Good morning. First Dyson launched their fancy new CameraJet (don’t call it a toothbrush!), and now usmile is releasing their own toothbrush stuffed with technology, including cameras and AI that it says will detect and flag problem areas.

At this rate, it won’t be long before you can use your toothbrush to order delivery and call an Uber too.

Inside this issue:

- Lawmakers eye ban on MSOs in medicine
- The trade-offs of offering cosmetic add-ons

⏰ Your reading time today: 6 minutes 39 seconds

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

MARKETS

📉 3D Systems ($DDD) – 3.52 | -0.060 (1.68%)
📉 Align Technology ($ALGN) – 145.00 | -7.50 (4.92%)
📉 Colgate-Palmolive ($CL) – 86.52 | -0.52 (0.60%)
📉 Dentsply Sirona ($XRAY) – 9.28 | -0.63 (6.31%)
📉 Envista Holdings ($NVST) – 23.73 | -0.39 (1.62%)
📉 Henry Schein ($HSIC) – 85.99 | -0.90 (1.04%)
📉 Park Dental Partners ($PARK) – 19.77 | -0.49 (2.42%)
📉 Straumann Holding ($STMN) – CHF 96.44 | -1.28 (1.31%)

Stock data reflects market close as of the last day of trading, showing changes over the past five trading days.

THE DRILL DOWN

📐 The FDA publishes new consumer guidance explicitly warning that it has not authorized direct-to-consumer clear aligners sold without a prescription, saying that unsupervised aligner use raises the risk of complications and that in-person exams and licensed oversight are required. Mail-order ortho takes another hit.

💸 A new Wisdom survey reveals dental practices are collecting an average of $30,000 less per practice than they believe they are, with 91% of practices showing at least one accounts receivable warning sign despite 43% of practices saying they were very confident they were collecting all receivables.

⚖️ The ADA throws its support behind the bipartisan DOC Access Act, a bill that would limit the ability of insurers to set fees for dental services they don’t cover, closing a loophole that has allowed self-funded plans to override state-level dental insurance protections.

🪖 A group of active-duty and veteran Army dental officers urges military leadership to elevate oral health as a combat readiness issue, warning that dental emergencies are pulling soldiers off the line. A toothache can be a tactical problem.

🧬 Emanate Biomedical earns FDA clearance for Perio PODS, a custom-fitted at-home wound dressing for patients recovering from scaling and root planing, with a U.S. launch planned for 2027.

🎖️ SMILE for Veterans Act introduced to expand dental coverage for veterans, proposing a VA pilot program to reimburse dental providers serving veterans in rural communities.

🏆 Three states successfully push back against new fees charged by Aetna, with the insurer notifying dental groups in Illinois, Oregon, and Florida that it would not move forward with charging an administrative fee for out-of-network dentists to get claim payments via paper checks.

🪪 A Florida dental practice says it’s the first to issue patients a portable, patient-owned digital dental record, which consolidates procedures, X-ray history, medications, insurance, and implant details into a shareable file patients can store in Apple Wallet.

REGULATION

Lawmakers eye ban on MSOs in medicine

The risk of Washington threatening the DSO business model appears to be growing.

What happened: Newly introduced legislation would effectively outlaw in medicine the arrangements undergirding the business model of DSOs. 

• The Stop Corporate Takeovers of Physicians Act, introduced by a group of Democratic lawmakers, including Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, bans private equity funds, insurers, and other for-profit companies from owning or controlling medical practices and imposes much tighter restrictions on management services organizations (MSOs).

What’s in the bill: While the bill doesn’t prohibit MSOs outright, it does significantly limit what they can do, and potentially renders their business model unworkable. 

• Ownership: Any company owning a medical practice would need licensed clinicians to hold a majority of its equity and board seats. Nonprofits and hospitals are exempt.

• Operational control: MSOs couldn’t have final say over operational decisions including hiring, schedules, staffing levels, revenue targets, coding, billing, pricing, or payer contracts.

• Practicing owners: Clinician owners would have to be licensed and present in the state and substantially engaged in patient care.

• Restricting contracts: The bill bars most non-competes, nondisclosure agreements, and non-disparagement agreements for covered clinicians.

• Enforcement: The Federal Trade Commission, state attorneys general, and injured private parties could all bring cases that result in significant damages or court-ordered divestment.

Yes, but: The bill does not directly target dentistry, and the core rules around ownership and MSOs apply to medical practices, covering physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners—not, by a strict reading of the text, dentists. 

• There is one gray area in the bill, which is that the ban on non-competes applies to any “health care provider,” and whether that would cover DSOs’ contracts with dentists and hygienists is unclear.

Why it matters: This proposal doesn’t target dentists, and given the makeup of and brief window remaining in the current Congress, is unlikely to pass anyway. The real risk for DSOs is what a second version of the legislation could look like after the midterms. A reintroduced bill written by the same group of Democratic legislators—now potentially with majorities in the House and Senate—could easily be tweaked to cover dentistry, which is exactly what some policy groups are now pushing for.

• The Alliance of Independent Dentists endorsed the bill, and its president, Dr. Jill Tanzi, said dentists and their patients "deserve these same protections."

• The American Economic Liberties Project, another endorser, released model state legislation last December that applies many of the same restrictions to DSOs.

Zoom out: With the primary for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination around the corner, would-be contenders will be looking for high-profile issues to generate attention for their candidacies. As that race heats up, proposals like this are likely to grow even more aggressive.

