The State of Dental Technology
The argument
Dentists aren't short on software. They're short on a way to choose it.
We put twelve questions to dental practice leaders about the technology they run, how they evaluate it, and what they'd change. One pattern runs through every answer: practices aren't short on software, or short on options — they're short on a way to tell which one fits, and will actually get used. The hard part of buying has moved from finding to choosing.
The people who answered run the operation day to day — owners and operations managers in nearly equal measure, across practices from solo to DSO (DSO-affiliated and small practices each about 39%). That shapes everything that follows: this is the view from people who live with the software, not a census of all dentistry.
The sample
Who answered.
Owners, operations managers, and practice staff — across practices from solo to DSO.
This pool spans the whole market — solo and small-group practices and DSO-affiliated groups answered in nearly equal measure (about 39% each), with large groups close behind. That spread is the point: the size splits in the findings aren't noise — they're different front offices answering at once. The PMS mix says the same — Denticon and Dentrix tied at the top, Eaglesoft close behind — corporate-cloud and traditional systems side by side, not one running the table.
Finding 01
Everything is installed. Nothing feels finished.
Ask what's already running and the list reads like a solved problem.
Six of ten categories already run in more than half of practices. The foundational stack — patient comms, imaging, verification, scanners — is standard issue now. The only open field is the new wave: AI phone answering (40%) and scribes (22%).
- Very satisfied 23%
- Satisfied 48%
- Neutral 28%
- Dissatisfied 2%
Seventy-six percent land in the middle. They've made their stack work — but few would call it finished. Read the two charts together: near-universal ownership, almost no one unhappy — yet hardly anyone thrilled. The signal isn't complaint; it's the size of that middle. The distance between "it works" and "it's handled" is what this report is about.
Database context
We classify 167 vendors in the Insurance Pressure Zone, and "we do verification" splits five ways by how the work is actually delivered: clearinghouse, AI software, AI voice agent, hybrid workflow, and outsourced service. A practice that owns one modality and still wants verification automated usually needs a different one. The category's sameness is the vendor's claim; the differences are the buyer's problem.
Finding 02
Nobody buys "integration." Everybody suffers it.
Practices ranked their biggest day-to-day challenges. Integration came dead last — yet it's the hidden cause behind several they rank far higher.
Start at the top. The biggest day-to-day problems are no-shows (2.91) and insurance-verification bottlenecks (3.04), with phone volume close behind — the daily fires. Now the bottom. "Software that doesn't integrate" ranks dead last, at 4.57 — the most revealing number here. Practices don't name integration as a pain, but the problems they rank highest are what integration failure looks like downstream:
- No PMS write-back
- Re-keyed data
- Errors
- Denials & bottlenecks
No-shows are the exception — a reminders-and-recall fight, and what small practices would automate first (Finding 3). Read the open text and the wish is explicit — one system that holds together:
"A simple, easy-to-use clinic management system which integrates patient check-in, RVG, patient history and reminders … and works within the dentist's daily workflow."— practice leader, open-text response
Buyers experience the absence of integration as the work it creates downstream — which is why it never shows up as the headline complaint, only as all the others.
Database context
Auditing 95 front-office vendors across 30 PMS platforms, the line that decides fit isn't "integrates with Dentrix" on a website — it's read-only versus true write-back. Buyers won't ask by name. Ask it anyway; it's in the checklist at the end.
Finding 03
What they'd automate first.
If you could automate one task tomorrow …
Billing and verification together are the plurality — half of all responses — the unglamorous machinery of getting paid. Not patient experience, not marketing. Behind that overall list, the priority splits cleanly by size — one question, two different front offices.
the revenue cycle — insurance verification, with billing close behind at 32%.
appointment reminders — the no-show fight, where one empty chair hurts most.
Finding 04
What stops the next purchase.
Biggest barrier to adopting new technology.
say cost is the gate — the owner is spending their own money.
say staff resistance — the money's approved; the team has to absorb the change.
What almost nobody is stuck on is awareness — only 4% say they don't know what's available. The friction is evaluation: "too hard to evaluate" and "don't know what's available" together reach 13%, and the smaller the practice, the more that evaluation problem shows. Awareness is solved; telling which option actually fits is the gap.
"If you add tech without an ROI you are just adding an expense. So whatever is added needs to be quantified."— from a practice leader's open-text answer on how technology earns its place
That sentence is the adoption gate in plain language. The pitch that wins this room isn't a feature list — it's a number the practice can defend, and a rollout the team survives. Technology that keeps your team. Not replaces them.
Finding 05
The market still shops by conversation — but it's starting to search.
Team decision 29% · Dentist alone 24% · Office manager recommends, dentist approves 24%
Corporate decides 42% · Office manager recommends, dentist approves 27% · Dentist alone 19%
One in three practices now research on Google and reviews — search is already a third of how this market looks for software, behind only conferences and word-of-mouth. The diet is still conversational — conferences, peers, and reps are people talking, not material being compared. Search is now a third of the room, while the channels built for structured evaluation — publications and consultants — sit around a quarter. There's a comparison gap: everyone shops, far fewer compare.
No single person owns the call — it shifts with size: in groups and DSOs corporate decides (42%); in small practices it's spread across the practice, with no one dominant. Put Finding 4 next to this and the loop closes: a market that buys on conversation, with more than one person to convince, then lives with a team or a budget burned by the last purchase — an evaluation gap, not an awareness gap. Search reaching a third of the room is that gap looking for a better answer.
Finding 06
The next wave is voice, and the early adopters sound happier.
Two technologies sit below the crowded top of the ladder — the frontier.
rate themselves very satisfied with their overall stack.
Small base; read it as directional.
Everything above 60% adoption is plumbing now; this is where the movement is. Asked to name one product they'd recommend, respondents named Videa AI, Overjet, Weave, AI scheduling, and VoIP alongside the foundational scanners.
"It's answering about 80% of calls without needing to talk to a front-office team member. With reminders I feel the teams get used to it and don't ever pick up the phone."— a practice leader describing an AI phone-answering rollout
Both halves matter. The first is the pitch every voice vendor makes. The second is the part nobody puts on a website: automation retrains the team around it, for better and worse. The practices adopting this wave early are learning its second-order effects first — that's the real adopter's edge, and the real adopter's risk.
Database context
We hold 26 vendors in the AI Voice category — 23 true front-desk agents that book, reschedule, and write back, and 3 voice-only receptionists. They get sold with the same vocabulary. They are not the same product.
What this adds up to
Four conclusions, and what to do with them.
The six findings point the same direction. Here is the argument they make together — and, where a gold-standard outside source backs it, the evidence that doubles down.
01 — Finish before you buy.
Our take
The next gain isn't another purchase. Practices own a full stack but few feel done — and the systems they rank worst are the ones that don't connect (Findings 1 & 2). The money is in finishing and integrating what's already installed.
Corroboration
Across industries, Gartner estimates that roughly 30% of SaaS spend is wasted on unused licenses and features — the same buy-it-but-never-finish pattern, at scale. Source: Gartner
So when you choose
Audit what you already own and underuse before you shop, and weigh integration — does it write back to your PMS — as heavily as features.
02 — The work is evaluation, not awareness.
Our take
The bottleneck is judgment, not discovery. Almost no one is unaware of their options — only 4% don't know what's available. What they can't do easily is tell which one fits, so a third are now turning to search (Findings 4 & 5).
Corroboration
Gartner finds B2B buyers spend only about 17% of the buying journey actually meeting suppliers — the rest is evaluation done alone. And Forrester's State of Business Buying 2024 reports 81% of buyers were dissatisfied with the provider they chose — research done solo doesn't reliably land on the right fit. Source: Gartner; Forrester, State of Business Buying 2024
So when you choose
Write your fit criteria — your PMS, your size, your workflow — before any demo, and treat a confident recommendation that doesn't know your setup as a warning sign.
03 — Fit is size-specific.
Our take
There is no single "best." Priorities and barriers split sharply by size — solo and small practices fight no-shows and watch cost; big groups automate the revenue cycle and fight staff adoption — and integration quietly drives the complaints people do voice (Findings 2, 3 & 4).
Corroboration
The split this survey shows in miniature is the one the ADA Health Policy Institute tracks nationally: DSO affiliation reached 16.1% of dentists in 2024 and has more than doubled since 2015, while about a third of dentists remain solo. Source: ADA Health Policy Institute, U.S. Dentist Workforce (2025)
So when you choose
Pick by your size and how well a system fits your existing stack — not by the loudest category.
One to watch — voice.
Our take
Voice is the frontier. AI phone answering leads the new wave, and the practices running it rate their whole stack higher (Finding 6).
