Integrating technology and AI in the right ways, building around people and continuing to focus on relationships are among the keys to success for dental practices and dental service organizations in the next year.
There are endless questions facing dental leaders and decisions they must make, but the emergence of AI and new technologies are chief among the leadership conversations.
The 24 leaders featured in this article are speaking at Becker’s 2026 Fall Future of Dentistry Roundtable, set for Sept. 14-15 at the Hilton Chicago.
If you work at a DSO or dental practice and would like to be considered as a speaker, please contact Scott King at sking@beckershealthcare.com.
Editor’s note: Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: What is the one decision dental leaders need to get right in the next year?
Hamza Asumah, MD. Director, Operations of Juniper Services (Sparks, Nev.): The one decision dental leaders cannot afford to get wrong in the next year is whether to treat workforce development as an HR function or as a core operational strategy. We are in a structural staffing crisis — not a cycle. The ADA’s own data confirm that only 60% of dentists report adequate hygiene staffing, with 91% of those actively recruiting rating it as very or extremely challenging — and this has persisted unchanged for three years despite record enrollment in dental hygiene programs. That tells us the pipeline is not the answer. The answer is retention architecture: structured career ladders that give clinical and administrative team members a visible future inside your organization, not just a paycheck. I’ve seen firsthand that the practices with the lowest turnover are not always the ones paying the most — they’re the ones where people can see where they’re going. The leaders who build that infrastructure now will not only protect their margins; they’ll build something that becomes a genuine competitive moat as the talent market continues to tighten.
Murat Ayik, DDS. Partner, Specialty1 Partners (Houston): The biggest decision dental leaders need to get right over the next year is making sure growth never comes at the expense of relationships. New technology, AI and operational tools can help us work smarter, but they can’t replace the trust we build with patients, referral partners and our teams. At the end of the day, dentistry is still a relationship business.
Debra Bafia. Office Manager at Ethos Dental Group (Munster, Ind.): As dental professionals, we have a responsibility to our patients and our team to keep data private. We fall under the same HIPAA guidelines as a patient’s primary care physician, but many offices do not have the budget that large healthcare facilities do. Training on how to protect our offices from the recent wave of ransomware, phishing, malware and data breaches can be a costly expense to many practices, but it’s vital we provide this training to protect patients and ourselves. I think in the next year, we may see more stories of offices who fall prey to these criminals and more patient information breached. The dental community needs to be aware of the dangers lurking around the dark web and be proactive in preventing their office from becoming the next news story.
Sibera Brannon, DDS. Dentist and Owner of Affordable Dentures and Implants (Sun City, Ariz.): The most important decision dental leaders need to get right in the next year is whether they will continue building organizations around production or begin building them around people.
Dentistry is facing no shortage of challenges — staffing shortages, workforce transitions, reimbursement pressures, consolidation and rapidly advancing technology. Yet the defining issue is not operational; it is human. Our ability to attract, develop and retain exceptional clinicians and team members will determine the future of our profession.
The organizations that thrive will be those that invest in mentorship, leadership development, culture and meaningful career pathways with the same commitment they bring to growth and financial performance. Technology can improve efficiency, and strategy can drive growth, but neither can replace engaged people who feel valued, supported and connected to a larger purpose. The future of dentistry will be determined less by the technology we adopt and more by the people we develop.
Jaime Burks. Senior Director of Integrations of Providence Dental Partners (Atlanta): If I had to identify one decision dental leaders need to get right in the next year, it would be choosing to make culture and patient experience their primary competitive advantage.
Technology, AI and operational efficiency will continue to transform dentistry, but those tools alone will not drive sustainable growth. Every practice can adopt new technology. What remains difficult to replicate is a strong culture that attracts and retains exceptional team members and a patient experience that builds trust, loyalty and advocacy. Today’s dental leaders are navigating staffing challenges, rising patient expectations, and increasing competition. In that environment, success will depend less on having the latest technology and more on creating an organization where people, both patients and team members, want to stay.
Culture is no longer a soft leadership topic. It is a business strategy. Engaged teams deliver better care, create stronger patient relationships and drive stronger organizational performance. At the same time, patients increasingly evaluate their dental experience through the lens of convenience, communication, transparency and trust. Clinical excellence remains essential, but it is often the experience surrounding that care that determines whether patients return and refer others. After all, patients have no idea how great your dentistry is, they only remember how you made them feel during their visits to your practice.
The practices and organizations that will thrive over the next decade will be those that use technology to enhance human connection rather than replace it. Leaders who invest intentionally in culture and patient experience today will be better positioned to attract talent, strengthen patient loyalty and create long term growth in an increasingly competitive market.
