Endodontic Practice Partners

Endodontic Practice Partners (EPP) is a Brentwood, Tennessee-based specialty partnership organization (SPO) that affiliates with independent endodontic practices and supplies them with shared business infrastructure, capital and operational support. The company describes itself as a nationwide partnership of endodontic practices focused on patient care, clinical quality and growth, and positions itself as focused exclusively on the needs of endodontists rather than general dentistry.

Support services offered through EPP's practice support center include human resources, marketing and referral-source development, recruiting of clinical and administrative staff, insurance negotiation, group purchasing, operational analysis and growth capital for expansion, equipment, renovation and relocation. Affiliated practices retain their own brand and clinical autonomy, and partner endodontists hold equity in the company alongside the founders and private equity sponsors, with buy-in paths for associates who meet partnership standards based on clinical quality, patient satisfaction and strategic capability.

EPP concentrates its affiliations in defined market areas, seeking density within each market, and targets practices with established clinical reputations, strong referral relationships and growth ambitions.

Founding story

Dr. Terryl Propper, an endodontist who practiced with Endodontic Associates of Nashville for 30 years and served as CEO and managing partner of a three-location, eight-doctor group practice, co-founded EPP after observing consolidation and the decline of traditional solo practice models in the endodontic specialty following her term as president of the American Association of Endodontists in 2016. She co-founded the company with Sam Hutcheson, a healthcare executive who previously served as Chief of Staff at LifePoint Health, where he worked on the hospital operator's $8 billion take-private transaction with Apollo Global Management. The founders are described as having a combined 60 years of clinical and operational experience in dentistry and healthcare.

Business model

EPP affiliates with endodontic practices and provides centralized non-clinical support — marketing, HR, recruiting, insurance negotiation, group purchasing, operations and growth capital — in exchange for equity participation, with affiliated partner endodontists holding ownership in the company alongside founders and private equity sponsors. The model prioritizes density within selected geographic markets and preserves each affiliate's individual brand and clinical autonomy.

Revenue derives from the affiliation of endodontic practices, whose non-clinical operations EPP supports through a shared services center; growth is funded through equity sponsorship and committed senior debt facilities.

Traction

EPP affiliated with its first practice in 2020 and had grown to 71 locations and over 100 doctors across nine markets as of April 2024. At launch in early 2020 the company reported closing affiliate transactions with six practices and expected roughly three times that number by year-end.

Latest developments

On April 5, 2024, EPP closed an upsized senior debt facility with existing lender TPG Twin Brook Capital Partners, sponsored by RC Capital, raising an additional $20 million of committed senior debt financing to fund new practice affiliations, market penetration and service-offering initiatives; the transaction was announced on April 16, 2024.