🦷 Search party

Google changes the dental marketing games, DSOs go back to school.

May 26, 2026

Good morning. Archaeologists in Siberia unearthed a nearly 60,000-year-old Neanderthal molar with a deep hole carved into it, evidence that its unfortunate former owner underwent an ancient version of a root canal, likely performed with a stone tool.

The procedure likely would have taken nearly an hour, scientists posited, and “would have been excruciating.” 

Something to think about next time the hygienist asks if you’re experiencing any discomfort during a cleaning.

Inside this issue:

- Google just changed your marketing game
- DSOs go back to school

⏰ Your reading time today: 6 minutes 36 seconds

🏆 Enjoy your coffee break with Word of Mouth, a dental-themed word game inspired by Wordle.

MARKETS

📈 3D Systems ($DDD) – 3.15 | +0.46 (17.10%)
📈 Align Technology ($ALGN) – 163.61 | +11.16 (7.32%)
📈 Colgate-Palmolive ($CL) – 90.61 | +0.70 (0.78%)
📈 Dentsply Sirona ($XRAY) – 10.21 | +0.45 (4.61%)
📈 Envista Holdings ($NVST) – 23.43 | +0.27 (1.17%)
📈 Henry Schein ($HSIC) – 74.21 | +1.29 (1.77%)
📈 Park Dental Partners ($PARK) – 18.58 | +0.02 (0.11%)
📈 Straumann Holding ($STMN) – CHF 89.90 | +3.76 (4.36%)
📉 Weave Communications ($WEAV) – 5.71 | -0.010 (0.17%)

Stock data reflects market close as of the last day of trading (U.S. markets were closed on May 25), showing changes over the past five trading days.

THE DRILL DOWN

📊 ICYMI: Planet DDS’s 2026 Dental Industry Outlook: Deep Dive report takes a closer look at what’s really driving performance across today’s dental organizations, analyzing data from more than 8,500 dental practices, 497 DSOs, and 2,500 Cloud 9 ortho practices to uncover the patterns shaping growth, efficiency, and financial outcomes across the industry.

🏦 U.S. Bank launches a startup loan product for first-time dental practice owners, expanding beyond acquisition financing to offer conventional lending to qualifying dental startups.

📈 Henry Schein One's 2026 Catalyst Index finds top-performing practices achieve 75% case acceptance, compared with the 45% industry average, signaling that clinical execution is a major growth engine right now.

🦷 Over 90% of U.S. adults say oral health is a key part of overall health, with Gen Z leading the charge at 94%, according to a new report, though rural adults still visit the dentist at far lower rates than their urban counterparts.

💰 Minnesota leads the nation in dental assistant pay, with an average annual salary of $64,740—it also ranks first after applying cost-of-living adjustments. Cold winters, warm paychecks.

📱 Illinois’ Senate passes a bill eliminating the in-person visit requirement for teledentistry, removing a barrier to virtual preventive care, triage, and follow-up services. The waiting room may be optional after all.

🗺️ Oklahoma becomes the 13th state to join the Dentist and Dental Hygienist Compact, expanding license portability for dental professionals across state lines.

🏙️ Scottsdale, Arizona, ranks as the best U.S. city for dentists, topping a Clarify Capital report that evaluated 98 metro areas on salary, employment, and projected job growth. Desert sun and filled chairs—what’s not to love?

⚖️ Dentists file class-action lawsuits against Delta Dental in four states, alleging the insurer suppressed reimbursement rates and fixed prices for dental services in California, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Massachusetts.

➡️ Clarification: In the last issue of The Morning Grind we mentioned Maine’s new law requiring state approval of private equity healthcare transactions. We did not note, however, that the legislation excludes organizations that provide only dental services. We regret the omission.

Enjoying this newsletter? Subscribe for free (zero spam, just sharp dental insights) at www.themorninggrind.com

MARKETING

Google just changed the dental marketing game

If you've spent the last decade building a dental marketing playbook around traditional Google search results, brace yourself for what may be some frustrating news. 

