The One Question Almost Nobody Asks Before Getting Braces
A dad sat in my Frisco office a while back, comparing consultation notes from two orthodontists before deciding where to start his daughter’s treatment. He liked the other office. “They’re a local Frisco practice, family-owned, been here forever,” he told me. I asked him a simple question: “Are you sure about that?” He paused. He wasn’t sure at all. He’d just assumed.
I’m Dr. Kevin Baharvand, a board-certified orthodontist and co-founder of Tribute Family Dentistry and Elate Orthodontics in West Frisco. I want to talk about something almost no family thinks to check before committing to two years of orthodontic care and several thousand dollars: who actually owns the practice you’re trusting with your child’s smile? It’s not a gotcha question. It’s one of the most useful things you can know, and there’s now a simple, free way to look it up.
Why Ownership Actually Matters to You
For most of dentistry’s history, your orthodontist owned their office, worked in it every day, and answered to no one but you and their own conscience. That’s a private practice. Increasingly, though, practices are owned or backed by large multi-office organizations, and that structure can quietly shape your experience in ways worth understanding.
Ownership can affect who actually makes your treatment decisions, whether you see the same doctor at every visit or a rotating roster, whether there are network-wide production targets influencing what gets recommended, and where the money you pay ultimately goes. None of this means a large organization automatically delivers worse care, and plenty of excellent, ethical doctors work within these networks. The point is simpler and fairer than “corporate bad, private good”: you deserve to know the structure you’re buying into, and to choose with your eyes open.
What Is a DSO — or a “DPO”?
The umbrella term is a Dental Service Organization (DSO). Some newer groups prefer Dental Partnership Organization (DPO), which signals that the treating doctor keeps an ownership stake rather than selling out entirely. Either way, the practice is affiliated with a larger company that provides capital, management, marketing, and shared services across many offices.
A good local example to understand is MB2 Dental, which is headquartered in Dallas and describes itself as “the first and largest dental partnership organization” in the country. By its own public announcements, MB2 has grown past 800 affiliated practices across roughly 40 states, partnering with well over a thousand dentists. To MB2’s credit, its model is built around keeping doctors as owners with clinical autonomy — that’s a genuinely different philosophy than a faceless chain. But make no mistake: a practice inside an 800-office network is a very different animal than a solo doctor who hangs their own shingle, and a family choosing between them should at least know which one they’re looking at.
And MB2 is far from the only one. Other groups — including the North Texas–based Five Point Dental Specialists and a growing list of DSOs and DPOs — operate on similar multi-practice models across the Dallas–Fort Worth region. The trend is real, it’s accelerating, and it has quietly reached Frisco.
The Part Most Frisco Families Miss
Here’s the wrinkle: the branding rarely tells you. A DSO- or DPO-affiliated office often markets itself exactly the way an independent practice does — warm, local, doctor’s-name-on-the-door. You usually won’t find the parent organization mentioned anywhere on the homepage.
Take a well-known Frisco example. RxSmile Frisco Orthodontics, led by Dr. Greg Greenberg, is a publicly documented MB2 Dental partner practice. You don’t have to take my word for it — it’s disclosed on RxSmile’s own website, which states that “several MB2 Dental partners, including RxSmile Frisco Orthodontics, have committed to donating orthodontic care” through a charity program (you can read it here), and MB2’s own channels feature Dr. Greenberg as one of their partner-owners. To be clear and fair: Dr. Greenberg is a real, experienced doctor-owner, and partnering with a DPO is a completely legitimate business choice. But you won’t see “MB2” on the RxSmile homepage, and I’d bet most of their patients have no idea the practice is part of a national network. That’s not a scandal. It’s just information most families never get — and, in my opinion, should.
And RxSmile is one example among many. With MB2 alone operating hundreds of practices, and other DSOs active across North Texas, more of the “local” offices around Frisco, The Colony, Little Elm, and Prosper are network-affiliated than most patients realize.
