The Group Dentistry Now Show: The Voice of the DSO Industry

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Welcome to The Group Dentistry Now Show: The Voice of the DSO Industry!

Dean Prevost, CEO and Adam Pollack, Director of Business Development at Corus Orthodontists join the GDN Show. The two discuss:

Corus Orthodontists unique doctor-owner model
Growing organically
Current trends in orthodontics
Advice for orthodontists

For more information about Corus Orthodontists:
Website: https://www.corusortho.com/
Email Adam Pollack: [email protected]

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Corus Orthodontists DSO podcast transcript:

Bill Neuman: Welcome, everyone, to the Group Dentistry Now show. As you can see, we are back in the studio. We were out and about a little bit on site, which was a lot of fun, but it’s kind of nice to be back in the studio. And really, actually, we probably could have recorded this podcast on site in Philadelphia at the AAO. We had Kim and I were there. Kim Larson and I were there. and had a great conversation with the Corus orthodontist team, Dean Prevost and Adam Pollack. And we said, gosh, if we just would have recorded this, we would have been done by now, but we’re doing it here. So it’s great to see you guys again. How are you doing?

Dean Provost: Doing great. Nice to see you as well, Bill. Yes, we could have done it there. It was a great conversation, but hopefully we can do so again here.

Bill Neuman: I think we’ll be able to replicate it. So a little bit about Dean and Adam. Dean, you may have seen his name in our DSO people back in Augustine of last year. Does that sound right?

Dean Provost: August, September. Yeah.

Bill Neuman: Yeah. So Dean came over to Corus Orthodontis as the CEO, but he’s no stranger to C-suite roles. He has 23 years plus as either a CEO or, well, 23 years as a C-suite, 13 years as a CEO or president. If you know Canada, you probably know Rogers Communications. He was He was there as the president and also a company called Hypro, which is an animal nutrition provider. So we’ll let Dean fill in any blanks there. Dean, a little bit more about your background and why you made the leap into the OSO and DSO market.

Dean Provost: You bet. So yeah, it sounds pretty interesting when you describe it like that, right? It’s a wide range of diversified industries that I was working in before. A lot of time in my early years in consulting, telecom, IT and tech, and then retired from that. And then when I came back, I decided to just be a little more expansive in the things that I did. So I went into the agriculture space for a period of time. Admittedly, I did return to telecom for a period at Rogers, as you described. and then took some more time off and eventually came back to work because of Dr. Paul Halpert, the founder of Corus, our organization. a very well-known orthodontist, both here and I believe in the U.S. as well, who pulled together this amazing organization in this extraordinary specialty. That with, after a two to three hour breakfast, I realized probably without quite knowing it, he had really sunk a hook into me about what the opportunity might be in this space. And over the march of time, I came to really appreciate what was possible. And frankly, I think combined a little bit with the, This seems the inevitable boredom of retirement. I thought this was the place to come back to. So here I am as of early September last year.

Bill Neuman: Excellent. And you said you are here, which and here is not in the U.S., you’re in Canada.

Dean Provost: That’s right. I spent a fair amount of time in my history in the U.S. and was schooled there, but I am living in Calgary, which is a Western Canada, Eastern slopes of the Rocky City, very similar to the town that Adam comes from and is coming to us today, Denver, Colorado. We’ve got a lot of similarities between our two.

Bill Neuman: And we’ll talk about the course model in a second. I wanted to talk a little bit to Adam. Adam, you are Director of Business Development. You’re here in the States, and you’ve got a background. You went to the University of Colorado and got your, well, Boulder, graduated undergrad, and then got your master’s from University of Colorado, Denver. And you were at Corus for a little bit and then you left and then you came back. Does that sound right?

Adam Pollack: That that is correct. Yes. So I’ve been in the ortho industry for 20 years, started at Rocky Mountain Orthodontics based here in Colorado. And this is an amazing industry. And once you’re in it and you’ve been in it a while, you learn to love it. Right. You learn to love not only what it does for patients, but also the community of people like you, Bill, like the other companies out there and people we see. So yes, I was working at Rocky Mountain Orthodontics for that 20 years. I joined Corus right when it was formed, just after October, 2019. I joined for similar reasons as Dean. Paul Helper, I would say, sunk his teeth into me and the partner network was amazing. And so I joined in 2020. Um, and was with course for three years until 2023 and then left, uh, for about 18 months and now, uh, have come back in February as of this year, joining in the same role to a director of business development and partnerships.

