Summary4 min read

Episode Summary: Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

Guest: Stan Kinder, President and Founder of Everything DSO
Host: Ariana Portolatten
Date: September 7, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode features Stan Kinder, a seasoned executive and founder of Everything DSO, discussing the evolving landscape of Dental Service Organizations (DSOs). The conversation covers financial trends, emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, current labor shortages, and what healthcare leaders need to succeed in the near future. Kinder shares both his concerns and optimism for the direction of dental healthcare, particularly as DSOs shift to a more operational and dentist-centric focus.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Stan Kinder’s Background and Experience

[00:20] Stan recounts over four decades in healthcare, starting practice management in the early 1980s, expanding to three practices, shifting into management consulting, brokerage, and eventually senior M&A roles within large DSOs.

“I started working with a dental professional as far back as the early 80s. I actually started a practice from scratch in partnership with a dentist ... and I spent about 15 years working for several different DSOs in senior executive roles doing M and A, business development.”
— Stan Kinder [00:21]

2. Major Trends and Issues in the DSO Market

[01:15] Early DSO growth was fueled by private equity seeking financial arbitrage—buying practices, aggregating, and recapitalizing, which led to explosive investment interest.
[01:54] Recently, higher capital costs and rising interest rates have forced a shift away from pure acquisition; now there’s increased focus on operational efficiency and “same store” practice growth.

“As the cost of capital increased with the rapid escalation in the interest rates, the DSO industry kind of began to change ... and moved more towards operational performance and being able to drive same store growth.”
— Stan Kinder [01:56]

3. Technology and the Future of Dentistry

[02:59] Stan expresses excitement about artificial intelligence transforming both back-office processes and clinical competencies, especially diagnostics and patient communications.
[03:24] He emphasizes that this technological evolution is only in its infancy, suggesting a wave of improvements ahead.

“The exciting thing is on the technology side, the ability of artificial intelligence to bring efficiencies ... as well as even into the clinical area in terms of diagnostic capabilities.”
— Stan Kinder [03:01]

4. Recapitalization Challenges and Market Anxiety

[04:23] Kinder addresses recent failed recapitalization efforts in some large DSOs, attributing them to weaker operational performance and macroeconomic factors like increased debt costs.
[04:52] Notes a wider slowdown in private equity recapitalizations, not specific to dental but part of a sector-wide adjustment as access to cheap debt disappears.
[05:10] There’s general anxiety about the broader economy, tariffs, and potential recession—how these might influence dental consumer behavior.
[05:23] Highlights a persistent labor crisis, especially the shortage of hygienists; nearly 70% of practices are actively recruiting, post-pandemic.

“I saw a statistic recently that said that close to 70% of practices are actively recruiting for hygienists. And, and there's no doubt that hygiene departments are a significant driver. The ability of general practices to be successful.”
— Stan Kinder [05:20]

5. Qualities of Effective Healthcare Leaders (Next 2-3 Years)

[06:27] Stan believes leaders must learn to leverage technology, as the industry is just scratching the surface of what’s possible.
[06:35] There’s a pivot toward “dentist-friendly” business models, emphasizing respect and support for practitioners over pure financial playbooks.

“There sort of has been a generalized trend in the DSO industry to move towards more dentist friendly business models. And you know, I think that that's the right way to go because ultimately ... the individual dentists at the chair are the engine that drives the entire business.”
— Stan Kinder [06:36]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

“The DSO industry ... moved more towards operational performance and being able to drive same store growth and performance.”
— Stan Kinder [01:56]
“The exciting thing is ... artificial intelligence to bring efficiencies both of kind of the back office business side ... as well as even into the clinical area.”
— Stan Kinder [03:01]
“There’s been a little bit of a labor crisis ... I saw a statistic recently that said that close to 70% of practices are actively recruiting for hygienists.”
— Stan Kinder [05:20]
“There’s really almost unlimited opportunities to create improvement ... ultimately, you know, the individual dentists at the chair are the engine that drives the entire business.”
— Stan Kinder [06:36]

Important Timestamps for Segments

[00:20] — Stan’s background and journey in healthcare and DSOs
[01:15] — Overview of DSO growth, private equity, and recent industry shifts
[02:59] — Emerging technology and excitement for AI
[04:23] — Analysis of failed recapitalizations and broader economic anxieties
[05:10] — Dentistry labor crisis and recruitment difficulties
[06:27] — Advice for leaders: leverage tech, embrace dentist-friendly models

Summary

Stan Kinder provides an insider’s perspective on the DSO industry’s journey from rapid acquisition-fueled growth to a new focus on operational excellence and adaptability amid financial and labor headwinds. He underscores the transformative role of AI and technology while encouraging the industry to center models around supporting dentists. The episode offers actionable insights for dental executives and leaders, clarifying the industry’s most urgent challenges and opportunities in the next two to three years.

