction about anyone.

It is how a preference stack works.

Nobody can tell you in advance which outcome you are in. Anyone who says otherwise is guessing, and I would want to know how they are paid.

What you can do is find out where the equity sits, what ranks above it, and when a liquidity event is realistically expected.

And notice one more thing the arithmetic exposes. The 70/30 split is not a law of nature.

Owners treat it as policy. It is frequently an opening position.

Owners who wanted more cash have got more cash — when somebody else was bidding.

What kind of practice Sonrava looks for

No published threshold. Almost no acquirer publishes one, and the ones that do move the goalposts anyway.

The footprint tells you more than a stated criterion ever would.

Sonrava’s own description of itself leads with accessible, affordable, high-quality care. Its largest brands are high-volume family practices serving broad populations, not boutique fee-for-service offices.

That matters for fit. A three-operatory cosmetic practice in an affluent suburb, running on cash and out-of-network reimbursement, is a different animal from what these brands operate.

Neither is better. They are simply different, and a mismatched buyer produces a mismatched offer.

The practices that have affiliated share a recognizable shape. Multi-location.

General dentistry with pediatric, orthodontic and surgical services under one roof. Built by a founding dentist over one or two decades.

Hygiene strength reads well to any acquirer of that shape. Hygiene percentage — hygiene production as a share of collections — gets treated as a proxy for recurring, transferable patient revenue.

Transferability is the underlying test in every case. A practice where patients come for the practice survives your departure.

One where they come only for you is harder to underwrite, and buyers price the difference.

What an offer typically contains

Sonrava does not publish a price sheet, and neither does anyone else in this market. What any acquirer pays depends on the practice, the geography, their current appetite, and above all on who else is bidding.

Any source quoting a specific multiple for a named buyer is generalizing from a handful of deals it half-remembers.

What holds broadly across the private-equity-backed pool, rather than for any one organization:

Cash at close is typically a portion of the headline figure, not all of it. Rollover equity usually makes up part of the balance.

An earnout may make up the rest — part of the price paid later, only if the practice hits agreed targets after closing.

There is also a post-closing employment agreement, almost always. Its length, its compensation formula and its restrictive covenants are terms, not formalities.

The process itself runs in recognizable phases, and the diligence stretch commonly runs several months. Two offers with identical headline numbers can be worth materially different amounts.

I have watched an owner take the bigger headline and receive less money.

What changes after the sale

Start with branding, because Sonrava’s record here is genuinely mixed and you deserve the accurate version.

Sonrava is multi-brand at the regional level. Perfect Teeth, DentalWorks, Vital Smiles and Mid-Atlantic all survived as names after their platforms were acquired.

The 24 offices acquired in Arizona, Florida and Pennsylvania were described in the company’s own announcement as locally branded.

But the Houston affiliations went the other way. Summit Dental Center, Crown Dental and Royal Dental all became Brident offices.

So multi-brand at the platform level does not automatically mean your specific sign stays up. Whichever outcome you want, get it written into the agreement rather than inferred from a pattern.

Clinical autonomy is worth the same treatment. Every acquirer states a commitment to it.

Treat every such statement, from every buyer, as the start of a conversation.

The reliable test is not the pitch deck. It is a phone call with two dentists who affiliated at least two years ago.

Long enough for integration to have happened. Long enough for any honeymoon to have ended.

What does change is the back office. Payroll, benefits, insurance contracting, purchasing, marketing, compliance and IT move to a central function.

For many owners that is the entire point.

Your team’s experience changes with it. New benefits, new payroll system, new reporting lines for some roles.

Worth knowing before you tell them, not after.

Questions worth asking Sonrava specifically

Generic questions get generic answers. These are the ones shaped by everything above.

“How many practice affiliations have you completed in the last twelve months?” Then ask how many were single practices rather than groups. It separates the platform pipeline from the practice pipeline, and a straight answer tells you which one you are in.

“Which of your brands operate within an hour of me, and how many offices?” You will already know the answer from your own map exercise. Ask anyway, and listen to how they frame it.

“Would you keep my name, or would we operate under one of your regional brands?” Their record includes both outcomes. Get yours specified.

“Can I speak with two owners who affiliated with you at least two years ago?” Ask for them by name rather than accepting whoever is offered. A confident organization arranges that within a week.

“Which clinical decisions remain mine, in writing?” Materials, labs, hygiene protocols, scheduling templates, case acceptance targets. Name them individually.

“If I take equity, where does it sit and what ranks above it?” Equity in your own practice entity behaves very differently from equity in the parent.

“What is the earnout measured on, and who controls those inputs?” An earnout measured on a number the buyer controls is not really an earnout.

Ask these of every buyer, not just this one. The answers are only comparable if the questions are identical.

How to know whether the offer is competitive

Here is what actually decides your outcome, and it is not which organization is on the letterhead.

A buyer who approaches you directly is competing with nobody. Their number reflects that.

It would be odd if it did not.

The same organization, bidding against three others who also want your practice, behaves differently. Not because the first number was dishonest.

Because the leverage changed.

The pool is deep enough for that to be real. Becker’s tracked more than 200 DSO affiliations in 2025, and 69 percent of DSOs reported in 2026 that their sponsors expect increased acquisition activity.

The ADSO alone counts more than 80 member companies supporting thousands of practices.

Roughly 30 to 35 organizations acquire independent general practices at meaningful scale. Most owners have heard of four.

And the density argument cuts both ways, in your favor. If you are a fill-in for one regional platform, you are very likely a fill-in for two or three others in the same market.

That is precisely the situation where a competitive process pays for itself several times over.

