Gentle Dental to Acquire 41 Practices

Gentle Dental Service Corp. is purchasing 41 dental practices in California for about $22.75 million. The action to acquire the practices from Dedicated Dental Systems Inc. of Bakersfield will make Vancouver, Wash.-based Gentle Dental the nation’s second-largest publicly traded operator of dental practices. The purchase will be made in cash and 1.7 million shares of Gentle Dental common stock. The acquisition is the latest in a series by Gentle Dental. It bought out Pacific Medical Center in Seattle in July for $600,000 and Blue Oak Dental Group in Sacramento in March for $1.55 million. Gentle Dental’s affiliated dental practices currently employ more than 70 dentists at 22 locations in California, Oregon and Washington. Gentle Dental shares rose 13 cents to close at $11.75 on Nasdaq.