Dentists: What's in store for 2026

What do thought leaders in the dental space expect for the new year? We talked to four dentists and a health care leader with an investment bank about the trends that shaped 2025, what they hope to see change and what could shape dentistry in 2026. 

See their thoughts on patient finances, deal flow, social media trends, technology and more.

— Interviews by Carrie Pallardy, edited by Bianca Prieto

The conversations below have been edited for brevity and clarity.

What was a big trend that stood out for you in 2025?

Austin: I do a lot of veneers. I'm a cosmetic dentist. I saw less people being able to afford traditional veneers. I saw more requests for no-prep veneers, minimal or no-shave. They all want to get the results without shaving their teeth and at the least cost possible. 

I think it's going to continue to be a trend from traditional veneers to no-prep, minimum-prep veneers because the economy doesn't appear to be getting better.

Garg: If I were to think about 2025 as a whole, it was more of a reset or a rationalization year for most folks. Patient volume was muted, or I would say flat, relative to what we saw in 2024. We're seeing growth more on the specialty dentistry side, which is oral surgery and endodontics. 

There have been some deals that have happened in the space. We were working on a few of them as well. 2026 [has] a cautiously optimistic view of how we think about the space.

Horwitz: In 2025, I think the biggest thing was 3D printing: bite guards, printing aligners for ortho, printing surgical guides, printing all types of different guides for different procedures. They're actually printing onlays and crowns, full dental crowns now. Although I feel like we're not quite there yet because the printing is still printing resin, which is a dense plastic material. I think on the horizon, they're figuring out a way to print ceramics in the office. 

In the next few years, I think they're going to figure out a way to do that so that things are going to be moving from all lab-based to chairside-based and same-day dentistry. It seems like in 2025, almost everybody has some type of scanner. 

Nejat: So, 2025 is the year of AI. It's already been introduced in dentistry, but it's going to be adopted more as the systems have gotten better. And dental practices are embracing it more. It's just that the integration is not so simple. It makes it a little bit more difficult to integrate into the systems we have right now. But I think now that we've got a taste of it, the workflow will be better.

Postol: I would probably say the biggest trend I am seeing is that more and more patients are becoming more aware of their sleep because of all the wearables and the apps on phones. We're starting to see patients coming in here all the time with these wearables.

What was one trend in dentistry you wish would not continue in 2026?

Austin: Sticking to cosmetic dentistry, I don't want to see any more snap-on smiles. Anything that doesn't look as natural as it could, even though it's more affordable. 

On TikTok, I want to see less dancing and more education. I think this is a time when we really have a lot of patients who are not trusting the dentist. I think that we just need to do more educational videos and just get back to the basics, particularly with a lot of people not being able to afford the premiums. We need to get the information out that's going to help our patients survive and thrive during this downturned economy.

Garg: A lot of my business is driven by private equity. There are hundreds of private equity-backed dental businesses. I think the problem is that a lot of them grow through M&A, which is adding offices through acquisitions. For the smaller guys who are trying to become part of a consolidation or consolidator, they've got a lot of options. I think there needs to be some rationalization around valuations for those folks because there's still a lot of competition. 

I don't think we need 150 private equity-backed platforms in the sector. I think we need less of those. I think we need more consolidation, so there's less competition. And I think we need more discipline around what people are buying and how to buy it.

Horwitz: The glaring example of that is direct-to-consumer; SmileDirect is the most obvious one. There are a couple of different companies, but that was the big one that everybody knew about. They [patients] were trying to get their teeth straightened and orthodontics done for a third of the cost that they would probably pay in the dental office. It just created way more problems than what they had to start with.
The fact that it's moving back into being doctor-driven is very promising. I think we've seen the end of direct-to-consumer in that sense. It really comes down to that doctor-driven is best.

Nejat: I think it's financing. We want the people to feel more financially secure, and we want inflation to end and our costs go down. I think that's where I think our biggest issues are. Not everyone feels financially secure. [I’d like] to see that turn to where people are feeling more confident about cash flow, having everyone working and able to afford the cost of living and food. 