Bottom line: Expect this bill to come back after the midterms, possibly with a longer reach—and prepare yourself accordingly.

Share this article: https://www.themorninggrind.com/p/lawmakers-consider-major-corporate-medicine-crackdown

BUSINESS BITES

👔 Notable leadership changes: Dr. Jonathan Burke is the new director of the U.S. National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, Lightwave Dental names Dr. Clifton Cameron as its CEO, 42 North Dental appoints President David Fusco as CEO, Dr. Stefanie Russell is New Jersey’s new state dental director, Dental Care Alliance makes Doug Simpson its CFO, and The Aspen Group recruits two marketing leaders from Orangetheory Fitness to help lead its growth efforts.

📈 Deals and de novos: Premier Care Dental Management acquires Seven Pines Dental Group to add three locations in Virginia, Daia Orthodontics & TMJ Orthopedics expands to Canada by purchasing four practices in New Brunswick and PEI, Rock Dental Brands adds a practice in Tennessee, and Archway Dental Partners expands with a practice in Massachusetts. 

🏗️ PDS Health says it’s targeting 100+ new office openings in 2027, continuing its de novo growth strategy while expanding into an integrated healthcare model beyond dentistry.

BUSINESS

More dental practices can now offer cosmetic procedures—but should they?

A growing number of states are making it possible for dentists to offer a side of Botox with their patients’ regular cleaning—though whether DSOs should take up that opportunity is another question.

What’s happening: Beginning next week, Connecticut will be the latest state to allow trained dentists to perform certain cosmetic facial injections, including Botox and dermal fillers.

• Virginia finalized similar rules earlier this year around when dentists can administer Botox for cosmetic purposes and expanding the scope of cosmetic procedures that oral surgeons can perform.

What practices are doing: Dental practices offering Botox is nothing new, but a growing number are responding to more permissive state regulations to expand their cosmetic service offerings.

• Gentle Dental of New England, a 42 North Dental-supported group with more than 45 locations, markets Botox and dermal fillers as a formal service category spanning both therapeutic treatments for TMJ and bruxism and cash-pay cosmetic procedures, including wrinkle treatments, lip flips, and fillers.

• An integrated dental-medical practice owned by PDS Health in Nevada offers Botox and Juvederm among a much broader menu of dental and medical services.

• At some Colorado practices, Espire Dental offers therapeutic Botox for TMJ and muscle pain.

Why it matters: At first glance, the economics of offering med-spa-style procedures alongside dental services look attractive. For example, The American Society of Plastic Surgeons pegs the average cost of a Botox treatment at about $435—that’s cash payments from patients who often become repeat visitors with minimal upfront capital costs to the provider.

• Patients who already have a relationship with their dentist may trust them more to provide these services than a nurse at a cosmetics-focused med spa they’ve never interacted with before, making them a seemingly natural add-on with minimal customer acquisition cost for a practice.

• One Tennessee dentist reported monthly production rising from $90,000 to $125,000 after adding Botox, fillers, and pain treatments. Another says Botox alone now accounts for roughly 10% of practice production.

Yes, but: For large, multi-state DSOs, the regulatory map gets messy fast. Every state has different rules around scope, training, insurance requirements, and even how certain procedures are performed. 

• In California, dentists can only administer Botox and fillers for therapeutic purposes as part of a patient’s comprehensive dental treatment plan. New York has placed stand-alone facial recontouring outside dentists’ scope, but cosmetic procedures can be done within the parameters of a treatment plan. South Carolina’s Board of Dentistry limits Botox to the area around the mouth and only for a dental purpose. You get the picture: the rules vary widely.

Plus: Anecdotally, many dentists struggle to turn aesthetic procedures into a profitable line of business. Internet forums abound with dentists pointing out that the margins on cosmetic procedures are often thin and warning that, as one commenter put it, “it’s not an overnight easy paycheck.”

• There’s also the reality that dental practices dipping their toes into this space are competing against med spas, dermatologists, and nurse injectors whose entire customer experience revolves around cosmetic care. 

Bottom line: Cross-selling aesthetic procedures may sound like an easy way to grow production with existing patients, and there’s no doubt dentists are well-equipped to offer these services. But for DSOs operating at scale, it comes with real costs and trade-offs—in other words, getting into aesthetics is a strategic decision not to be undertaken lightly.

Share this article: https://www.themorninggrind.com/p/​​more-dental-practices-can-now-offer-cosmetic-procedures-but-should-they

CLINICAL NOTES

🧠 Poor periodontal health is linked to a higher risk of developing dementia, according to a decade-long observational study of older adults that found gum disease may be more than just a mouth problem. Floss now, think later.

🔬 People with both gum disease and type 2 diabetes show significantly reduced concentrations of chromium and magnesium in the bloodstream, according to a study that highlights a potential mineral deficiency connection between these two commonly co-occurring conditions.

🧬 A twin study suggests genetics may play a role in susceptibility to dental fluorosis in children, suggesting that genetics (and not just fluoride consumption) may influence whether children develop the condition.

BEYOND THE CUSP

• Researchers analyzing grooves in teeth say the indentations are evidence of the earliest case of habitual drug use: betel nuts.

• By studying the tooth enamel of T-Rex fossils, scientists found their body temperature ran close to our own.

• Six dental companies made TIME’s list of the world’s best healthtech businesses.

• Thinking of packing it in? Here are the 10 best islands to move to after retiring.

• The coolest neighborhoods in the world, according to TimeOut.