[daveguy]

My dentist was bought out by one of these operations a couple of years ago, and quit after a few months of observing their tactics. I never actually saw her when I went for two 6 months checkups. It was non-stop upsell on water piks, "preventative" procedures, cosmetics. So I switched back when I found out my original dentist had re-opened a private practice. Stay away from venture capital dentistry operations. Same with veterinary practices -- similar issue with venture capital takeover of our long term vet.

If the operation is owned/financed by venture capital, stay away. Their priority is obviously not health and wellbeing.

[racnid]

The option these days for Vets is sell to PE, shut down, or try to find a younger DVM who wants to take over the practice and work in for a couple of years. But the younger DVMs have debt to pay and need to take the PE job. There's little love for the PE route but it gives an exit to older vets I suppose. I doubt many like watching their life's work being hollowed out and worn as a skin suit.

[cftm]

And the money is actually from the Insurance industry, whose goal is to drive down utilization while driving up fee-for-service. This way, they make a little money on non-insured procedures but make a shit load of money by keeping more of the insurance premium. It's messed up... (I work in the dental industry, and see practices getting bought by DSO's, PEs and VCs only to go from $1M / chair / year to 50k / chair / year. all the time).

[dannyobrien]

wait, aren't venture capital and private equity different?

Why would a venture capitalist take over a dentistry or veterinary practice? (Unless it was a growth play, like One Medical)

[dehrmann]

VC is a type of PE that focuses on younger growth companies.