Indiana’s dental landscape is evolving, with a growing number of dental service organizations (DSOs) establishing a presence across the state. With a DSO affiliation rate of 14%—right at the national average—Indiana presents a dynamic market where multi-location groups are scaling operations and diversifying clinical offerings to capture more patient lifetime value. 

A critical challenge these expanding DSOs face is the operational strain of high call volume, where missed calls directly translate to lost production. An AI receptionist for dentists like Arini.ai ensures that every inbound opportunity is captured and converted into a scheduled appointment, protecting the top of the revenue funnel.

Key Takeaways

• Missed calls are a major revenue leak: The average dental practice misses 32% of calls, with only 42% of answered calls converting to appointments, representing a loss of 71 potential patients per 100 calls.
• DSOs in Indiana are growing: Operating in a moderate-penetration market (14% DSO affiliation), national and regional groups are expanding their footprints, especially around the Indianapolis metro and Brownsburg areas.
• Service line diversification is key: Leading DSOs build revenue on a foundation of family dentistry and high-volume hygiene, while strategically adding premium services like implants and orthodontics.
• Revenue protection is non-negotiable: For a multi-location DSO, the annual revenue loss from missed calls can easily exceed an estimated $100,000 per location. A 24/7 AI receptionist is essential infrastructure to capture every opportunity.

1. Heartland Dental

As the largest DSO in the United States, Heartland Dental maintains a significant presence in Indiana, with numerous affiliated practices concentrated in the Indianapolis metropolitan area and its suburbs, including Brownsburg. Heartland’s model is built on supporting a vast network of dentist-owned practices with centralized business, marketing, and technology services.

Core Service Lines:

• Family Dentistry Foundation: Heartland practices serve as a primary care hub for families, offering comprehensive general dentistry for all ages. This high-volume, recurring-care model anchors their patient base and drives steady production.
• Hygiene Volume Engine: A core profitability driver, Heartland emphasizes proactive hygiene recare programs. Automated, high-frequency recall scheduling ensures consistent patient flow and high-margin production from cleanings and preventive care.
• Strategic Specialty Integration: While primarily focused on general and family care, many Heartland-supported practices are increasingly integrating or partnering for services like orthodontics (especially clear aligners) and, in some locations, offering in-house implant placement to capture more complex, high-value cases.

2. Aspen Dental

Aspen Dental is a well-known national brand with a strong operational footprint across Indiana, from major cities to smaller communities. Their strategy focuses on making dental care accessible and affordable, often serving patients who have delayed treatment.

Core Service Lines:

• Comprehensive General & Restorative Dentistry: Aspen’s primary focus is on treating a high volume of restorative cases (fillings, crowns, extractions) and providing comprehensive care plans, often financed through their own payment options.
• Hygiene and Preventive Care: Like other large DSOs, Aspen leverages its hygiene department for consistent production and to establish a foundation for long-term patient relationships and future treatment.
• Denture and Implant Services: Aspen has heavily invested in its “Denture Care Centers” and is a major player in the full-arch and single-tooth implant market. They often use on-staff specialists or dedicated implant coordinators to manage this high-revenue service line, making it a key differentiator from many solo practices.
• Technology Adoption: Aspen is actively piloting AI tools, including for diagnostics and revenue cycle management, positioning itself at the forefront of operational technology in dentistry.

3. Affordable Care

Affordable Care operates a network of dental centers, with a mission centered on community health and accessibility, which extends to its Indiana locations.

Core Service Lines:

• Community-Focused Family Dentistry: Their model is designed to be a one-stop shop for families, offering dental services under one roof, which increases convenience and patient retention.
• Preventive and Essential Care: The focus is on providing essential, high-quality dental care at an affordable price point, appealing to a broad demographic and driving consistent patient volume.
• Hygiene and Periodontal Services: A strong emphasis is placed on preventive hygiene and managing periodontal disease, which represents a significant and recurring source of production.

4. Midwest Dental

Midwest Dental is a prominent regional DSO with deep roots in the Midwest, including a solid presence in Indiana. They support a network of dentist-owned and operated practices, providing them with administrative and operational support.

Core Service Lines:

• General and Family Dentistry: Midwest’s affiliated practices provide a full spectrum of general dental services, serving as the primary care provider for their local communities.
• Hygiene-Centric Production: Similar to other major DSOs, Midwest Dental leverages its hygiene department as a core profit center, using systematic recare protocols to ensure consistent scheduling and revenue.
• Specialty Service Expansion: Many of their practices are expanding their service offerings to include orthodontics (particularly Invisalign for general dentists) and implant dentistry to increase case acceptance and patient lifetime value.

5. DentalOne Partners

While its footprint may be smaller than the giants, DentalOne Partners is a national DSO known for its partnership model with existing practice owners, helping them transition while retaining clinical autonomy. They have been active in acquiring and supporting practices in the Indiana market.

Core Service Lines:

• General Dentistry with a Growth Mindset: DentalOne supports practices that offer comprehensive general dentistry but are often focused on growth and modernization.
• Emphasis on Clinical Excellence and Technology: Their model often attracts practices looking to invest in advanced technology, which can pave the way for offering more complex services like digital implant planning and orthodontics.
• Operational Efficiency: A key part of their value proposition is improving practice operations, which includes optimizing the front desk and call handling—areas where an AI receptionist can have an immediate impact.