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Transcript15 lines

[00:00]
A
Hello, this is Ariana Portolatten with the Beckers Dental and DSO Review podcast. I'm thrilled to be joined today by Stan kinder, the president and founder at Everything dso. Stan, thank you so much for being here today.
[00:12]
B
Sure, thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
[00:15]
A
Yeah, definitely. To start us off, can you introduce yourself for our listeners and tell us a little bit about your background?
[00:20]
B
Yeah, sure, absolutely. I've been a healthcare guy my entire career. I started working with a dental professional as far back as the early 80s. I actually started a practice from scratch in partnership with a dentist. Had an indirect ownership interest in the practice through a small management company. We grew it to three practices and I went on from there to basically do management consulting, traditional brokerage, dentist to dentist transactions. And I spent about 15 years working for several different DSOs and senior executive roles doing M and A business development.
[01:09]
A
Great, thank you so much for that. First question here. What are some of the biggest issues that you're following in the dental industry right now?
[01:16]
B
Sure. Well, I think one of the big ones in the DSO space specifically has been initially, as the DSO phenomenon began to grow and expand fairly rapidly. The primary driver was the ability for the institutional investors to take advantage of the arbitrage. So essentially buy practices low, aggregate them under the umbrella of a DSO and then look to recapitalize either to a larger private equity fund or a strategic buyer. And that led to a tremendous amount of institutional investor interest and rapid growth of the DSO phenomenon. And then over the last couple of years, as the cost of capital increased with the rapid escalation in the interest rates, the DSO industry kind of began to change from focusing almost exclusively on the acquisition arbitrage side of the ledger and moved more towards operational performance and being able to drive same store growth and performance at the individual practice level.
[02:48]
A
Great. Yeah, super interesting thoughts that you shared there. Thank you so much for those. I'm also curious, what are you most excited about when it comes to dentistry right now? And is there anything that makes you nervous about dentistry?
[02:59]
B
I think the exciting thing is on the technology side, the ability of artificial intelligence to bring efficiencies both of kind of the back office business side of the practice, as well as in terms of how practices communicate and interact with patients, as well as even into the clinical area in terms of diagnostic capabilities. And I think we're only in the very early stages of that evolution. I also think there's. It's going to be interesting to see how the DSO market kind of evolves over, over time. One is everybody I think is anticipating the interest rates are going to come down and to see how that influences things. There have been a couple of failed recapitalization efforts from some fairly large size DSOs and it'll be interesting to see how that change is going forward.
[04:16]
A
Yeah, yeah, super interesting. Do you have any insights you could share as to what might have led to those failed efforts?
[04:23]
B
I think a couple of things. I think that they weren't performing as well on the operational side and so on delivering the kind of same store growth rates that they were interested in. Also the, the recapitalizations have slowed across private equity independent of industry. Sector private equity historically deleverages their equity investments with debt and obviously that's gotten a lot more expensive over the last couple of years and so that's sort of change their economic model. And I think there's also a little bit of anxiety around where the broader economy is going. You know, the uncertainty around tariffs, whether or not there is a pending recession and how that might affect the dental consumer. So there's a lot of things at play. Also, as I'm sure you're probably aware and most listeners would be, there's been a little bit of a labor crisis in the profession over the last really since the pandemic. I saw a statistic recently that said that close to 70% of practices are actively recruiting for hygienists. And, and there's no doubt that hygiene departments are a significant driver. The ability of general practices to be successful. Yeah, yeah.
[06:08]
A
All of those points make a lot of sense for what you were talking about. It'll be interesting to see how things continue to play out in the DSO field with the economy and the labor shortages and such. So yeah, we'll definitely be keeping an eye on that for sure. Last question here for you. What will the most effective healthcare leaders need to be successful in the next two to three years?
[06:28]
B
You know, I think one is how to integrate and leverage technology. Because I think, as I said, I think we're in the early stages of that and I think there's really almost unlimited opportunities to create improvement. The other thing is I think that there sort of has been a generalized trend in the DSO and industry to move towards more dentist friendly business models. And you know, I think that that's the right way to go because ultimately, you know, the individual dentists at the chair are the engine that drives the entire business and with our successful DSOs need to find a way to support and develop their provider.
[07:28]
A
Tabloid all right, that is all I have for you today. Stan, thank you so much for joining us today. Been a pleasure speaking with you, and I'm looking forward to connecting with you again in the future.
[07:38]
B
Sure. Thank you so much. I appreciate your having me.
[07:40]
A
Yeah. Enjoy the rest of your time. Bye. Bye.