Who Owns Your Lewisville Orthodontist? A Billion-Dollar Company Might
Your Lewisville Orthodontist’s Name Is on the Door. A Billion-Dollar Company May Be Behind It.
A practice can carry a single doctor’s name and still be part of a national, private-equity-backed network. In Lewisville, one well-known office is exactly that. Here is what the public record shows, and why it matters for a treatment that lasts up to two and a half years.
★ The short version
- Krieger Orthodontics in Lewisville is a member of the Smile Doctors network, one of the largest orthodontic support organizations in the country, backed by private-equity firms Linden Capital Partners and Thomas H. Lee Partners.
- Krieger discloses this in its own website footer, but most patients never read it. The practice still carries Dr. Krieger’s name and is described as “independently owned and operated.”
- Affiliation is not a red flag by itself. What matters is knowing it, and asking who finishes your treatment if your doctor moves on. Check any practice with the Orthodontist Near Me directory.
Here is a question almost no patient asks in Lewisville before starting braces: who actually owns the office?
The name on the sign feels like the answer. It usually is not the whole story. Over the last decade, large dental and orthodontic support organizations have quietly affiliated with hundreds of practices that still look and sound completely local. The doctor’s name stays on the door. A national company stands behind it. Patients are rarely told plainly.
Affiliating with a network is legal and common, and this is not an accusation of bad care against any doctor. But we will say plainly where we stand: on a site built for patients, we think an independent, doctor-owned practice is usually the safer choice for a two-year treatment, because ownership quietly determines who actually finishes it. You deserve to know which one you are choosing.
The Lewisville example
Krieger Orthodontics (Dr. Glenn Krieger)
Network: Smile Doctors (PE-backed OSO)
Krieger Orthodontics on FM 544 in Lewisville is, by its own disclosure, “a member of the Smile Doctors network of leading orthodontists.” Smile Doctors is one of the largest orthodontics-focused support organizations in the United States, with close to 600 offices and backing from the private-equity firms Linden Capital Partners and Thomas H. Lee Partners. Smile Doctors lists Krieger among partnerships it formed in 2021 and even runs a Smile Doctors location page at the identical FM 544 address.
Dr. Krieger is a real, credentialed orthodontist, and the practice uses the standard industry line that affiliated offices are “independently owned and operated.” Fair enough. But the substance is this: a patient who thinks they are choosing a solo, community orthodontist is in fact choosing a practice inside a national, investor-backed network, and almost no one tells them that at the front desk. That gap between what patients assume and who actually owns the practice is the whole reason this matters.
Sources: Krieger Orthodontics website footer; Smile Doctors partner list (2021); Smile Doctors Lewisville / FM 544 location page.
Why ownership matters: the continuity trap
Orthodontic treatment runs 18 to 30 months. The relationship with your orthodontist is the whole product. That is exactly where network ownership can matter.
What to watch for
Doctors move within networks. When a practice belongs to a large organization, orthodontists can be reassigned, added, or replaced across locations. If you started with a specific doctor, confirm you will finish with them.
Rotating providers. Ask whether you will see the same orthodontist at every visit, or different ones depending on staffing.
What happens if your doctor leaves mid-treatment. You have often paid a large sum upfront. Ask, before you sign, exactly who is responsible for finishing your care and honoring that payment if your doctor departs or retires.
In Lewisville, this is not hypothetical. In the few years since Krieger joined the Smile Doctors network, the office has worked through three different associate orthodontists alongside Dr. Krieger, and, by accounts from local families, considerable front-desk and clinical staff turnover as well. For a patient whose child had been seeing a particular associate, that can mean being handed to a doctor they never chose, in the middle of a two-year treatment. This is exactly the continuity a stable, independently owned practice is built to protect.
Why an independent orthodontist has the edge
Here is what corporate marketing will not put on a billboard. In an independent, doctor-owned practice, the incentives finally point at you:
The owner is personally accountable. An independent orthodontist cannot be reassigned across a network by a management company. Their name and reputation are the business, so the person responsible for your result is the person treating you.
No investor clock. A private-equity-backed network exists to grow and eventually sell to a bigger buyer. An independent practice answers to its patients, not to a fund that needs an exit.
Continuity by default. In a doctor-owned office, the orthodontist who starts your treatment almost always finishes it. That is the whole point of orthodontics, and exactly what network ownership puts at risk.
That is the case for private practice, and the reason The Orthodontist Near Me exists.
How to find out before you commit
Use the Orthodontist Near Me directory to see who owns a practice, who is board certified, and who will actually treat you. Then ask three questions at your consult:
1. Who owns this office, and is it part of a support organization or larger network?
2. Will one orthodontist follow me from start to finish?
3. If my doctor leaves or retires mid-treatment, what happens to my care and my paid-in-full plan?
For more, see our guides on how to tell if your “local” orthodontist is corporate-owned and why ownership matters when choosing an orthodontist.
Know who owns your Lewisville orthodontist
The Orthodontist Near Me helps you find independent, board-certified orthodontists and ask the right questions, whoever owns the office.
