![](https://www.groupdentistrynow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/PK-DB-5297929-110124_GDN_NOV.gif")
Guardian Dentistry Partners, who was featured on our “Emerging Dental Groups to Watch in 2020” list, just announced a further expansion of its growing number of partnerships across the country by adding North Carolina’s FRESHDental group, which has seven locations throughout North Carolina, to the family.
Started in 2019, the group was founded by NKP Capital. The group is not PE backed, but is dentist-entrepreneur and family-office backed.
Already partnered with dental practices in four states, Guardian Dentistry Partners is a Dental Partnership Network that focuses its mission on support. With Guardian, dental practices and groups are preserving their special cultures while protecting their futures; Guardian functions as the practice’s partner not proprietor.
Guardian’s organizational structure is their key differentiator. Currently, they are a group DSO that consists of five key partnerships. They are investing behind proven dental entrepreneurs and forging such partnerships with leaders who want to continue to lead their group practice and continue to support the team that they have cultivated.
Another key differentiator is that their partners are all meaningful stakeholders in their respective states at the DSO level, which strongly aligns interests as their partners will benefit from the DSO multiple and bespoke access to capital that NKP brings to the table; one of the most demonstrable phrases they say to their new partners to explain this concept is, “Our dollars are as green as yours” – a true partnership in every sense of the word. No disproportionate fees, no overly convoluted cap table – pari passu partners with meaningful voices at the table to deliberate and grow their business.
“From the moment we met them, it was inherently clear that Guardian understood our mission. They encourage us to continue running our business in the entrepreneurial spirit we’ve established. I’d compare Guardian to a good coach, guiding us but also standing behind us, giving us the autonomy we need to practice as we choose.” -Dr. Amit Ganglani, Founding Partner, FRESHDental
With a dynamic team, their biggest challenge is managing the number of new ideas. The DSO wants to create a debate-deliberate-consensus culture where they will debate and deliberate ideas, and hopefully the solutions become so obvious, they achieve consensus.
“While Guardian brings together passionate, purpose-driven, like-minded dentists, each of our partners is very different, and it’s those differences that makes us stronger. Guardian’s network allows us to effectively share best practices and resources with our dental entrepreneurs.” -Dr. Hisham Barakat, Chief Clinical Officer, Guardian
Guardian’s long-term growth plan for the next five+ years is to serve their patients entire continuum of oral care by creating multi-specialty centers (the “Cleveland Clinic Model”) within their groups where internal referrals are sent to a skilled in-house specialists who provides the convenience of a ‘One Stop Shop’ to their patients, instead of being referred out. They also want to be the employer of choice for associates and employees, providing them with high-impact, career-changing educational and training resources, as well as world-class competitive benefits including a compelling equity program. From a size standpoint, they want to support 150-250 practices across eight-12 state/regional partnerships.
“Guardian is in the business of people,” said Mark Censoprano, Guardian’s Chief Operating Officer and Chief Marketing Officer. “We believe our partners must have the independence needed to maintain their autonomy and continue to function as the friendly, family dentistry practices they have spent years building. At Guardian, we provide that unwavering commitment, while also backing our practices with strong financial and business support, and economies of scale that they need to remain competitive.”
Guardian’s burgeoning partnerships include practices and groups in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Texas and now North Carolina. Significant additional expansion in both the Southeast and Northeast is expected to be announced within the next several weeks.
Key executives in group:
- Drs. Hisham Barakat, Sanae Berrada, and Uzma Ansari: VA Partners
- Drs. Noah Levi & Oleg Krivichkin: MI Partners
- Dr. Antonio Molina: TX Partner
- Mark Censoprano: CMO/ COO
- Danny Kawas: Managing Partner
- Dr. Hisham Barakat: Chief Clinical Officer
Looking for a Job? Looking to Fill a Job? JoinDSO.com can help:
Subscribe for free to the most-read and respected
resource for DSO analysis, news & events:
Read what our subscribers & advertisers think of us:
