Aspen Dental Management, Inc. (ADMI) is an American dental support organization (DSO), a dental practice management corporation that provides business support and administrative services in the US. Its headquarters is in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

History

Aspen Dental Management, Inc. (ADMI) was founded in 1994 by Robert Fontana, who is chief executive. Fontana completed business school in 1991 and worked at Upstate Dental in Syracuse, New York. It was a founding member of the Association of Dental Support Organizations (ADSO). After predecessor company Upstate Dental merged with East Coast Dental in December 1997, the resulting firm was launched in 1994 as Aspen Dental Management, Inc. There were more than 50 Aspen Dental offices within five years of ADMI's establishment. By April 2007, there were 106 branded practices in

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

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Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

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, New York,

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Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, and

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. The company was initially headquartered in

Salina, New York Salina is a town in Onondaga County, New York, United States. The population was 33,710 at the 2010 census. The name of the town is derived from the Latin word for "salt". Salina is a northwestern suburb of the city of Syracuse. History The ...

but moved to a new headquarters near Syracuse in DeWitt in 2006. The new headquarters includes a training center to cater to Aspen Dental employees and other firms' training events. In 2010,

Leonard Green & Partners Leonard Green & Partners ("LGP") is an American private equity investment firm founded in 1989 and based in Los Angeles. The firm specializes in private equity investments. LGP has invested in over 95 companies since its inception, including Petc ...

purchased Aspen Dental from Ares Management for about $500 million. By August 2010, private equity firms were bidding on Aspen Dental and Kool Smiles, the two largest national chains of dental offices in the United States. Between October 2010 and July 2015, Aspen settled with state consumer protection authorities in Pennsylvania, New York and Massachusetts and agreed to pay reimbursements to former patients and financial contributions to consumer protection probes in those states without admitting fault or wrongdoing. In June 2012, a

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

series entitled ''Dollars and Dentists'' produced by

Frontline Front line refers to the forward-most forces on a battlefield. Front line, front lines or variants may also refer to: Books and publications * ''Front Lines'' (novel), young adult historical novel by American author Michael Grant * ''Frontlines ...

in partnership with the

Center for Public Integrity The Center for Public Integrity (CPI) is an American nonprofit investigative journalism organization whose stated mission is "to reveal abuses of power, corruption and dereliction of duty by powerful public and private institutions in order to ...

described Aspen Dental's business model as one which makes dental work immediately accessible to low-income patients by providing interest-free credit. The investigation revealed patients were overcharged or given unnecessary treatments. In 2015 the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York dismissed a class-action lawsuit accused the company of illegally owning dental practices and deceiving patients. The lawsuit accused Aspen of violating of laws in 22 states which allow only dentists to own a dental practice. In 2015, as Moody's was placing Aspen's ratings under review, an affiliate of private equity firm

American Securities American Securities LLC (originally named American Securities Capital Partners (ASCP)), is an American private equity firm based in New York with an office in Shanghai that invests in market-leading North American companies with annual revenues ge ...

, led the

recapitalization Recapitalization is a type of corporate reorganization involving substantial change in a company's capital structure. Recapitalization may be motivated by a number of reasons. Usually, the large part of equity is replaced with debt or vice versa. ...

of Aspen Dental Management Inc. in partnership with Ares Management, Leonard Green & Partners and the existing management team. In December 2020, lawsuits were filed against Aspen for negligence after an employee allegedly hid cameras in the office washroom at a practice in Illinois. In June of 2021, Aspen Dental hired Dr. Jahnavi Rao DDS MS(ortho), a well known orthodontist who had recently completed the sale of her dental practices to another DSO group to help spearhead the introduction of the motto clear aligners to all the Aspen Dental locations throughout the country. Dr. Rao joins Aspen Dental as their Vice President of Orthodontics overseeing the management, marketing, and clinical oversight of the motto clear aligners to all of the Aspen Dental treating locations.

Client-base

Aspen's services are aimed at individuals who do not have an established dental routine or regular dental provider. In 2012, Fontana described a typical Aspen Dental patient as middle-aged and possibly struggling to afford their day-to-day expenses, or someone who sees dental work as "discretionary" and therefore may have an emergency dental issue arise. According to Fontana, Aspen's locations and marketing are aimed at providing services to those individuals. Aspen Dental, Natick MA

References

External links

Aspen Dental website
{{Leonard Green Dental companies of the United States Health care companies established in 1998 Companies based in Onondaga County, New York 1998 establishments in New York (state) DeWitt, New York 2010 mergers and acquisitions Health care companies based in New York (state)

History

Client-base

See also

References

External links