Providence Dental Partners: Georgia's Fast-Growing DPO

Most dental group stories start in a private-equity boardroom. Providence Dental Partners started in a Macon, Georgia dental practice — and its founders have made that origin the core of the pitch. Launched at the end of 2023 by a practicing dentist-entrepreneur and a longtime dental industry executive, the self-described "Dental Partnership Organization" grew from a single legacy practice group to roughly ten Georgia locations in about two years, landing on the Inc. 5000 and multiple Becker's DSO lists along the way. For investors tracking the emerging-group layer of the DSO market, it is a useful case study in how fast a doctor-led platform can scale without a disclosed institutional sponsor.

Overview

Providence Dental Partners (PDP) is a dental partnership organization headquartered in Macon, Georgia. The company was established in December 2023, formed around Providence Dental Spa — a multi-office private practice group that Dr. Jason Mann founded in Macon in October 2011.¹ Mann serves as co-founder and chief dental officer; his co-founder, CEO Phil Cassis, spent the prior decade as an executive at one of the largest dental companies in the world, advising thousands of practices across all 50 states on business strategy, according to his company biography.¹

PDP deliberately brands itself as a DPO rather than a conventional DSO. The distinction, as the company frames it, is that affiliated dentists share in decisions, processes, and the financial success of the organization through its "Pathway to Partnership," rather than operating as managed clinics under a centralized ownership group.¹ Trade-press coverage describes the founders' vision as a group that "prioritizes providers and patients over investment banks and financial returns," with a structure the company says eliminates bank debt covenants and financial-institution control.² That places PDP in the same doctor-equity current as much larger platforms like MB2 Dental, though at a far earlier stage and — based on available disclosure — without private-equity backing. We found no announced institutional sponsor; ownership details beyond the two co-founders are not publicly disclosed.

The support layer looks like a standard DSO services stack: accounting, analytics, coaching and consulting, marketing, compliance, education and training, facilities management, human resources, procurement, and revenue cycle management.¹ The corporate team includes a director of operations, a director of partner development focused on sourcing and integrating acquisitions, a dedicated doctor recruiter, and regional operations managers — a fuller bench than many groups of this size carry.¹

Company Snapshot

• Company: Providence Dental Partners (PDP)
• Headquarters: Macon, Georgia
• Founded: December 2023 (roots in Providence Dental Spa, founded October 2011)
• Founders: Phil Cassis (co-founder and CEO); Dr. Jason Mann, DMD (co-founder and chief dental officer)
• Model: Dental partnership organization (DPO); doctor-partnership structure with acquisition-driven growth
• Ownership: Founder-led; no disclosed private-equity sponsor based on available public information
• Estimated footprint: Approximately 9 dental offices plus 1 med spa across 7 practice brands, all in Georgia (TMR estimate from company listings as of mid-2026; the company does not publish an office count)
• Service mix: General, cosmetic, and surgical dentistry; implant and full-arch restoration; medical spa services
• Recognition: Inc. 5000 No. 3,858 (2025); Becker's "DSOs to Know" lists in 2024 and 2026; Group Dentistry Now "Emerging Dental Groups to Watch" (2025)

Footprint Analysis

PDP is a single-state platform. Every listed location sits in Georgia, concentrated along two poles: the legacy Middle Georgia base in Macon and a growing cluster across metro Atlanta.¹

As of the company's mid-2026 practice listings, the network spans seven brands:¹

• Providence Dental Spa — Macon, Newnan, and East Cobb (the legacy Mann practices)
• Providence Med Spa — Macon (aesthetics; founded 2022)
• Powers Ferry Dentistry — Atlanta
• Inspire Dental — Sandy Springs (joined July 2024)
• Kennestone Dental Designs — Marietta
• Dental Center of Atlanta — Union City
• 1st Choice Dental Center — Kennesaw and Woodstock (joined October 2025)

Counting the listed cities, that is nine dental offices plus the med spa — roughly ten locations in all — though the company describes its network by practice partnerships rather than publishing an office count, so treat the total as an estimate. Notably, the Inspire Dental partnership announcement referenced three metro Atlanta locations (Sandy Springs, Roswell, and Alpharetta), while current listings show only Sandy Springs; the difference is not publicly explained, and network rosters at this scale shift as practices consolidate or rebrand.³

Two structural observations stand out. First, PDP retains local practice brands rather than converting acquisitions to a house banner — consistent with its partnership positioning and typical of groups whose acquisition targets are reputation-rich legacy practices. Second, the geographic strategy is a classic hub-and-densify play: the company has stated ambitions to expand across the southeastern United States, but through mid-2026 every partnership has landed in Georgia, with the Atlanta metro absorbing most of the new activity.²

Growth History

PDP's growth arc compresses a lot into thirty months:

• October 2011: Dr. Jason Mann founds Providence Dental Spa in Macon; it grows into a multi-office group over the following decade.¹
• 2022: Mann launches Providence Med Spa, adding an aesthetics line alongside the dental practices.¹
• December 2023: Cassis and Mann establish Providence Dental Partners, merging in Providence Dental Spa as the founding asset.¹
• July 2024: First external partnership — Inspire Dental, a metro Atlanta group founded by Dr. Aaron Larsen with locations announced in Sandy Springs, Roswell, and Alpharetta.³
• August 2024: Named to Becker's "65 DSOs to Know" list within its first year of operation.⁴
• Year-end 2024: The company reports expanding to nine dental practices plus the med spa, with 348% revenue growth in its inaugural year — a figure that is company-reported and starts from a small base, but signals rapid early dealmaking.²
• August 2025: Debuts at No. 3,858 on the Inc. 5000 with a 97% three-year revenue growth rate (a window that largely reflects the pre-PDP Providence Dental Spa business plus the first partnership year).⁵
• October 2025: Partners with First Choice Dental Centers, a two-office implant and full-arch-focused group serving Cobb and Cherokee counties for more than two decades under founder Dr. Kelly Vaughn.³
• March 2026: Included on Becker's "DSOs to Know: 2026" list.⁴

The growth engine is straightforward: acquire established, well-regarded private practices in Georgia, keep the founding doctors in the chair with stated clinical autonomy, and layer on centralized business services. Deal terms, revenue, and EBITDA are not disclosed for any transaction, so the platform's actual scale in dollar terms cannot be independently verified. What can be observed is deal cadence — roughly one multi-office partnership per expansion cycle, weighted toward practices with premium service lines like implants and full-mouth rehabilitation.

Competitive Landscape

PDP competes on two fronts: for patients in Georgia, and — more consequentially for its growth model — for the loyalty of selling dentists in a crowded Southeast acquisition market.

On the patient side, Georgia is contested territory for consolidated dentistry. Benevis operates a large Medicaid-focused footprint in the state, and Coast Dental has long run general-dentistry offices across Georgia and Florida. Larger national DSOs, including Heartland Dental and Aspen Dental, maintain a substantial Georgia presence as well. PDP's practices, skewing toward cosmetic, implant, and fee-for-service dentistry in affluent Atlanta suburbs, sit mostly upmarket of the Medicaid-heavy operators — a positioning that reduces head-on collision but also concentrates exposure to discretionary dental spending.

On the acquisition side, PDP's real competition is the wave of partnership-model groups courting the same sellers. Guardian Dentistry Partners runs a network-of-networks partnership model across the Southeast at many times PDP's scale, and GPS Dental pitches a joint-ownership structure to practices in the Carolinas and beyond. The doctor-partnership pitch — autonomy, local brand retention, shared upside — has become the default sales script for emerging DSOs, which means PDP's differentiation increasingly rests on execution and culture rather than on the model itself. Its counter-positioning against PE-backed rivals (no bank covenants, no institutional control, per the company) is genuinely distinctive among Southeast consolidators, but it cuts both ways: it appeals to sellers wary of recapitalization churn, while leaving open the question of how larger acquisitions get financed as targets grow.

Market Position

Within the DSO universe, PDP occupies the "emerging group" tier — platforms of roughly 5 to 15 locations that have institutionalized their operations but not yet taken (or disclosed) institutional capital. Trade press has treated it as a group to watch: Group Dentistry Now featured it among its Emerging Dental Groups to Watch for 2025, and Becker's has now recognized it in both 2024 and 2026 list cycles.⁴

For investors, the relevant frame is what PDP represents rather than its absolute size. Georgia's dental market — anchored by metro Atlanta's population growth — continues to attract consolidation capital, and sub-scale, founder-owned platforms with clean regional density are precisely the profile that private-equity-backed consolidators and larger DPOs acquire to enter or densify a market. PDP's stated intent is the opposite of building-to-sell: its public messaging emphasizes independence from investment banks and financial returns as an organizing principle.² Whether that stance survives the capital requirements of Southeast-wide expansion is the central open question. Other alternative-equity groups have shown the model can scale well beyond the emerging tier, but doing so still requires outside capital in some form.

Based on available data, PDP today is best characterized as a founder-controlled, single-state platform with proven deal execution in one of the Southeast's most attractive metros, meaningful key-person concentration in its two co-founders, and no public financial disclosure. The 97% three-year growth rate on the Inc. 5000 is the only externally validated growth metric on the record; everything else — the 348% inaugural-year figure included — is company-reported.⁵

TMR Take: For operators, PDP is a credible read on what selling dentists now demand: local brand retention, clinical autonomy, and equity participation are table stakes in the Southeast, and groups that can't articulate a partnership story are losing deals to those that can. For vendors, a seven-brand, roughly ten-location group with a centralized procurement, RCM, and analytics stack is exactly the profile where a single corporate relationship flips an entire network — and PDP's premium implant and cosmetic mix makes it a richer target than its office count suggests. For investors, PDP is one to file, not chase: too small and too thinly disclosed for direct interest today, but a well-positioned Atlanta-density asset whose founder-independence stance would make any future capital raise or sale process a meaningful signal about where the emerging-DPO tier is heading.

Tracking the emerging-group layer of the DSO market takes more than press releases. Explore our other company profiles and market research for the operators, consolidators, and platforms shaping dental services — or reach out if your diligence needs go deeper than the public record.

Sources

1. Providence Dental Partners — company website, leadership biographies, and practice listings.

2. Group Dentistry Now — "Emerging Dental Groups to Watch in 2025."

3. Providence Dental Partners — press releases and partnership announcements.

4. Becker's Dental + DSO Review — DSO recognition lists and industry coverage.

5. Inc. — 2025 Inc. 5000 ranking and company profile.