Bill Neuman: Excellent. And I failed to mention, Dean touched on this a little bit, but he was a little modest. He said that he went to school in the States. So he did get his bachelor’s in University of Calgary and then went down to Harvard Business School and you got your MBA there. So you do know at least the colder part of our country pretty well, I’m guessing. Let’s talk a little bit about, it’s kind of a fascinating time to be in the dental industry and to be on the OSO and DSO side of things. We had this amazing growth from, let’s say, 2017, 2018 up until about 2022. And a lot of the growth or the consolidation anyway, was driven by low interest rates. And then it just kind of stopped. And I think you had organizations that were some in Relatively good positions, others maybe not so much. Some were very good at acquisitions, but not so good at organic growth and really creating efficiencies with the businesses that they’ve acquired. So we’re in 2025 now, and we’re going to talk a lot about what orthodontics looks like currently. because there’s some challenges there, at least with some organizations right now with the way the economy is. But overall, Dean, this one’s for you. Trends that you’re seeing in the ortho space and how do you think Corus is positioned really to stay ahead of the curve and the trends you’re seeing?

Dean Provost: Let me go back a little bit in time just over the last couple of years to give a context of us versus others as we get to today. And then I’ll talk a little bit about the industry and then how we’re positioned, if that works. As I think about it, like everyone, we were affected by the interest rate increase. Unlike others, we hadn’t got so far out in front of our skis. We were not so far into our acquisitions at such a rate that we couldn’t pause. and focus on our organic growth and see performance return quickly and not get ourselves in trouble. We did see a little bit of a tougher moment there, but the team rallied. And again, as a partnership organization, we’re entirely owned by our doctors. They rallied quickly and substantially. And quickly we moved away from, boy, this is going to get costly. We’re running up against some of the limits of our borrowing to today we’re in outstanding shape and experiencing actually double digit growth in our organization. And with very low levels of leverage, And interest rates are now actually beneficial because they’re falling and better than we expected. So we went from our running a little bit fast, a little bit dangerous, not too much, but a little bit, to pulling back, drawing on this experience and the ownership of our partnership. And suddenly we find ourselves 24 months later, probably having one of the best years that we’ve ever had. So that’s a nice turnaround. But like everyone that we did stop acquiring to get a handle on our own performance. And I think fundamentally, that’s the difference between now and then. We fully recognize today that we need to be delivering outstanding organic performance, which means we run a great operation, a great specialty, first and foremost, in support of our patients and create those amazing outcomes that give those confident smiles that are the hallmark of our specialty. But behind the scenes, all the basic blocking and tackling that makes a great practice and makes it work well and frees a doctor to spend their time with their patients on the clinical side, and we as the home office team helping behind the scenes with recruiting, with paywall, with benefits, with all the types of things accounting and support and IT and tech that make their lives a little bit easier and to the scale that we have create a cost structure that means that they can operate locally but with a scale of a business that operates on both sides of the border and has you know, hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue and scope in dealing with vendors. So we found this really nice mix at the perfect time. When challenged, we dug in, we really turned our organic performance around, and then we’d return now to acquisition with that wind in our sails. The market out there is a little different, though, than it was a few years ago. Says a guy who’s only 10 months into the job. But as I understand the heady days prior, that’s not quite what we’re facing now. There’s a little more uncertainty. There’s a little volatility, particularly coming out of the US. There are some new players on the horizon who are actively looking to acquire, but it’s not the days that it was before. So the world we’re in today, we think supports the model that we deliver, which is great organic growth, a return to acquisition but selectively. In a way we’ve got to make a commitment to every one of our 54 practices and our more than 75 doctors that everybody we bring in will bring something to the table. And that’s true for both the acquisitions that we bring in and those doctors that they come into a partnership network that has strength and growth. And frankly, that they bring the exact same thing to these partners that they’re joining. So we’re being very selective and looking to only invite those in that really want to buy into what we’re trying to accomplish, aren’t really looking to sell out of their operation. So that creates something which is, I think, a little bit unique. We’re not the place you go to finish your career in the sense of being done and leaving. We’re the place you go to continue your career and we provide all the right pathways at the end for stepping down, stepping away and giving back in a variety of different ways. And we can probably talk about that a bit more later. But we’re really about building something that really can last. And that’s what’s different from before, is we’re not looking to build up something quickly for some large sale. We’re looking for a multi-generational operation here in Corus that will thrive and grow beyond all of the original doctors who are now in place.

