For Patients
What do the ownership classifications mean?
Ownership classifications give context about how an office is structured. The same four categories and colors appear on the map, on profiles, and in the state pie charts:
- Independent: a single location, fully owned and controlled by the dentist(s) practicing there, with no DSO or external management affiliation.
- Group: two or more locations under common dentist ownership and control, with no external management affiliation. A back-office entity the same owner dentists control does not change that.
- Corporate: an external organization (a DSO, DPO, MSO, private equity group, or other outside management company) holds management or ownership of the practice, even when the office or brand describes itself as dentist-owned.
- Unverified: ownership information is pending review or could not be confirmed from available data.
How a classification is decided
Every classification is backed by a public source: a DSO’s own office directory, a state business registry, the federal NPI record’s organization name, or a submission from a verified owner that our team has reviewed. An office stays unverified until one of those sources confirms it. Nobody, including a verified owner, can change a classification directly; proposed changes go to review first.
Privately owned is not the same as independent
A group practice with several locations is still dentist-owned, which is why it has its own color. Corporate means an outside organization holds management or ownership of the practice, whatever the sign says. When the evidence is conflicting or insufficient, the office stays unverified.