Walk into any mydentist practice across the UK and you will find the same bright logo, the same affordable pricing board, and the same promise of accessible dental care.
But behind those 600+ practices and the 4 million patients they treat every year is an ownership story built almost entirely by private equity firms passing a growing dental empire from one investment group to the next. If you have ever wondered who actually owns your dentist, this is the answer.
What Is mydentist?
mydentist is the UK’s largest dental provider, operating more than 600 practices across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The company is headquartered at Europa House in Kearsley, Manchester, and trades under the legal name IDH Group Limited.
It offers three tiers of dental care — NHS dental treatment, myoptions private dental care, and Premium private dental care — and employs over 3,500 dental professionals working across more than 2,500 surgeries nationwide.
In short, mydentist is the Tesco of UK dentistry — the biggest player by a wide margin, built not through organic growth alone but through decades of aggressive acquisitions.
Who Owns mydentist Right Now in 2026?
mydentist is currently owned by Bridgepoint Group — a British private equity firm listed on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker BPT.
Bridgepoint completed its acquisition of mydentist from Palamon Capital Partners in October 2025 in a deal worth approximately £800 million. It is now the sole owner and controlling party of the entire mydentist group.
Bridgepoint is no stranger to consumer healthcare businesses — its portfolio has included brands like Pret A Manger and Oasis Dental Care, the UK dental group it previously owned before selling it. Investing in mydentist is, in many ways, a return to familiar territory.
Ownership and Key Stakeholders Table
| Owner / Party | Role | Stake | Key Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bridgepoint Group (LSE: BPT) | Current Owner | 100% of mydentist | Acquired from Palamon in October 2025 for ~£800 million |
| Palamon Capital Partners | Previous Owner | Exited October 2025 | Sole owner from 2021; previously co-owned with Carlyle since 2009 |
| The Carlyle Group | Former Co-Owner | Exited 2021 | Co-owned from 2011 until Palamon bought out its stake |
| Tom Riall | Executive Chairman | No ownership stake | Has led mydentist since 2017; former CEO of Priory Group |
| IDH Group Limited | Legal Entity | Operating company | The registered legal name behind the mydentist trading brand |
| David Hudaly | Original Founder | Exited long ago | Bolton-based dentist who founded Integrated Dental Holdings in 1996 |
The Origin Story: A Bolton Dentist With a Big Idea
mydentist did not start as a corporate giant. It started with a single dentist in Bolton.
In June 1996, David Hudaly, a dentist practicing in Bolton, Greater Manchester, founded a small dental group called Integrated Dental Holdings (IDH).
He spotted something that most people in the industry had missed: the UK dental market was deeply fragmented, with thousands of independent practices operating in isolation, unable to benefit from shared resources, buying power, or brand recognition. Hudaly set about building something different.
By 1999, IDH had reached around 100 practices — one of the fastest documented founding phases in UK dental group history. By 2000, IDH had acquired Whitecross Dental Care, creating the largest dental company in Europe at the time with 133 practices and 575 dentists. It floated on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in February 2002.
How Private Equity Took Over: A Three-Act Story
The real transformation of mydentist happened not under its founder, but through a sequence of private equity deals that reshaped it into the dominant force it is today.
Act One — Merrill Lynch and Carlyle (2008–2021): In 2008, Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity acquired IDH, establishing it firmly as the largest owner of dental practices in the UK.
Then in January 2011, The Carlyle Group and Palamon Capital Partners jointly acquired IDH and merged it with Associated Dental Practices (ADP), creating a dominant NHS-focused dental corporate with close to 450 practices serving more than 3.5 million patients.
It was one of the largest healthcare deals in British dentistry history. The Carlyle Group — one of the biggest names in global private equity — brought scale, capital, and international corporate discipline to a business that had previously operated more informally.
In 2015, the company rebranded from IDH to mydentist — a deliberate shift toward a consumer-facing identity that felt warmer and more approachable than the old institutional name.
Act Two — Palamon Goes Solo (2021–2025): In May 2021, Palamon Capital Partners acquired The Carlyle Group’s entire stake, becoming the sole equity owner of mydentist for the first time. Palamon had originally invested in the business back in 2009 — making its 2021 buyout a deep reinvestment in a company it had helped build.
As part of this restructuring, mydentist sold its DD Group dental supplies division — the UK and Ireland’s leading supplier of dental and medical aesthetics products — to Sun European Partners for £152 million in net proceeds, sharpening the business back to pure dental services.
Act Three — Bridgepoint Takes Over (October 2025): After Palamon appointed Morgan Stanley to run a formal sale process, multiple private equity firms competed for mydentist.
Bridgepoint won the auction and completed the acquisition in October 2025 for approximately £800 million — representing roughly 10.8x the company’s £74 million annual EBITDA.
Palamon’s exit concluded what it described as a “transformative partnership” with the management team over more than a decade.
Who Is Bridgepoint?