Aditya Desai, DDS. Chief Clinical Officer of Familia Dental (Clovis, N.M.): The most important decision dental leaders must get right in the next year is aligning care delivery with evolving patient needs. As the insurance landscape, particularly Medicaid, continues to shift, organizations must proactively adapt to ensure both access and sustainability. At the same time, patient expectations are rising, with a clear demand for high-quality, efficient and minimally painful experiences. Meeting these expectations will require a combination of flexible financing, optimized scheduling and adoption of advanced technologies, including AI-driven tools. Leaders who successfully integrate these elements while staying ahead of technological change will be best positioned to deliver strong clinical and operational outcomes.
Joseph Feldsien. Senior Vice President, Integrated Care of PDS Health (Henderson, Nev.): The clear answer to this question is how will AI be used in your DSO? The areas of impact are endless but must be determined carefully. Some will be early adopters and make big mistakes. Others will wait and not benefit from the clear and obvious benefits. Getting this question right will determine the trajectory of every DSO.
Richard Hall. Chairman of the Board of US Oral Surgery Management (Irving, Texas): Dental leaders are facing transformational change within the industry. It is incredibly important that DSO teams execute on the value proposition to drive growth and financial improvement at the practices they support. The value creation playbook has shifted and leaders need to ensure that they have the right focus and resources to move the needle positively.
Sherry Hassler. COO and EOS Integrator of Today’s Dental Nebraska (Omaha): The one decision dental leaders need to get right in the next year is where they will leverage AI participation in their practices. AI is here to stay and practice owners will need to decide where they draw the line in the sand. Savvy team members who understand the benefits and freedoms that AI will provide them will seek out career opportunities at practices where AI is considered an investment rather than a replacement. Teams who cling to a scarcity mindset around AI may underutilize AI benefits and remain tied to tasks that keep them from being able to form deeper personal relationships that our patients truly value.
Haim Haviv. CEO of Hudson Dental (New York City): The most important decision dental leaders need to get right over the next year is whether their infrastructure can support their ambition. Most dental groups have opportunities to grow. The bigger challenge is scaling while maintaining culture, clinical consistency and a great patient experience. The organizations that invest in leadership, systems and team development today will be best positioned to capitalize on future growth opportunities.
Johnny Joseph, DMD. Founder and CEO of Pediatric Dentistry Asleep Group (Pittsburgh): The most important decision dental leaders need to get right in the next year is whether they will continue to build systems around practice convenience or patient access. Across the country, too many children and patients with special healthcare needs still face significant barriers to receiving timely care. Leaders who invest in efficient delivery models, strong referral relationships and innovative approaches to expand access will be best positioned to improve outcomes and meet growing needs. The future of dentistry belongs to organizations that prioritize high-quality care by actively reducing the obstacles that prevent patients from receiving it.
Geith Kallas, DDS. Dentist and CEO of Smile Makers Dental Center (Tyson’s Corner, Va.): I believe the single most critical decision dental leaders need to get right in the next year is strategically investing in both advanced technology and staff development to simultaneously enhance patient care and operational efficiency. Rather than treating technology and team growth as separate initiatives, future-ready organizations must integrate them to build a resilient foundation. To achieve sustainable long-term growth, leaders should focus on four key areas:
Clinical calibration over volume: Growth and monthly production goals must be driven by comprehensive treatment planning and thorough data collection, rather than simply trying to increase raw patient volume.
Strategic positioning for M&A: Organizations need to remain highly liquid and operationally organized to immediately capitalize on acquisitions, partnerships or expansion opportunities the moment interest rates drop.
Multispecialty integration: Unifying comprehensive, multi-specialty care under a single brand maximizes patient convenience and optimizes ecosystem revenue.
Organic brand equity: Building a highly recognizable, trusted brand is essential to consistently attract new patients organically and naturally increase case acceptance rates.
Focusing heavily on these pillars over the next twelve months will separate the market leaders from the rest of the field.
Maria Kunstadter, DDS. Co-Founder and CEO of The TeleDentists (Overland Park, Kan.): How will you connect to your patients? AI does not replace face-to-face connections, but that can be done virtually. Reach out beyond the chair to existing patients and new patients with virtual visits. Offer new ways to provide convenient care.