Bill Neuman: Excellent, and you said a couple of things there and maybe just before we move on to another question You have a really good perspective. I think that most I mean there may be another group or two out there that is in both in Canada and in the US but most of the time it’s one or the other because the The countries are different with the way they handle dental care, as far as reimbursement and things like that. Need to talk about, and certainly Adam, your perspective will be great on this too, what you’re seeing as far as maybe some of the differences from a patient perspective, and then we can talk a little bit later about what the partners may be looking for. What’s it like in Canada when it comes to orthodontics versus the US?

Dean Provost: I think there are a couple of things I’d observe, but Adam for sure should weigh in. First of all, there’s certainly across both countries, patients are more selective, right? They’re being very careful about where they spend their money. There’s a fear of inflation. I think rightly so, perhaps recession maybe on the horizon for people. and that makes them cautious about how they spend their money. Clearly, we’re in a specialty where for most folks, it’s one of the last things they’ll give up, particularly for their children, if they can afford it. But it does mean that they may look for a second opinion. It does mean that they may look for flexibility in the terms of payment, the time in which they pay, and they certainly are gonna look for extraordinary caregivers and make sure that they get great outcomes for the money that they’re spending. I’d say that’s true on both sides of the border. from the um kind of the broad nature of the industry this isn’t as uh as as good a year i think as many orthodontics have seen prior it’s not bad by any measure as i take it from a person who’s worked in many many industries this is still a fundamentally strong and sustainable uh specialty But compared to some prior years, there’s certainly a little bit lower growth in things like exams and starts, and it gets a little more pressure in terms of patients looking around. And I’d say that’s true across the board, probably a little bit more in the U.S. than Canada, but again, shades of each on both sides of the border. But perhaps Adam’s got a point of view as well.

Adam Pollack: Yeah, I would say, you know, Bill, from my perspective, it’s I understand less about what the patients are actually looking for on both sides. I think it’s pretty similar in Canada and the US. And I’m going to skip a little bit ahead to what you kind of hinted to is the doctor network within the differences between the two countries. And that’s where I see some differences, right? And that’s where I see, even though we’re so culturally aligned in a lot of different ways between the U.S. and Canada, I have seen some nuances between the two. And I think that, you know, our Canadian doctors, it’s such a smaller community. They’re really well connected with each other. It’s a little bit more of a brotherhood around the entire Canadian network than it is versus in the U.S. In the U.S., we have pockets of this, right? We have groups, we have study clubs, we have networks that do connect with each other, but the Canadian groups are a little more culturally connected in that sense. So I think what we see and when we talk about, okay, well, what’s happening with patients and maybe what’s happening with our doctors is there still is this need on both sides of the border to have that camaraderie, to have that belonging, to have that network of people to bounce ideas off of. That’s why a lot of these groups have existed for a long time with study club groups and meetings and even universities, you know, connecting with your group, you know, from your class that you graduated. So I see that need on both sides of the border.

Bill Neuman: Excellent. Dean, I think there were some predictions that, at least down here in the States, election happens, there’s stability, right? And then interest rates come down. They’ve come down a tiny bit, maybe not as much as a lot of people predicted or wishfully thought. depending on, you know, I guess how you kind of look at things. So there’s still some economic uncertainty for sure. How do you think OSOs and DSOs are positioned to weather what’s going on right now and what could happen in the future? And then how do you think, you know, maybe Corus is positioned and maybe positioned a bit differently than some others?

