The dental industry's biggest leadership event of the fall — Becker's 5th Annual Future of Dentistry Roundtable — convenes in Chicago September 14–15, 2026, bringing together more than 250 DSO executives, chief dental officers, and practice leaders to debate AI-driven workflows, consolidation strategy, and the workforce pipeline. As of September 2026, Canadian independent practices should pay attention to three headline themes that will ripple north of the border within months.
The Becker's Future of Dentistry Roundtable has become the dental industry's annual barometer for where corporate dentistry is heading. While the event takes place in Chicago and its speaker roster skews heavily toward U.S.-based dental service organizations (DSOs), the strategic playbooks debated at this conference increasingly shape how Canadian group practices, private equity-backed chains like Dentalcorp, and even solo practitioners in the Greater Toronto Area navigate the next twelve months.
Here is what Ontario dentists and practice owners should be watching from afar — and how to translate American DSO strategy into actionable insight for the Canadian market.
What Is the Becker's Future of Dentistry Roundtable?
Now in its fifth year, the Becker's Healthcare Future of Dentistry Roundtable is a two-day, invitation-heavy conference at the Hilton Chicago that gathers chief dental officers, DSO chief executives, private equity investors, and clinical innovators for keynote sessions, peer roundtables, and closed-door strategic discussions. More than 90 percent of the 40-plus speakers are practicing dental executives — not consultants or vendors — which gives the event a practitioner-driven credibility that most dental trade shows lack.
The 2026 agenda covers five major tracks: clinical innovation and digital dentistry; AI-driven practice workflows; merger, acquisition, and consolidation strategy; workforce training pipelines; and margin management under reimbursement pressure. For Canadian practices, three of these tracks carry the most immediate relevance.
Theme 1: AI Workflow Integration Moves from Pilot to Standard Operating Procedure
The 2026 roundtable arrives at a moment when AI in dentistry is crossing the threshold from "interesting pilot" to "operational necessity." Multiple sessions address how DSOs are deploying AI not just for diagnostic imaging — which has been the headline use case since Pearl AI's FDA clearance wave — but for front-desk scheduling, automated insurance verification, patient communication, clinical documentation, and even chairside treatment planning.
RJ Jerome, Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer at Heartland Dental (the largest DSO in the United States with more than 1,800 supported practices), is scheduled to speak on digital transformation at scale. His perspective matters for Canadian dentists because Heartland's technology adoption timeline tends to predict what Canadian group practices will implement 12 to 18 months later.
Pro Tip: Ontario practices considering AI tools for scheduling, recall, or treatment planning should watch for post-conference published summaries from Becker's Dental Review. The specific vendors and platforms discussed in roundtable sessions often become the shortlist for Canadian buyers by Q1 of the following year.
What This Means for Canadian Practices
Health Canada's updated guidance on AI-enabled medical devices (released earlier in 2026) creates a regulatory framework for these tools to enter the Canadian market. The Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario (RCDSO) has not yet issued specific guidance on AI use in clinical decision-making, but as adoption accelerates south of the border, Ontario dentists should expect regulatory clarity — or at minimum, advisory statements — within the next two to three regulatory cycles.
Independent practices in the GTA that adopt AI scheduling or patient communication tools now gain a competitive advantage against both DSO-affiliated competitors and the growing number of tech-forward practices in Mississauga, Vaughan, and Markham.
Theme 2: DSO Consolidation Hits 35% — and Canada Is Next
One of the most-anticipated sessions at the 2026 roundtable draws on data from TUSK Partners' Q3 2026 report, which indicates that the U.S. dental industry has reached approximately 35 percent DSO consolidation — meaning roughly one in three dental practices now operates under some form of group or corporate affiliation. The roundtable will explore whether practice valuations are poised to compress as the market saturates, and what that means for independent owners considering a future exit.
For Canadian dentists, this trend line is especially relevant because Dentalcorp's recent take-private transaction (valued at approximately $2.2 billion) and continued acquisitions by 123Dentist, Altima Dental, and other Canadian groups suggest that consolidation north of the border is accelerating on a similar trajectory, lagging the U.S. by roughly three to five years.
What Ontario Practice Owners Should Consider
If U.S. valuations are beginning to compress at 35 percent consolidation, Canadian practice owners in the GTA who are considering a sale within the next five to seven years should begin preparing now. That preparation includes:
- Documenting systems and standard operating procedures that make the practice transferable
- Building a diversified payer mix that does not rely excessively on the Canadian Dental Care Plan (CDCP) or any single insurance carrier
- Investing in digital infrastructure (intraoral scanners, digital radiography, practice management software with cloud access) that group buyers expect
- Maintaining clean financial records with at least three years of auditable data
Pro Tip: Canadian practice valuations are typically expressed as a multiple of EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) or as a percentage of annual collections. In 2026, well-run Ontario practices in urban markets are trading at 5x to 7x EBITDA. Practices with strong digital infrastructure, documented SOPs, and diversified revenue command the upper end of that range.