Rose Lamothe. COO of Rivertown Dental (La Crosse, Wis.): The decision that will define dental leaders this year is whether they treat operational data as a steering wheel for better patient care, not just a rearview mirror for last month’s production. Too many organizations are still reviewing the damage after it’s done, when real-time visibility could have kept them anchored to why they got into dentistry in the first place. It is easy to optimize a schedule for efficiency and lose sight of the patient sitting in the chair. The DSOs that thrive will be the ones who prove growth and genuine patient care were never actually in competition, because the data, when used well, protects both.
Ian Miller. Strategic Growth Consultant of Cal Dental USA (Los Angeles): The biggest decision dental leaders need to make in the next year is whether they’re investing in technology, investing in people who know what to do with it or both.
I’ve seen practices spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on software, dashboards, AI tools, consultants, training programs and atmospheric water generators — only to ignore every red flag those systems identified. That’s like buying a Ferrari and using it to store boxes in the garage.
AI will absolutely change dentistry. But the organizations that win won’t be the ones with the most technology. They’ll be the ones with leaders who can use the technology to separate signals from noise, make decisions quickly and get their teams to execute. The most expensive thing in dentistry isn’t bad technology. It’s good technology that nobody understands or acts on.
Abhi Nyatee. CFO of Rock Dental Brands (Little Rock, Ark.): The one decision dental leaders need to get right in the next year is whether they will treat AI as an efficiency tool or as a growth strategy. Most organizations are focused on automating administrative tasks and reducing costs, but the greater opportunity is using AI to expand patient access, improve treatment acceptance, optimize capacity and create a more personalized patient experience. The organizations that win will be the ones that embed AI into their operating model, not as a standalone technology initiative, but as a catalyst for revenue growth, clinical excellence and scalable transformation.
In healthcare, growth comes from serving more patients better. AI has the potential to help dental organizations do exactly that, but only if leaders are willing to rethink workflows, decision-making and how technology augments their teams.
Mike Panahi, DMD, Chief Operating Officer, Haworth Capital Dental Partners (Ridgewood, N.J.): The one decision dental leaders need to get right over the next year is fully integrating technology into the fabric of their organizations not as a collection of tools, but as a unified operating system for clinical care, patient engagement and revenue cycle management.
For years, dentistry has adopted technology in silos. Practices implemented practice management software, imaging systems, patient communication tools and billing platforms, yet many still rely on manual workflows, disconnected data and labor-intensive administrative processes. The next generation of successful dental organizations will be those that integrate artificial intelligence, automation and analytics across the entire patient journey.
AI is already transforming areas such as patient scheduling, treatment acceptance, benefits verification, claims processing and collections. At the same time, revenue cycle management is becoming increasingly complex as practices face staffing shortages, reimbursement pressures and rising administrative costs. Organizations that leverage technology to automate repetitive tasks and provide actionable insights will improve operational efficiency, enhance the patient experience and allow clinical teams to focus on delivering care rather than managing paperwork.
The future of dentistry will not be defined by who has the most locations, but by who can most effectively combine people, processes and technology. Dental leaders who embrace AI-enabled workflows and integrated revenue cycle strategies today will be best positioned to drive growth, improve profitability and deliver a higher standard of patient care tomorrow.
Francesca Pregano. COO of Smile Makers Dental Center (Tyson’s Corner, Va.): One of the biggest things dentists need to get right in the next year is recognizing that long term growth comes from strong systems, not from relying on a few exceptional individuals.
I have had the opportunity to work with many talented doctors, managers and team members who have driven great results. Those individuals are invaluable. However, when a practice depends too heavily on a handful of top performers for revenue, patient satisfaction or day to day operations, growth can become difficult to sustain.
The same is true when it comes to provider capacity. Many practices operate successfully with an owner doctor and one associate, but over time that model can limit growth. As patient demand increases, it becomes harder to expand access, maintain consistency and continue growing without additional provider support.
The practices best positioned for the future are those that invest in systems, develop leaders within their teams and create the capacity needed to support growth. Strong systems help create a consistent patient experience, provide clarity for team members and allow doctors to focus on what they do best.
In my experience, growth becomes much more predictable when success is built into the organization rather than resting on the shoulders of a few individuals. That is what creates a practice that can continue to thrive for years to come.
Mike Rice. CEO of Phase 1 Equity (Chicago): The one decision for a growth company is adding the right practices to the portfolio. With that said, the value proposition is a two-way street, and it is important to get it right for both parties. There are a lot of choices for doctors looking to join a DSO and it is imperative for them to align with the right partner from a philosophical, cultural and economic perspective.