Dean Provost: Yeah. That’s a great question, Bill. I think you described it very right. So I guess the idea behind an OSO broadly or a DSO, the answer is in the name, right? We should be a support organization. And as you might imagine, I’m gonna argue in a moment, that of course is probably a bit better organized and positioned to do that than others because we are uniquely owned by our doctors. So that is our entire mandate as an organization is to support. our partners, but broadly the idea is we should be there to support with the ability to bring, you know, as a larger organization, to bring capital when it’s needed for a relocation or a renovation, to put arrangements in place that support what the doctors are trying to accomplish locally, so help them with their marketing, help them with tools and deployment, help them with you know, the classic recruiting and onboarding of people and training, and also give them the support when they need some coverage, whether it’s, you know, they’re heading off on vacation, they want some coverage, they’re facing or team members facing an illness, just picking some very particular examples. But basically, we need to be there for them when they need us, because so much of the practice is so doctor dependent, that the needs of a larger organization should be expressed in the best way that they support a doctor locally. Now, where it comes to, I mean, even another idea is, I mentioned a bit a second ago with our scale, we can also help them purchase things locally at a quite a substantial discount from what they would otherwise receive, you know, acting as they’re part of a large organization as opposed to a smaller single or two site practice. Now what I think Corus is different than others is that we literally exist uniquely to serve the doctors who are our owners. Adam, myself, the rest of the Chorus home office team, we work for the doctors. We are not the employers of the doctors. They essentially employ Chorus to do things for them. And the way they think about us is we are their, probably their largest personal investment that they’ve made. in their portion of our overall organization. So essentially our efforts to grow and improve the Corus partnership are done so on their behalf. So we work for them and we work on their behalf and it really changes the nature of the conversation and it really changes the nature of the support given because it isn’t you know reluctant and seen as a cost it’s in fact expansive and seen as our core mission, which is to support our doctors and the practices that they have built and continue to grow, and the patients that sit on the end of it. So it’s kind of a different world for us here at Chorus, where we are, frankly, the living, breathing example of what support looks like.

Bill Neuman: This is, maybe a little bit more clarity on what doctor-owner really means, because you hear this a lot, and there’s so many different models out there. I think from, you know, a partner, potential partner perspective, it can get pretty overwhelming. Okay. You know, there’s the traditional model, whatever that even means. There’s JVs. You get sometimes to invest in, you know, back into your practice or retain some equity at the practice level. Sometimes you get to invest in, you know, the TopCo or the DSO or OSO at the top. Can you explain when you say Dr. Own, what does that look like?

Dean Provost: Yeah. Yeah, you’re absolutely right. The language is similar, but the models are totally different, which is kind of interesting. So here’s what our model looks like, and here’s what we mean by it is. We have essentially, for all intents and purposes, single class of shareholders. We have only a top coat, in the sense that all of our shareholders, who are 95% doctors, they own in the Corus organization. They have the shares at the top of the house, meaning at the top of the capital stack, which has control over everything that rides below it. We are divided into practices, which doctors are the kind of the core practitioners. The doctor partners are the lead in that practice. And they essentially have a venture model of the earnings that that practice creates. but their ownership sits up top in the organization. So they both have a direct drive to the performance of their practice. And they also have ownership in the results of everybody else’s practice. So in our instance, they have ownership in a bit of the 54 practices that form Corus across half in the US, half in Canada. So it’s a very different model than almost everybody else has. The ownership outside the doctors is minuscule. It’s folks like Adam and myself who are in support of them, and that’s essentially it. And then on our board, the bulk of our board, our doctors, they have brought on third party advisors who are good in this space, who are helpful with things like financing and operations and professionals in terms of these types of organizations to assist, but it’s done on behalf and on the behest of our doctors who are looking for us, almost like their wealth management group, their family office, to run their organization successfully on their behalf. So what we don’t have is complicated ownership structures. What we don’t have is different levels of ownership where you’re not sure if your equity ownership is like the same as mine or the same as a third party private equity investor of which we have none. What we give is confidence that as I am treated, as Adam is treated, as is every doctor. who’s in our organization. And it just creates alignment, Bill, that we don’t worry about kind of who’s on first with respect to ownership or rewards. Instead, we realize that we’re part of a large partnership that works both for the performance of the practice that inures to the doctor themself and the performance of the organization that’s shared by all.

Bill Neuman: Adam, you touched on it earlier. It’s from the potential partner side of things. Do you find that partners, people that you’re speaking to, are they more knowledgeable about the OSO model? What questions do they seem to be asking? What are they looking for? Has that changed? And then have you kind of changed who you’re looking to partner with in 2025 maybe versus 2021 or your first go around when you’re a Corus?