Regional and Independent Group Practices

Beyond the large national brands, Indiana’s dental market includes a number of successful regional DSOs and independent group practices that operate multiple locations. These organizations are often founded by local dentists and have a strong understanding of the specific needs of Indiana communities. 

They typically follow the same strategic playbook as their larger counterparts, building on a core of family and preventive dentistry while selectively adding high-value services like orthodontics or implants to differentiate themselves and drive growth.

Why Indiana DSOs Are Expanding: Multi-Location Growth and Service Line Strategy

The DSO model is thriving in Indiana, driven by a favorable regulatory environment like the recent HB 1666, which paves the path for practitioner-led consolidation. This growth is not just about adding more chairs; it’s about strategic service line diversification. The foundation for nearly every successful DSO is a high-volume family dentistry practice that provides a steady stream of patients. From this base, they build profitability through two key strategies: maximizing hygiene production and adding premium services.

Hygiene appointments are the “profit engine” for multi-location groups, offering high-margin, recurring revenue with lower clinical complexity. Simultaneously, services like orthodontics (especially clear aligners) and implant dentistry provide significant, high-ticket revenue streams that increase patient lifetime value and help a practice stand out in a competitive market. This multi-specialty approach, however, dramatically increases the complexity and volume of inbound patient calls.

The Hidden Revenue Crisis: How Missed Calls Erode DSO Production

For a growing DSO in Indiana, the phone is the most critical point of patient acquisition. Yet, this is also where a massive revenue leak occurs. On average, dental practices fail to answer 32% of their inbound calls. Of the calls they do answer, only 42% are successfully converted into scheduled appointments. This means that for every 100 calls a practice receives, a staggering 71 potential patients are lost.

This problem is amplified for DSOs. When a single missed call represents a lost opportunity worth an average of $1,200 to $1,300 in annual practice income, a multi-location group can easily bleed over $100,000 in potential revenue per year per location. The primary culprit? Voicemail. A shocking 75% of patients will simply hang up without leaving a message if they are sent to voicemail, particularly after hours or during busy lunch periods.

How Arini.ai Ensures Every Inbound Call Becomes a Scheduled Visit

Arini.ai is built to solve this exact problem for multi-location dental groups. Our AI receptionist platform answers 100% of inbound calls, 24/7, ensuring that no patient inquiry—whether it’s a new patient calling about an emergency, a parent asking about their child’s first visit, or a returning patient seeking an implant consultation—is ever lost to voicemail purgatory.

What Arini Does:

• 24/7 Call Answering: Our AI voice agent is always on, handling calls during business hours, after hours, weekends, and holidays, converting what would be missed calls into booked appointments.
• Intelligent Scheduling: Using natural language processing tuned specifically for dental workflows, Arini can understand a patient’s request and book appointments directly into your existing practice management system (PMS), whether it’s OpenDental, Dentrix, EagleSoft, or Denticon.
• Seamless PMS Integration: Our dental practice management software integrations mean appointments are booked in real-time, eliminating manual data entry and ensuring your schedule is always accurate.
• Customizable Call Flows: For DSOs, our platform supports multi-location dental group scheduling with custom routing rules. A call from a patient in Brownsburg is intelligently directed to a Brownsburg practice, and the AI follows your specific scheduling protocols for hygiene, exams, or new patient consults.

The Proven Impact: Capturing Lost Revenue

The financial impact of solving the call conversion crisis is immediate and substantial. One dental group, Northwest Dental, documented an increase of $78,000 in revenue within just 30 days of improving its call handling. By converting even a fraction of the 71 lost patients per 100 calls, a DSO can recover tens of thousands of dollars in annual revenue per location.

Arini.ai doesn’t just answer the phone; it acts as a revenue protection system for your DSO. It allows your front-desk staff to focus on providing an exceptional in-office experience for patients who are already there, while the AI captures every new opportunity from the phone line. This is how top-performing practices achieve industry-leading answer rates of 91-95% and conversion rates of 85% or higher.

For Indiana DSOs looking to scale efficiently and protect their marketing investment, ensuring that every call is answered and every opportunity is converted is not just an operational goal—it’s a financial imperative. Arini.ai provides the infrastructure to make that a reality.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Which DSOs operate the most locations in Indiana? 

A: National giants like Heartland Dental and Aspen Dental have the most extensive footprints in the state, with numerous affiliated or corporate-owned practices, particularly in the Indianapolis metro area.

Q: What service lines do Indiana DSOs prioritize for revenue growth? 

A: DSOs in Indiana build their business on a foundation of family and general dentistry, which drives patient volume. They then strategically layer on high-margin hygiene programs and premium services like orthodontics (clear aligners) and implant dentistry to maximize patient lifetime value and production per visit.

Q: How many patient calls does the average dental practice miss per week? 

A: With an average answer rate of just 68%, a busy practice can miss dozens of calls each week. This translates to a loss of 71 potential patients for every 100 calls received, representing a massive, ongoing revenue leak.

Q: Can Arini.ai integrate with my existing practice management system? 

A: Yes. Arini.ai offers seamless, one-click integrations with all major dental PMS platforms, including OpenDental, Dentrix, EagleSoft, and Denticon. Appointments are booked directly into your live schedule in real time.

Q: How quickly can a multi-location DSO deploy Arini.ai across all sites? 

A: Arini.ai is designed for rapid, enterprise-scale deployment. With its cloud-based architecture and simple integration process, a DSO can typically have the AI receptionist live and answer calls across multiple locations within a matter of days, not weeks.