Postol: Inspire is the answer over oral appliances for a lot of these patients. It used to be CPAP and then oral appliances. Now, it's become CPAP and Inspire. It's because of all the money Inspire puts into its ads. A lot of times, these patients aren't aware that it's a surgical procedure to have done and that there are alternatives. 

What are some of the biggest trends you expect to see in dentistry in the New Year?

Austin: The biggest trend that I've seen, particularly in the New York area, is the rise of hygiene-only practices. If you don't need cavities filled and you just want your teeth cleaned and whitened, I've seen it pop up in New York City. These are subscription-based hygiene-only practices that cost anywhere between $100 to $200 per year. They actually advertise unlimited cleanings. 

I walked into one of these places because I was super curious. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of care. They really did a complete diagnosis, and I got a thorough checkup and cleaning. I would recommend this style of treatment for anybody who just needs basic hygiene and checkups. I've seen it pop up in Texas, and I've seen them pop up in Pennsylvania as well. 

Also, discount dental plans. One is called Careington 500. This is also a subscription for consumers. Dentists can sign up across the United States and patients and their families, up to four people, can go in and get their dental services at up to 60% off the normal fee. Once they are signed up on the plan, they can see dentists in any state, any city. So, it gives them the flexibility, particularly if they travel or they have a large family. It is very, very affordable. With people being unable to afford dentistry and health care premiums, I think that's going to be a financial trend. 

Garg: I think you've got some really large players in this space. They've been owned by private equity funds for a long time. I think they're going to look for some exit options or some liquidity options. Those will be groundbreaking for the sector in terms of new people coming into the space from an investment perspective. 

I also think there will be some folks who are thinking about public market access. And it has to be structured the right way. At the end of the day, it's a human capital business. You're backing doctors and you're backing dentists and you're backing clinicians to perform certain services for patients. And that's how the revenue comes in.

There was a recent transaction that happened. Dentalcorp of Canada, which is a publicly traded company based out of Toronto, got taken private by a large private equity fund here in Chicago, GTCR, for C$3.3 billion. That, in my mind, is the market saying, “Hey, the sector is ripe for consolidation; it's ripe for growth; and it's going through a shift.”

Horwitz: What I see a lot more of is AI. To give you an example, we actually have just started to implement it. If somebody comes in and they're looking to see about changing their smile: improving gaps, straightening teeth, whitening teeth, veneers, those kinds of things, we can take a headshot of them. Within less than three minutes, not only can we show them a before and after, but we can show them an after of them speaking, laughing and talking with their new teeth in. 

AI also helps us diagnose X-rays. Cavities that are just starting, that might be elusive to the naked eye, AI picks up on. It gives people the ability to treat things earlier.

I think because of 3D and AI, we dentists are able to do things much, much more conservatively to the point where we can do new smile designs, veneer cases, oftentimes without even drilling at all on the teeth. We call it additive dentistry. You're not taking any of the tooth away; you're just adding to it to improve either the shape, or the function, or the comfort, or the cleansability or the look.

Nejat: When we place an implant, we're essentially creating a hole. And the way we create this hole for the implant to screw into has not been really paid attention to in the process of implant dentistry. A lot of focus has been on the actual screw.

I think in 2026, the focus is going to be on the actual hole, the preparation of it. A technology that is becoming more popular is called the Loocid drill, which is a cool cutting technology. The hole is cut with a special drill that allows for much lower temperatures and heat to help protect the bone from dying and also allows you to drill less. It's going to be much more efficient for dentistry, helping achieve better long-term and short-term outcomes for our patients.

We started using it in 2024, and it's just changed the way we practice dentistry. More and more people are going to embrace it.

Postol: I think one of the biggest things is that oral appliance therapy will be there to help more CPAP users stay compliant. I think one of the things we're starting to see nowadays is what's called precision medicine. Precision medicine is such that it usually takes more than one therapy to get a patient healthy.

With all the different therapies now with the GLP-1 drugs, Inspire, oral appliances and CPAP, it's given patients a lot of different avenues. Sometimes they need more than one avenue to get them into their best health possible. I think that's going to be happening in the near future: we look at patients individually and look at their phenotype to see how best we can treat each individual patient.

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Dental Bite is curated and written by Carrie Pallardy and edited by Lesley McKenzie.