Adam Pollack: Yeah, I really like your question because you guys have done a great job of educating a lot of the public about different OSOs and DSOs, right? So I think there is a lot of information out there. I think your first question is, do the doctors know more? Absolutely, right? There’s a lot of information out there. There’s more knowledge. It’s more widespread. I think it is confusing because there are pros and cons to a lot of these, the different groups and partnerships that are out there. And there’s multi-specialty groups, there’s specialty groups, and there’s, there’s a lot of information out there. And so yes, there, the, the potential partner is more educated, absolutely. But I think it is a little bit confusing as well. And when it looks at, OK, well, what kind of partner maybe would would tend toward a Corus back in 2020 or 2021 to what we’re looking for today? I would say in general, it’s actually the same. We aren’t as Dean referred to it a few minutes ago. You know, we’re not the we’re not the get out clause, we’re the double down clause, right? We’re, we want to be the group that people come into that join, because they want to be a part of something, they want to join a group, they want to grow, they want to expand, they want consultants in their practice, which we serve as the consultants in the practice for growth for helping with, you know, all of HR people. So I, I still think that the the type of person that we’re looking for is somebody that is willing to partner that wants to partner that understands our culture and what we want from growth. I think that’s the same kind of person. We have started looking at geography as a benefit and really looking at clustering in different areas. There’s a lot of benefits to having practices in similar areas for a multitude of reasons, supporting them, even exchanging resources of staff or team members. So there are some benefits. So I would say overall, not really. We really are looking for that growth mindset, a doctor, somebody that wants a partnership. We’re limiting a little bit to geography. So we’ve honed it in, but really we’ve had the same large focus. We really look at the person, the personality, how they’re going to fit our group has really always been our main piece of information that we’re looking at. The financials have to work, of course, but that’s a really big component.

Bill Neuman: On the private equity side of things, there are, I don’t know what the number is in the dental space. I think it’s somewhere around 150, somewhere around there, I hear anyway, about that many private equity-backed platforms. So there are quite a few. And a lot of them, I think, are ready to recap or have been ready for a couple of years, which is probably a whole other podcast to talk about that situation. But Dean, from your perspective, how does private equity play a role in the DSO space now? And then also, how does that affect the dentist that’s looking to join?

Dean Provost: Great question. I came from the private equity space. In my background, the ag company I ran was private equity held and it was a great partnership, but it’s an interesting place. Private equity looks for returns that are substantial, who doesn’t, but they also look for them in short windows. And I’m not sure that’s a perfect fit always for the space we’re in. And so, and you see that a little bit where folks have been out there looking to sell, there’s not as much interest as they’d like, so they undertake a substantial dividend recap, but the bulk of the proceeds heads out towards the private equity owners as opposed to the dark. themselves. There might be some sharing but the bulk leaves the practice and leaves the organization. As well often that is undertaken through the form of adding a fair amount of debt at some pretty hefty terms and in some instances that might not be payable for a number of years but make no mistake it’s a bit of a ticking time bomb inside the organization that will have to be repaid at far higher rates in a number of years and that’s a lot of pressure on an organization to grow and grow rapidly. And it puts a lot of pressure on everybody within the organization. And that’s not something that we at Hero Corus think is really that necessary. I think there’s other ways to do this that allows for growth, creates investment, but doesn’t create this short-term window and this quick clock and a ticking time bomb potentially inside the organization by trying to undertake it. So I understand why Private equity is interested in the space. It’s got high margins. It has a wonderful good in the marketplace. And it’s got tremendous practitioners and great basic economics. I get it, right, as the math works. But we’re something more than that. We’re a people business. We are in support of patients. And I think that lends itself towards a longer term strategy, which isn’t always. what private equity is set up to do. So at Quorus, if I maybe fall into this for a second, we have thought about that it might make sense to get a minority investor into our organization at some point. To date, we don’t. We are 100% equity funded from our doctors who vended in their practices and took back only some cash and in some instances, no cash, left it all in as equity. We do have some debt, modest amounts compared to many others in the marketplace. And we are, if we grow fast enough, we may need some third party investment simply to allow us to keep pace with that growth. Today, no, we’re actually quite cash rich. When that time comes, we’re going to do it probably a little differently than others have done. We’ll be looking for investment that is long. We won’t be using it from a recapitalization of debt. It’ll inure to the doctors who are the owners and it will also form a nest egg for future investments. So it’s going to be done a little differently. I guess it’s true like most things in life. It matters, not just the what, but the how. In this instance, the what might be minority investment, but the how we use it, the nature it takes, the size it is, kept quite small, the fact that it doesn’t replace the majority ownership of doctors, that’ll be the do different from a course point of view.