No outside number
We don't attach a market-size number here, on purpose: published estimates diverge by billions depending on how each firm draws the category, so none meets the bar we hold the rest of this report to. The signal we trust is our own — the early adopters are the happiest. Source: our survey
So when you choose
If the phone is your leak, this is the category to evaluate seriously now.
Before you buy
Five questions this data earns.
Take these into the next demo. They separate software that removes work from software that adds it.
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"Which kind are you?"
Verification comes in five delivery modalities; voice splits into front-desk agents and answering machines. Make the vendor place themselves. (Findings 1 & 6.)
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"Does it write back to my PMS, or just read from it?"
The line between software that removes work and software that creates it. (Finding 2.)
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"What number proves this worked in 90 days?"
If they can't name the metric, you're buying an expense. (Finding 4.)
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"What does week one look like for my front desk?"
Staff resistance gates the bigger practices; a rollout plan for the team is the purchase, not an extra. (Finding 4.)
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"What happens at 5:01pm?"
After-hours behavior is where phone, reminder, and scheduling software earn their keep — and where lookalike vendors diverge first. (Findings 3 & 6.)
Quick answers
What the data says, in brief.
What are the biggest day-to-day challenges in dental practices in 2026?
In our 2026 survey of 67 practices, the biggest day-to-day challenges, ranked, were no-shows and cancellations, insurance-verification bottlenecks, and phone volume — followed by staff turnover and training, and claim denials and billing. "Software that doesn't integrate" ranked last, even though poor integration is the hidden cause of several higher-ranked problems.
What dental tasks do practices most want to automate?
Asked what they'd automate first, practices chose billing and collections (27%) and insurance verification (23%) — together half of all responses. Priorities split by size: large groups would automate the revenue cycle (36%), while small and solo practices would automate appointment reminders (34%) to fight no-shows.
What stops dental practices from adopting new technology?
The top barriers are staff resistance (38%) and cost (34%). The gate differs by size: solo and small practices cite cost (38%), while DSOs and large groups cite staff resistance (46%). Only 4% say they don't know what's available — the problem is evaluation, not awareness.
How do dental practices research and choose technology?
Practices still research mostly through conversation — dental conferences (48%), peers (38%), and sales reps (31%) — but one in three (33%) now use Google search and reviews. Who decides shifts with size: corporate decides in 42% of DSOs and large groups, while small practices decide as a team.
Which dental practice-management systems are most common?
What is the next wave of dental technology?
Voice is the frontier: AI phone answering is in 40% of practices and AI clinical-notes scribes in 22%. Early adopters report higher satisfaction with their overall stack — 34% rate themselves very satisfied versus 12% of everyone else (small sample; read as directional).
How satisfied are dental practices with their current technology?
Most practices own a near-complete stack but few feel finished: 23% are very satisfied, 48% satisfied, 28% neutral, and 2% dissatisfied. With 76% in the middle, the gap is between software that "works" and software that's "handled."
Dental tech discovery is Mola
If one of these findings is your practice, the platform is built to answer it.
Dental Tech Hub is the independent platform where practice owners decide what dental technology to buy — more than 500 vendors across six problem areas, and vendors don't pick their own categories. Describe your problem in your own words; Mola matches you to the tools that fit, with the reasons why.
About this report
Built by the people who classify the market.
This report was produced by Dental Tech Hub and shipped, as promised, to every survey respondent who asked for it. Dental Tech Hub is the independent platform where practice owners decide what dental technology to buy — more than 500 vendors across six problem areas, and vendors don't pick their own categories. Our team classifies each by the problem it solves, which is how we can tell you that "verification" is five products and "AI voice" is two.
Methodology
67 dental professionals — owners, operations managers, and practice staff, across practices from solo to DSO — answered a 12-question survey fielded April–June 2026, recruited via LinkedIn, dental Facebook and WhatsApp groups, and direct outreach; respondents were offered a gift-card drawing and a copy of this report. Percentages are of those answering each question — not everyone answered all twelve — and some questions were multi-select or ranked; figures are rounded and may not sum. This is a self-selected pulse survey, not a probability sample or a census: at this size, read the headline figures as directional and the size-by-size splits as smaller still. We'd rather show you the sample than dress it up. This is the first time we've fielded it; we intend to run it each year. Vendor and category counts are current as of 2026.