If you have been paying attention to the dental industry over the past year or two, you have probably noticed that artificial intelligence keeps coming up, at conferences, in trade publications, in conversations with reps and colleagues. Most of that coverage falls into one of two camps: breathless enthusiasm about what AI will eventually do, or dismissiveness from doctors who do not want to change how they have been practicing for years. This cuts through both and give you a clear, honest picture of where AI actually stands in dentistry today, what the most sophisticated buyers in the market are already doing with it, and what it means for the long-term value of your practice.

AI in Dentistry Is Not a Future Trend. It Is Already Here.

One of the most common misconceptions we encounter is the idea that AI in dentistry is still years away from mattering when, in reality, AI has been utilized in practices for years. 

Companies like Overjet and Pearl have been operating in dental imaging for years, using computer vision to flag caries, bone loss, and other pathologies with accuracy rates that rival, and in some cases exceed, human detection. Align Technology runs one of the largest 3D printing operations in the world, and the facility where they manufacture aligners, roughly four football fields in size, operates with a staff of six people. The overwhelming majority of production is automated. These are not pilot programs or case studies. They are core operational infrastructure for some of the most successful organizations in dentistry, and they have been for some time.

What has shifted in the past two years goes beyond adoption speed. New categories of AI tools have emerged entirely, and large language models have made patient communication and administrative automation significantly more capable at the practice level. This is a meaningfully different landscape than it was even 24 months ago.

What DSOs Are Actually Deploying

DSOs are actively piloting, iterating, and in many cases fully deploying technology across their portfolios. The categories where we are seeing the most meaningful investments are: 

Diagnosis and case conversion. Tools like Overjet, Pearl, and Denti.AI give clinicians, particularly younger associates, a reliable second opinion on radiographic findings. Pearl’s Second Opinion platform is FDA-cleared and independently validated to detect dental disease with over 94% accuracy. Beyond the clinical benefit, these platforms give DSO leadership visibility into which providers are diagnosing consistently and which are not, so they function as an operational oversight tool as much as a clinical one.

Phone and front desk automation. There is no longer a reason for a practice to miss a call. Platforms like VoiceStack and similar AI-powered communication tools handle inbound calls, answer patient questions, and keep scheduling running through lunch, after hours, and on weekends. For DSOs, this also creates a real opportunity to reduce front desk headcount or redeploy staff toward higher-value work.

Revenue cycle management and eligibility verification. According to a 2026 RCM Trends report from Zentist, 71% of dental practices identify real-time insurance verification as their top daily operational burden, and 58% have already adopted or are actively planning to adopt AI and automation tools this year. The labor savings in this category are among the most immediate. Platforms like Newton and Stratus are reducing the manual load on billing teams and improving collection consistency.

Dormant and unaccepted treatment reactivation. There is significant revenue sitting untouched in most practice management systems, in the form of diagnosed but unaccepted treatment. AI-driven outreach tools can identify those patients and proactively re-engage them without requiring a dedicated staff member to run the process.

Data standardization. As DSOs scale, operational visibility across locations becomes a real challenge. Platforms that normalize data across multiple practice management systems, pulling everything into a single dashboard, give operators and eventual buyers a cleaner, more compelling picture of the business. OS Dental has been specifically noted in this space by multiple DSO operators.

The Efficiency Gap Is the Valuation Gap

Here is where this becomes directly relevant to the value of your dental practice.

If AI allows DSOs to build new practices from scratch with significantly less staff, lower integration risk, and faster ramp-up time, the logic for acquiring an existing practice starts to shift. The practices that already look and operate the way DSOs do will still command premium EBITDA multiples. The practices that require a buyer to invest heavily in modernization will see that cost reflected in the offer.

Every year the efficiency gap between DSO-operated locations and private practices widens, the more likely that gap is to be priced into a transaction. If a buyer looks at your practice and sees two years of change management, technology investment, and staff retraining, that is going to land at a discount.

The flip side is equally true. AI is not only a cost-reduction story. For early adopters, it is a margin expansion story. If administrative labor decreases by 25 to 35% through thoughtful technology implementation, the EBITDA impact is material, and every dollar of EBITDA improvement is worth a multiple of that at the closing table.

How to Approach This as a Practice Owner

We are not suggesting every dentist needs to become a technology expert. What we are saying is that the decisions you make in the next 12 to 24 months about technology will matter when you eventually sell, regardless of when that is.

A few principles that come up consistently in conversations with the most successful practice owners and DSO operators.

Assess before you invest. Understand where your inefficiencies actually are. An RCM problem requires a different solution than a front desk problem, which requires a different solution than a case acceptance problem. The right technology depends on the right diagnosis.

Pilot before you commit. There is no shortage of vendors in this space, and quality varies significantly. Require a proof of concept. Ask for real ROI data. Do not sign a long-term agreement based on a demo.

Find an internal champion. The practice owner does not need to be the implementer. Find someone on your team who is curious about this space, give them the time and resources to explore it, and make them accountable for adoption.

Build a platform, not a patchwork. The most successful technology stacks are ones where tools communicate with each other. Siloed solutions that do not integrate with your practice management system tend to create more work, not less. Look for technology that fits into a broader ecosystem.

Know Where You Stand

Most practice owners we talk to are somewhere between “not ready yet” and “ready in 12 to 24 months.” If that is you, the conversation worth having now is not whether to sell, but what your practice is worth today and what levers actually move that number. 

TUSK Practice Sales offers a complimentary TUSKVal analysis for practice owners who want an honest picture of where their business stands and what the path forward looks like, with no obligation.

To schedule a conversation with our team, reach out at [email protected] or visit www.TuskPracticeSales.com.

Ryan Mingus – Managing Director & Partner

Ryan has 12+ years of sales and leadership experience in the dental and healthcare industry, most recently as Business Development Director for Strategy and Optimization at Align Technology, Inc. Mr. Mingus earned his BA in Economics and Business from the Virginia Military Institute and his MBA from the University of San Diego. He also held the rank of Captain in the U.S. Army National Guard.

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