Theme 3: The Workforce Pipeline Debate Reaches a Tipping Point
Multiple roundtable sessions address what conference organizers describe as the "workforce training pipeline" — a polite way of acknowledging that the dental industry cannot hire fast enough to keep up with patient demand. In the U.S., this manifests as hygienist shortages, dental assistant vacancies, and difficulty recruiting associate dentists willing to work in corporate settings.
The Canadian parallel is stark. The Canadian Dental Association (CDA) reports that more than 50 percent of dental practices in Canada currently have at least one staff vacancy. Ontario has been particularly affected, with the Ontario Dental Association (ODA) flagging workforce sustainability as a top-three strategic priority at its 2026 Annual Spring Meeting.
The CDCP's enrollment of over 6.3 million Canadians has driven a measurable increase in patient volume that existing staff cannot absorb. At the same time, CDCP reimbursement rates remain below many provincial fee guides, meaning practices need higher patient throughput to maintain revenue — which in turn demands more clinical hours from an already-stretched workforce.
Practical Workforce Strategies from the Roundtable
While the specific solutions discussed at Becker's will be U.S.-focused, several strategic themes translate directly to Ontario:
- Cross-training and expanded roles: Training dental assistants to perform additional clinical functions (within regulatory scope) to reduce the bottleneck on hygienists and dentists
- Retention-first hiring: Investing in retention (compensation, scheduling flexibility, professional development) before spending on recruitment — because replacing a departing team member costs an estimated 1.5x to 2x their annual salary when accounting for lost productivity, training, and recruitment fees
- Technology as a force multiplier: Using AI and automation to handle administrative tasks that currently consume clinical staff time — freeing hygienists and assistants to work at the top of their scope
Pro Tip: Ontario's scope-of-practice expansion for dental hygienists and denturists is currently progressing through the regulatory process. Practice owners who begin cross-training now will be positioned to take advantage of expanded scopes as soon as regulations are finalized.
How to Follow the Roundtable from Canada
The Becker's Future of Dentistry Roundtable is not a public-facing trade show with open registration — it is an executive-level event with a curated attendee list. However, Canadian dentists can access the strategic intelligence from the conference through several channels:
- Becker's Dental Review: The editorial team publishes post-event summaries, speaker interviews, and trend analyses within two to four weeks of the conference
- Group Dentistry Now: This publication covers DSO strategy and often reports on Becker's roundtable takeaways with a focus on consolidation and M&A trends
- Conference social media: Speakers and attendees frequently share key takeaways on LinkedIn during and immediately after the event — searching the conference hashtag can provide real-time insight
The Bigger Picture for Canadian Independent Practices
The Becker's roundtable is, by design, a conference built for and by corporate dentistry. Its sessions assume scale, its speakers lead organizations with hundreds or thousands of locations, and its strategic frameworks are optimized for entities with centralized purchasing, standardized clinical protocols, and professional management teams.
That does not make it irrelevant to the solo practitioner in Scarborough or the two-location partnership in Brampton. On the contrary — understanding what the largest players in North American dentistry are building, buying, and betting on is precisely how independent practices identify where to invest, where to differentiate, and where to compete on terms that favour agility over scale.
The three themes emerging from this year's roundtable — AI workflow integration, consolidation economics, and workforce pipeline innovation — are not abstract trends. They are operational realities that will shape how every dental practice in the GTA operates by the end of 2027.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the Becker's Future of Dentistry Roundtable and who attends?
The Becker's Future of Dentistry Roundtable is an annual two-day executive conference held in Chicago, now in its fifth year. It brings together more than 250 dental industry leaders including DSO chief executives, chief dental officers, private equity investors, and clinical innovators. More than 90 percent of speakers are practicing dental executives rather than consultants, giving the event a practitioner-driven focus on operational strategy, AI adoption, and consolidation trends.
Q: How does U.S. DSO consolidation affect Canadian dental practices?
Canada's dental consolidation trajectory typically lags the United States by three to five years. As the U.S. approaches 35 percent DSO consolidation — with potential valuation compression on the horizon — Canadian independent practice owners in Ontario and the GTA should begin preparing for similar market dynamics. Practices with documented SOPs, digital infrastructure, diversified payer mixes, and clean financial records will command stronger valuations when consolidation accelerates domestically.
Q: What AI tools are U.S. dental practices adopting that Canadian practices should watch?
Beyond diagnostic imaging (which has been the headline AI use case), U.S. DSOs are now deploying AI for front-desk scheduling, automated insurance verification, patient communication and recall, clinical documentation, and chairside treatment planning. Health Canada's updated AI medical device guidance creates a regulatory pathway for these tools to enter the Canadian market, and Ontario practices that adopt early gain a competitive edge against both DSO-affiliated competitors and tech-forward independent practices.