Bridgepoint Group is a British private asset growth investor headquartered in London, listed on the London Stock Exchange and specialising in private equity, infrastructure, credit, and private wealth. It focuses primarily on mid-market companies in sectors including healthcare, business services, consumer, and technology.
Bridgepoint is notable in healthcare and consumer circles for having previously owned Pret A Manger — the British sandwich chain — as well as Oasis Dental Care, a competitor of mydentist in the UK dental sector that Bridgepoint previously owned and built into a major group.
Investing in mydentist is therefore not a first step into British dentistry for Bridgepoint — it is a confident return to a sector it knows extremely well.
This kind of healthcare-sector private equity pattern is increasingly common. It follows a similar playbook to what happened with Boots — where successive owners rebuilt, reshaped, and ultimately sold a dominant UK healthcare brand for far more than they paid.
How Big Is mydentist in 2026?
The numbers behind mydentist are genuinely impressive for a company that started with three practices in Bolton in 1996.
As of 2026, mydentist operates over 600 dental practices across the UK, employs more than 3,500 dental professionals, and treats approximately 4–5 million patients per year across both NHS and private care. Revenue was approximately £562 million in the year to March 2023, with EBITDA of £74 million — and both figures have grown since.
The company has also been shifting its revenue mix away from lower-margin NHS dentistry toward higher-margin private care. In FY2023, 41% of revenue came from private patients — up from 32% the prior year. That shift is central to Bridgepoint’s growth thesis for the business.
What Bridgepoint Is Planning Next
Bridgepoint has made its ambitions for mydentist clear from the outset. In its acquisition announcement, the firm stated it plans to support the company in growing its clinical team and expanding access to high-quality, affordable dental care across the UK.
The immediate priorities under Bridgepoint’s ownership include continued recruitment of dentists and dental professionals — a significant challenge given the UK’s well-documented shortage of dental practitioners — alongside digital transformation, practice investment, and selective new practice openings.
Bridgepoint has also confirmed it plans to continue investing in mydentist’s training academies and clinical support infrastructure, following the same playbook it used to grow Oasis Dental Care.
This kind of private-equity-backed healthcare consolidation is not unique to dentistry. It echoes how ownership structures work in the supplement and wellness space — as explored in who owns Thorne Supplements — where brands are bought, modernised, and sold at a premium.
Is mydentist an NHS or Private Dentist?
This is the question most patients actually want answered. mydentist is both.
The company offers NHS dental care under contract with NHS England, myoptions private dental care at mid-range prices, and Premium private dental care at higher price points. Not all mydentist practices offer all three tiers, and NHS availability varies by location.
As the business shifts more revenue toward private care, some patients in areas where NHS dentistry is already scarce may find it harder to access NHS treatment through mydentist practices over time.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q1. Who owns mydentist in 2026?
mydentist is owned by Bridgepoint Group — a British private equity firm — following a £800 million acquisition completed in October 2025.
Q2. Who founded mydentist?
mydentist was founded in 1996 by David Hudaly, a dentist in Bolton, Greater Manchester, under the original name Integrated Dental Holdings (IDH).
Q3. When did mydentist rebrand from IDH?
Integrated Dental Holdings rebranded to mydentist in 2015, as part of a shift toward a more consumer-friendly, patient-facing identity.
Q4. Who owned mydentist before Bridgepoint?
Palamon Capital Partners was the sole owner from 2021 to 2025, and before that co-owned it with The Carlyle Group from 2011 onwards.
Q5. How many practices does mydentist have in 2026?
mydentist operates over 600 dental practices across the UK, treating approximately 4–5 million patients per year.
Q6. Is mydentist an NHS or private dentist?
Both. mydentist offers NHS treatments, mid-range myoptions private care, and Premium private dental care — though NHS availability varies by practice and location.
Q7. What is mydentist’s legal company name?
mydentist is a trading style of IDH Group Limited, registered in England with company number 05657369, and headquartered in Kearsley, Manchester.
Q8. How much did Bridgepoint pay for mydentist?
Bridgepoint acquired mydentist for approximately £800 million in October 2025, representing roughly 10.8x the company’s annual EBITDA of £74 million.
mydentist is owned by Bridgepoint Group — a British private equity firm listed on the London Stock Exchange — following a £800 million acquisition completed in October 2025. Before Bridgepoint, the business was owned by Palamon Capital Partners (sole owner 2021–2025), and before that jointly by Palamon and The Carlyle Group (from 2011).
The whole story began in 1996 when a Bolton dentist named David Hudaly founded Integrated Dental Holdings with three practices in North West England.
In 30 years, that small group of dental surgeries became the UK’s largest dental provider with over 600 practices, 3,500+ clinicians, and £562 million in annual revenue.
The man who built it is long gone from ownership. The firm that owns it today is a London investment group betting on the long-term demand for affordable dental care in one of the most underserved healthcare markets in the developed world.