Creating that competition is what the Elite Selling System exists to do. We hand-select and vet every buyer who gets to bid on your practice, the way a doorman with a velvet rope lets in only the right people.

Then we run a private competitive window inside that group. The point is not to squeeze anyone.

It is that you cannot know whether a number is good until a second serious buyer has told you what they think it is worth.

What to do next

If a Sonrava approach is sitting on your desk, the first job is not to compare it against your expectations. It is to make it comparable to anything at all.

Do the map exercise. Get your adjusted EBITDA documented properly, with the owner-production adjustment done honestly rather than optimistically.

Separate cash at close from equity from earnout. Read the employment agreement as carefully as the price.

Then find out what your practice attracts when several qualified organizations are competing for it, rather than one.

Sonrava may well be the right home. A group with a century of lineage, long-term ownership behind it and nearly 600 offices is a serious operator, and dentists have sold into it and stayed.

The point is to choose it on the numbers rather than on the warmth of the call.

We will give you that assessment free and in confidence, including the answer that you should wait eighteen months and fix two things first when that is the honest one. It starts with a free, confidential practice value estimate.

Our fee varies depending on the value of the practice and is entirely success-based. If we do not get you a result, we do not get paid.

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Frequently asked questions

Does Sonrava Health buy dental practices?

Yes. Its own announcements name doctor-founded practices that affiliated, including Summit Dental Center, Crown Dental and Royal Dental in Texas, and two Las Vegas practices.

It has also acquired entire DSOs and opens new offices from scratch.

Who owns Sonrava Health?

New Mountain Capital has been the majority owner since November 2012. The parent of Western Dental & Orthodontics was renamed Sonrava Health on 9 June 2022.

How big is Sonrava Health?

The company and its sponsor report more than 580 affiliated offices across roughly 20 states, over 1,400 dentists, more than 7,200 team members, and close to three million patient visits a year. Becker’s places it among the largest DSOs heading into 2026.

What was the Mid-Atlantic Dental Partners acquisition?

Completed on 22 June 2022, it added 215 offices across 17 states operating under brands including DentalWorks, Perfect Teeth and Mid-Atlantic Dental Partners. The combined organization reached 572 offices in 20 states.

Does a buyer that acquires other DSOs still want a single practice?

Sometimes, and geography usually decides it. A practice that fills a gap in a market the buyer already operates in delivers shared-cost benefits that a scattered addition does not.

Count their nearby offices before you assume either way.

Will my practice keep its name if I affiliate with Sonrava?

The record includes both outcomes. Some acquired offices retained local brands; several Houston affiliations became Brident offices.

Get the specific commitment written into the agreement rather than relying on the pattern.

What does Sonrava Health pay for a practice?

There is no published price sheet, and any specific multiple attached to a named buyer is generalized from limited data. What any organization pays depends on the practice, the market, their appetite and who else is bidding.

Should I accept a direct offer from Sonrava?

Not before other qualified buyers have had the chance to bid. A single offer tells you what one organization will pay when nobody is competing.

It tells you nothing about what your practice is worth.

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Sources

Sonrava Health scale, ownership and brands

1. Sonrava Health. “About Sonrava Health.” sonrava.com
2. Sonrava Health. “Affiliate with Us.” sonrava.com
3. Sonrava Health. “Sonrava Health Unveiled as New Name for Parent Company of Western Dental & Orthodontics, Brident Dental & Orthodontics, LooksBrite Eye Centers and More,” 9 June 2022. sonrava.com
4. New Mountain Capital. “Sonrava Health” portfolio page. newmountaincapital.com

Platform-level acquisitions

5. Sonrava Health. “Sonrava Health Completes Acquisition of Mid-Atlantic Dental Partners,” 22 June 2022. businesswire.com
6. Becker’s Dental Review. “Sonrava Health acquires Mid-Atlantic Dental Partners.” beckersdental.com
7. Sonrava Health. “Sonrava Health Completes Strategic Acquisition of 24 Offices in Arizona, Florida and Pennsylvania,” 26 June 2023. businesswire.com
8. DrBicuspid. “Sonrava Health adds dental practices.” drbicuspid.com

Independent practice affiliations

9. Western Dental / Brident. “Summit Dental Center in Texas Joins Western Dental and Brident,” 4 October 2021. businesswire.com
10. Brident Dental & Orthodontics. “Crown Dental in Houston Joins Brident Dental,” 7 December 2021. businesswire.com
11. Brident Dental & Orthodontics. “Royal Dental in Houston Joins Brident Dental,” 1 September 2022. businesswire.com
12. Sonrava Health. “Sahara Dental Center and Las Vegas Smile Center Join Sonrava Health,” 17 November 2022. businesswire.com
13. Becker’s Dental Review. “Sonrava Health’s 1-year growth recap.” beckersdental.com

De novo expansion

14. Becker’s Dental Review. “Sonrava Health continues expansion with Colorado dental practice.” beckersdental.com

Buyer pool, deal activity and market structure

15. Becker’s Dental Review. “The largest DSOs headed into 2026.” beckersdental.com
16. Association of Dental Support Organizations. “About ADSO.” theadso.org
17. Becker’s Dental Review. “200+ DSO affiliations in 2025: State-by-state breakdown.” beckersdental.com
18. Becker’s Dental Review. “69% of DSOs plan to boost acquisitions in 2026: Report.” beckersdental.com
19. Becker’s Dental Review. “What the 3 largest DSOs have been up to.” beckersdental.com

Deal structure, process and regulation

20. Mandelbaum Barrett PC. “The Four-Phase DSO Transaction Process.” mblawfirm.com
21. US House Committee on Oversight. “Survey of State Laws Governing the Corporate Practice of Dentistry.” oversight.house.gov