How to Check Any Practice Yourself — in About 60 Seconds
This is the whole reason I’m writing. There’s now a free directory built specifically to answer the ownership question: TheOrthodontistNearMe.com. Its entire premise is transparency — as the site puts it, you can “see who really owns your orthodontist.” You can filter practices by:
- Ownership type — privately owned versus corporate/DSO-affiliated.
- Board certification — whether the doctor is certified by the American Board of Orthodontics, a voluntary credential held by a minority of orthodontists.
- Practical details like multiple locations, weekend hours, and Medicaid acceptance.
Before you sign anything, look up the practices on your short list. It costs you nothing and takes about a minute, and it turns “I just assumed” into “I actually know.”
Where We Stand — and Why I’m Telling You This
I’ll be transparent about my own bias, because you should always ask about it. Tribute Family Dentistry and Elate Orthodontics are independently, doctor-owned — my wife Dr. Julia Kang and I own and run them ourselves, right here at FM 423 and Lebanon. We are not part of a DSO or a national network. The same two doctors who diagnose you are the ones who finish your case, and the decisions start and stop with us.
Do I think that’s the better model? Honestly, yes — for continuity and accountability, I do. But I’m not asking you to take my word for it, and I’m genuinely not telling you to avoid every network practice. I’m telling you to check, compare, and decide for yourself. A practice confident in its value has no reason to hope you never ask who owns it.
There’s a bigger idea here that goes beyond orthodontics. When you choose a locally owned, independent practice, your dollars stay with a neighbor who lives in this community, hires from it, sponsors the local teams, and answers to you directly rather than to out-of-town investors. I’m a firm believer in supporting local, privately owned businesses — the coffee shop, the hardware store, and yes, the family dental office. That’s the fabric of a place like Frisco, and it’s worth protecting with the choices we make.
Questions Worth Asking Any Orthodontist
- Who owns this practice? Is it independently owned, or affiliated with a DSO, DPO, or larger group?
- Will I see the same doctor at every visit, from consultation through the day my braces come off?
- Are you board-certified by the American Board of Orthodontics?
- Who makes my treatment plan — the doctor treating me, or a network protocol?
- If something goes wrong, who is accountable, and will that person still be here next year?
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a corporate or DSO-owned orthodontist bad?
Not automatically. Many skilled, caring doctors practice within DSOs and DPOs, and some patients have wonderful experiences. The concern isn’t the model itself — it’s that patients often don’t know the model exists, so they can’t factor it into their choice. Transparency, not avoidance, is the goal.
How do I find out who owns a specific practice?
Search the practice on TheOrthodontistNearMe.com, which flags ownership type. You can also check the practice’s own website and press mentions, and simply ask the front desk directly, “Is this office independently owned or affiliated with a larger group?”
Is RxSmile Frisco Orthodontics independently owned?
Based on public disclosures, RxSmile Frisco Orthodontics (Dr. Greg Greenberg) is a partner practice of MB2 Dental, a national dental partnership organization — stated on RxSmile’s own website and MB2’s public materials. Dr. Greenberg remains a doctor-owner under MB2’s partnership model, but the practice is part of that larger network rather than a fully standalone independent office.
Is Elate Orthodontics corporate-owned?
No. Elate Orthodontics and Tribute Family Dentistry are independently owned and operated by Dr. Kevin Baharvand and Dr. Julia Kang, with no DSO or corporate affiliation.
Come See the Difference for Yourself
If you’re weighing orthodontic options anywhere in Frisco, West Frisco, The Colony, Little Elm, or Prosper, do the 60-second ownership check on every practice you’re considering — including ours. Then come talk to us. You can learn more about our orthodontic care, read about our team and philosophy, or reach out to Elate Orthodontics and Tribute Family Dentistry at 5605 FM 423, Suite 600-B, Frisco, TX 75036, or call (469) 598-1021. Ask us who owns the place. We’ll be glad you did.
— Dr. Kevin Baharvand
This article reflects publicly available information and my own professional perspective. Affiliations described are based on public disclosures by the organizations named and were accurate to the best of my knowledge at the time of writing. It is offered for general educational purposes, not as a criticism of the care provided by any individual practice.