What happened: Google unveiled a sweeping reinvention of its search tool last week that will see the familiar list of blue links absorbed into an AI-powered conversational assistant designed to keep users inside Google's ecosystem rather than send them out to other websites. 

  • The new system will attempt to provide users with answers to their search queries through Google’s AI tools rather than sending them to relevant third-party websites and allow users to set up “information agents” to do more complex research for them. 

Why it matters: Google is trying to fundamentally change how people gather information online, which will radically reshape your patient acquisition funnel. 

  • Google’s existing AI Overviews feature is already tanking search traffic. When it appears at the top of search results, click-through to traditional listings drops by as much as 61%, according to one analysis of more than 25 million impressions.

Zoom out: Google isn't the only player offering AI tools that are redrawing the marketing map. Patients are now turning to chatbots to find healthcare providers as often as review sites or primary care physicians.

  • A survey by patient-experience vendor rater8 found that 31% of patients have used ChatGPT or similar AI tools, like Claude and Perplexity, to research providers, and 26% said AI directly influenced who they chose, roughly on par with primary care referrals (28%) and review sites (29%).

What it means for you: When your blog post on "are dental implants worth it?" can now be summarized in two AI-generated sentences, with no click to follow, you should expect search traffic to your website to dry up fast.

  • Commodity-level content (think a steady stream of blog posts that could easily be generated by AI) is no longer a useful way to get in front of patients. Reviews, testimonials, before-and-after galleries, and authentically original content with a unique perspective are all things Google says it now prioritizes.

What you can do: You don’t need to throw out your entire online marketing plan and start from scratch. Referral traffic to your website from the search engine results page may be down, but those patients who used to be Googling “dentists near me” still need to find a provider—it’s just how they get to you that is changing. Here are some steps you can take to maximize the likelihood they find you:

  • Audit your AI search visibility. Run high-value queries ("best implant dentist in [city]," "Invisalign cost [city]") through AI chatbots and Google’s AI mode. If competitors are showing up and your practices aren't, you have a measurable gap to close. You can use tools like Profound to automate this if you want to invest more.

  • Track the new channels. Add ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, and other AI chatbots as custom channel groupings in Google Analytics (or whatever analytics software you’re using) and start tracking traffic from these sources.

  • Have a healthy skepticism of AI-specific hacks. Google has explicitly said tactics like creating llms.txt files, “chunking” content for AI, and rewriting content for AI aren’t helpful in getting more visibility in AI answers. Some skepticism of “GEO” vendors' promises is warranted.

  • Double down on location-level fundamentals. Each office needs its own complete Google Business Profile, a unique location page, and a steady cadence of new reviews. High-quality images and procedure-specific testimonials are key. These are strong SEO signals that Google has said are still critical.

  • Prepare for an even shorter funnel. As Google and other AI systems move toward in-search reservations and payments, the click-to-website step may eventually fade for routine bookings. Keep tabs on this and prepare to adjust your tech stack to allow for this sort of in-chat booking when it rolls out.

Bottom line: Digital marketers have had a pretty clear idea about how to rank in Google results for a long time. As AI becomes the dominant way people get information on the internet, some of those tactics will continue to work and some new ones will be needed. The marketers who succeed will be those nimble enough to experiment and find out for themselves what a winning playbook in the AI search era looks like.

BUSINESS BITES

👔 Notable leadership changes: The Aspen Group appoints Rafeh Masood as chief commercial officer and Great Lakes Dental Technologies names David Josza as new president and CEO.

📈 Deals and de novos: Sage Dental opens a pediatric practice in Orlando and USOSM partners with Hudson Valley Oral Surgery in New York.

🚨 Blackstone and KKR to take over Affordable Care in major debt restructuring, with lenders set to exchange positions in the DSO's $1.4 billion credit structure, slashing its debt burden by roughly 70% and offering a new $75 million facility, with the deal expected to close by end of June. A big reset for a 425-practice network.

📈 Park Dental Partners posts Q1 2026 revenue of $62.7M, up 6.2% year-over-year, with same-practice revenue growth of 4.1% and more than 178,000 patient visits, though the company posted a net loss of $0.4 million compared to net income of $1.6 million in the prior-year period.

🤝 Smile Partners selects Planet DDS Denticon as its enterprise practice management platform, bringing the platform to its 120 locations across six states.

LAST ISSUE’S POLL RESULTS

INDUSTRY

DSOs are heading back to campus

The hygienist you’ll want to hire tomorrow may not have even graduated yet, so naturally now is the perfect time to start recruiting them. 

What’s happening: DSOs are responding to the hiring crunch in dentistry by investing directly in the schools producing tomorrow's clinical workforce, well before the competition can call them about an opening. 

  • The largest operators like Heartland and Aspen are in the mix, but smaller DSOs are also engaging with local dental schools, like Mortenson Dental Partners, which donated a Gemini EVO diode laser to the University of Louisville's dental hygiene program.

  • Peer-reviewed research supports the effectiveness of these partnerships. A paper published in the Journal of Dental Education found that by involving DSOs in its community-based clinical education program, UCLA’s School of Dentistry “strengthened its financial accountability while also delivering on the goal of enhancing dental education and improving access to care for vulnerable populations.”

Go deeper: These deals fall typically into three broad models, each with different capital commitments and payoff windows: 

  • Co-branded campuses. One example of this: Heartland Dental and Concorde Career Colleges’ Fort Myers campus. It was announced in 2024 with funding from Heartland to train up to 190 hygienists and assistants annually. Heartland has already hired 325 Concorde hygiene graduates.

  • Externship-to-hire programs at dental schools. Aspen Dental's Community Based Clinical Education program is an example of this model. It runs across five dental schools, including UCLA, Michigan, and Washington, with plans to add four more in 2025. More than 148 students have completed the program, and Aspen reports roughly 10% accept jobs.

  • Scholarships, equipment, and endowed schools. The Pacific Dental Services Foundation has awarded more than $2 million to more than 320 dental assistant students at over 120 schools since 2016. Heartland founder Rick Workman gave $32 million through his foundation to launch High Point University's Workman School of Dental Medicine, which opened its inaugural class in fall 2024 as North Carolina's only private dental school.

Why it matters: Recruitment needs to go beyond writing bigger signing bonuses, especially when all your competitors are doing the same thing. Funding the schools that produce future hygienists, assistants, and dentists creates a moat that compounds, with graduates training on your equipment, in your culture, and with your operators.

What you can do now: If you’re considering experimenting with academic partnerships, here are a few tips to keep in mind:

  • Start at the hygiene/assistant tier. The shortage is sharpest there and the ROI is fastest. A scholarship endowment or equipment donation at a local community college program could outperform the same dollar spent on broader recruiting.

  • Build a program with one regional dental school and measure results. Identify a faculty champion, set a hire-conversion benchmark, and budget for several years before reading results.

  • Look at newer dental schools first. Programs opened more recently tend to face more faculty shortages and have less institutional resistance to industry partnerships than legacy schools with deeper alumni networks.

Bottom line: If you want to give yourself a leg-up over other DSOs in the war for talent, helping train the talent in the first place is not a bad place to start.

🗳️ The Check-up:

⬆ VOTE: Have AI chatbots and tools become a significant patient acquisition channel for you?

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CLINICAL NOTES

🦷 Both one-piece and two-piece dental implant systems show high survival rates over 15 to 17 years, with a University of Zurich study of 95 implants finding reliable long-term outcomes for both systems, though one-piece implants were linked to more technical complications.

🪥 Powered toothbrushes with oscillating-rotating motion may reduce dentin hypersensitivity better than manual brushes in patients with gingival recession, according to a three-year study published in the Journal of Dentistry, though researchers say electric brushes shouldn't be recommended specifically for this purpose until more evidence confirms the benefit.

🚬 Secondhand smoke exposure from pregnancy through early childhood may raise a child's cavity risk before their first tooth even erupts, with a Stanford-led birth cohort study linking smoke exposure across gestational and early developmental periods to greater odds of early childhood caries. The damage starts before the first bite.

FUN AND GAMES

BEYOND THE CUSP