Robert Rubino. CEO of Qualitas Dental Partners (Sharon, Mass.): The one decision to get right in the next year are the build vs buy decisions. Will the patient base you intend to treat be better served by building de novo practices employed by energetic providers and modernized equipment, or purchasing an existing practice which may have declining trends and obsolescence issues. Deciding a course of action will require consideration for both the patient experience and the long term benefits of either investment.
Vilas Sastry, DMD. CEO of Teledentistry.com (Las Vegas): The one decision dental leaders must get right in the next year is completely abandoning the ‘add-on’ mindset for digital tools and fully committing to a hybrid care model.
For the past few years, much of the industry has treated digital engagements as a backup plan — a way to handle after-hours emergencies or simple triage. But in 2026, the margin of error for practice efficiency has vanished. Between skyrocketing overhead, tightening insurance reimbursements and chronic clinical staffing shortages, the traditional model of requiring a physical chair for every single patient interaction is no longer mathematically viable.
Dental leaders must protect high-value chair time while simultaneously breaking the staffing bottleneck. The modern healthcare consumer is even more used to quicker experiences from a digital first perspective and expects their care to come from a convenient source.
Ultimately, the leaders who will dominate the next decade are the ones who decide today to weave physical and virtual care into one continuous patient journey. Those who keep treating them as separate silos will simply run out of capacity.
Rick Shaff. CEO of Juniper Services (Sparks, Nev.): From the perspective of smaller sized DSOs, there is a lot for leaders to get correct. It is hard to say what decision is most important, but for us I feel it is where we place our focus. The top two are continued effort strengthening the alignment with our partner doctors and cost containment and reduction. Our partner doctors are our most important asset. It is imperative that, as leaders, we invest time in strengthening our alignment with them in both clinical and non-clinical operations. To our patients, they are the practice and must have confidence in us to support them as they need and know that we have confidence in them as they manage the day-to-day operations of their practices. The industry continues to feel squeezed by higher costs and reimbursement rates that lag years behind any reasonable expectations. We have taken this opportunity to apply serious focus, at both our practices and corporate operations, on cost containment and reduction. While we have always been focused on same store growth, we simply have to combat the lack of movement in reimbursement rates and maintain our margins.
Khuzaan Screwvalla. Vice President of IT of Great Lakes Dental Partners (Chicago): It sounds cliché, but it’s AI — and more precisely, the decision isn’t whether you adopt it, it’s how well. A year from now there will be two camps: practices that use AI and practices that don’t. And inside that first camp, a second divide — those who use it, and those who use it well. The “use it well” group won’t treat AI as a chatbot bolted on the side. They’ll wire it into their data: MCP-style access to the EMR alongside external sources like staffing and temp agencies, so the system can actually reason over what’s happening in the practice and recommend action — and then build agentic workflows on top of that.
And the point isn’t cutting headcount. It’s putting AI where humans were never going to scale anyway: voice answering for overflow and after-hours, outbound calls to fill empty operatories, and automating the monotonous work — claims submission, insurance verification and the like. It’s also meeting patients where they are — letting them schedule by phone or web, and giving them real access to their own care: the clinical AI layer over their radiographs via a QR/barcode, their perio exam read back through Voice Perio, perio findings rendered by clinical AI.
So the decision isn’t “do we do AI.” It’s: do we adopt it well, across both the operational and the clinical side — because the practices that nail only one half will lose to the ones that nail both.
Richard Sullivan IV, DDS. Partner of Sullivan Dental Partners (Brentwood, Tenn.): The biggest decision dental leaders need to get right in the next year is whether they are going to intentionally build their practice or simply react to whatever comes their way. Dentistry is changing rapidly with AI, digital workflows and rising patient expectations, and standing still is no longer a safe strategy. The practices that will thrive won’t necessarily have the best clinicians, but the leaders who are willing to invest in systems, technology and people while creating clarity for their teams. In my experience, the greatest threat to long-term success isn’t disruption — it’s drift. Leaders who are intentional about what they’re building will create organizations that are more profitable, scalable and ultimately more fulfilling to lead.
Geoff Wayne, Chief Executive Officer, Jefferson Dental & Orthodontics (Dallas): The next year will separate operators from observers. DSOs must balance innovation with discipline — embracing AI and new technologies while remaining laser-focused on patient retention, provider engagement and cost management. Technology alone won’t create value; execution will. I firmly believe that relentless focus on the details of operations is critical to success given the state of the industry today.
At the Becker's 5th Annual Future of Dentistry Roundtable, taking place September 14-15 in Chicago, dental leaders and executives will gain insights into emerging technologies, practice growth strategies and the evolving landscape of dental care delivery, with a focus on innovation, patient experience and operational excellence. Apply for complimentary registration now.