Bill Neuman: You mentioned something about if you grow quickly, you talked about from an investment perspective, you may need that investment. You’re not going to slow down in 2025. Is that a combination of focus on organic growth and strategic acquisitions? Again, some uncertainty in 2025. It sounds like you’re going to go full steam ahead, but strategically.

Dean Provost: That’s a great way to say it. So our entire last two years have been focused on the organic growth, as I described, and you heard the outcomes we’re seeing there, which are great. What sits ahead is a return to acquisition. Adam’s return to Corus was essentially the open sign flicking on. In terms of us being back in the marketplace, we’ve hired others to assist in this and we are out in the marketplace and we are actually in active conversations. But when we do that, we’re going to do it with a measured model. Adam described some of the ways we’re thinking of being selective in how we look, the types of geographies that fits, the size and stage of practices, more so than anything. the willingness of the doctor to be a part of a partnership and continue and contribute, and this to be their kind of next phase of how they practice, not them kind of cashing out and heading to the sunset. Now we fully recognize that everybody’s gonna need an off-ramp from their practice over time. And we can talk about that when you would like, but there’s other things that we know we need to do as part of it, but that we’re not looking for that for a doctor comes on board to be thinking that immediately. We hope they have a long and expect they have a long runway with us as a contributor in so many ways into our organization.

Bill Neuman: Dean, what advice would you have for an orthodontist that’s looking, or even somebody that may not be an orthodontist, a GP that might be interested in joining a DSO in 2025? Let’s say this is the year, they think this is the year, or maybe they think next year. I think a lot of people try and time the market. We all, I think, are guilty of that to a degree when it comes to the stock market. Sometimes, so it might not be any different than, is this the year I sell my business, my practice, or do I wait a little bit? What advice would you have for a doc that may be considering doing something this year?

Dean Provost: Number one, know where you are at in your stage of who you are. Are you looking to sell your practice and continue to practice under the new OSO for a number of years? If that’s the case, then you need to do your diligence about who they are, how they operated when times were tough, the support they gave their doctors, their practices, their employees when things weren’t going well, the level of debt that they’ve taken on, level of investment they make into practices, supporting technology, clinical efforts, how engaged and involved they get, all of the above. should give you a sense of, is this a group you wanna join and be a part of for a long period of time? Look, if you’re looking to simply sell and fade to black in short order, probably that all doesn’t matter that much because you’re gonna be looking for your max exit valuation and you’ll be heading out the door. There may be some reputational effects to that in the market that you’ve operated, but you’ll need to think about it. But if you’re looking to continue, and you’re looking to practice and you’re looking to leave a legacy, then who you join and how they operate and the way they behaved matter more so than you can imagine. I would argue they might even matter even a bit more than the valuation you receive.

Bill Neuman: And Adam, maybe you can answer this. This is probably be a multi-pronged question, but it’s not, I think we’ve seen, Dee made a really good point. If you’re gonna sail off into the sunset, that’s one thing, but there are a lot of younger clinicians that are looking for partnerships, they’re there for, they’re looking for the S, right, the support that you can offer. And they’re going to stay on for the long haul. But can you talk a little bit about why people would, orthodontists would want to partner with Corus maybe versus another model? Again, what do you hear when people join and the reasons they’ve joined Chorus versus some of the other options out there and there are a lot of them.

Adam Pollack: Yeah. And it’s going to be super cliche, Bill, but it is the people at the end of the day, right? When you’re joining any kind of group, if you’re planning to stay on and you’re planning to keep working and you want to help your organization grow, you want to join a group where you believe in the mission, the vision, and the people behind it. And I think there’s different groups for different people. And that’s okay. We live in a space where I think there’s room for everybody in that kind of world. And we do love those mid-career doctors and we are hearing from mid-career doctors more and more because they’re interested. They’re thinking, huh, I might be 45, 46, been in practice for 10 years. How do I want this next 10 to 15 years to look? And we’re starting to hear from that younger group. And they’re getting more interested in asking the right questions. And I think they’re more educated, they’re understanding it more. It isn’t, we’re not only just hearing from the doctors that are looking for an off-ramp in five or 10 years. So, but to go back to that, I really think it’s the people in the organization, both cultural, within the home office organization, as well as the doctor partners. Um, that’s why I came back to Corus in the first place is, is this doctor network is, is like no other I’ve been in this industry for 20 years. And I’ve met a lot of doctors through my time here. And, um, when I just look across the board at our network of people, who they are, how they practice, what they’re interested in, I, I believe it’s, it’s top-notch and it’s a place that, um, that, that I definitely wanted to land. And I think that’s, that’s what doctors who are going through this process really need to understand and to look at when they’re, when they’re looking to join.

Bill Neuman: Well, Dean and Adam, really great conversation. I think this was as good, if not better, than our conversation that we had in Philadelphia. So if anyone, first off, final thoughts from both of you. And then I’d love to, if somebody wants to find out more about Corus in the audience, what’s the best way to find that out? So shout out email addresses and website would be great too for the people that might be just listening. But I’d love to just get some final thoughts before we go.

Dean Provost: Well, maybe I’ll give final thoughts and maybe Adam, you can help with how to reach us as well as final thoughts. But from a guy who’s been in a variety of industries over the last 30 years, here’s an observation. There is nothing like this. I’ve had the opportunity to consult to a dozen industries in work in five or six more, and I’ve never seen anything like the dental space broadly and the ortho space specifically. The kindness, the patient focus, the camaraderie, the esprit de corps and the give back that everyone has to their community and to the specialty in which they support. I’ve just never seen anything like it. So for what it’s worth, I feel very lucky to be a part of this. I hope everybody does as well. And I think it’s incumbent on us to keep this specialty going and growing and provide a place for new grads coming out, of all shapes and sizes with all kinds of interests in how they want to grow a practice whether it’s they don’t want to start their own how they want to do so maybe as an entrepreneur inside an organization that supports their own ability to do so. So I’m just excited by this at this time of being available to help young doctors do that and also provide a place, as Adam described, for doctors who can, you know, spend the next part of their career and an easy transition into mentoring, into supporting others, into clinical work, into looking at technologies, all the teaching, all this exciting stuff that really I think fits the nature of an orthodontist who never seems to leave. They’ve always seems to have a connection into their specialty. And that’s really the way we’re thinking about our organization is helping make that happen on steroids in substance more than they could ever do on their own. Thanks for the time Bill, it’s been really fun to chat.

Bill Neuman: Thanks Dean.

Adam Pollack: Yeah, and I’ll chime in as far as shameless plugs to the website, of course, www.Corusortho.com. There’s information on there to reach out. My information is apollock, as it reads on the screen, at chorusortho.com. So those are ways to get in touch with us. Easy to have a conversation. If anything, we’ve learned over the years and me being in this industry for a long time and many of our home office personnel and Dean included, we want to support the community and we want to be a resource of information and we’re happy to discuss these things and we’re pretty transparent. You can even hear in the way that Dean talks about our company and our organization and our equity. We’re a pretty transparent organization. We don’t have things to hide. And I would say reach out. We’re happy to give information that we know about the industry. There’s many of us at Coors that know a lot about the industry. It’s hard if you’re an independent orthodontist to figure out what your next step looks like. And so take the time, make the calls. We’re happy to discuss. Bill, I think your team’s been doing a great job of educating the whole dental community about what is happening and keeping abreast of that. So there’s resources out there and there’s people out there that can help. So we do appreciate being on here. Thanks, Bill, for taking the time to bring us back in.

Bill Neuman: Yeah, thanks so much, Dean and Adam. It’s great, great conversation. And the model is, is really unique. And it’s nice to hear that there’s really an opportunity for, you know, orthodontists that are, you know, looking for that true support. We, you know, we hear that the acronyms so much in the industry, OSO, DSO, everything’s an acronym. But, you know, there is importance behind, you know, what everything stands for. And sometimes I don’t think that S is thought so much about. So, yes, support is certainly important. And I think you’re seeing a lot more clinicians that are looking for that, whether it’s mentorship, whether it’s you know, business support, a lot of times it’s a comedy, help with procurement, things like that that they didn’t have the chance to learn in dental school, in their specialty, or quite frankly, don’t want to deal with. So, great opportunity. Yeah, thanks, guys. Great conversation. And thank you, everybody, for watching the podcast, or you may be listening. Either way, thank you. Until next time, this is the Group Dentistry Now Show.