The buy of Smile Brands Inc. by OneSmile LLC in Laguna Hills a few weeks back brings new branding options to the dental practice manager in Irvine.
Smile Brands specializes in outsourcing and back-office work for multi-dentist practices in larger markets under Bright Now Dental, Monarch Dental and Castle Dental brands. Now OneSmile adds the ability to serve solo practitioners including dentists in smaller markets.
Steven Bilt and Brad Schmidt co-founded OneSmile last year, backed by Gryphon Investors in San Francisco, part of the team that launched Smile Brands predecessor Bright Now Dental in 1998.
Gryphon sold most of its majority stake in Bright Now in 2005 to Los Angeles-based Freeman Spogli & Co., which in 2010 sold what had become Smile Brands to Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe in New York City. Welsh Carson sold it back to Gryphon.
Bright Now formed Smile Brands in 2009 as a holding company for its three brands. Bilt left in 2013 and Schmidt in 2014.
The OneSmile and Smile Brands business models are similar—dental service organizations that handle back-office functions.
Smile Brands has about $500 million in revenue from some 350 dental practices, and OneSmile takes in an estimated $10 million from three practices.
The merged chains look to be positioned to grow in a market regardless of its size, add brands to an area for multitiered marketing, and offer outsourcing to large practices or solo practitioners.
Bilt is Smile Brands’ chief executive; Schmidt is its chief financial officer. They met at Ernst & Young early in their careers.
Alphaeon Disruption Draws CEO
The chance to shake things up in healthcare drew Murthy Simhambhatla to join Alphaeon Corp. in Irvine.
He was named chief executive of the “lifestyle” aesthetics medicine company this month following stints as president of Abbott Medical Optics in Santa Ana for 2 1/2 years and in other roles since 2005 for its parent company, Abbott Laboratories in Abbot Park, Ill.
“I was very happy at Abbott,” he said, even as he was drawn to “new opportunities in venture capital and the private equity world.”
Alphaeon’s model—which includes e-commerce and an online social community—sells to healthcare providers whose services aren’t covered by insurance. It’s a portfolio company of Strathspey Crown LLC in Newport Beach.
“What appealed to me about Strathspey Crown and Alphaeon was the disruptive nature of the business,” Simhambhatla said.
The companies call the approach “social commerce,” and Simhambhatla likened the online store to Amazon because it sells approved products—not all from Alphaeon—and includes product ratings by and conversations among member physicians.
The store and the ShoutMD social community are “the most important element,” he said. It’s intended to alter how products and services are distributed to doctors and sold by them to patients, and it ties in with new ways patients are choosing and paying for those products and services.
“They’re all connected,” he said.
Abbott named Tom Frinzi president of Abbott Medical Optics in January. He’d held senior executive roles at five OC-area medical device companies, most recently at WaveTec Vision Systems Inc. in Aliso Viejo, his LinkedIn profile said.
Inc. 5000
PrescribeWellness in Irvine, which makes software for pharmacists, leads 10 OC healthcare firms on the Inc. 5000, coming in at No. 52 with three-year revenue growth of 4,900%. Proove Biosciences in Irvine, which offers proprietary testing to improve doctors’ drug-prescribing decision making, was No. 323 with 1,200% growth.
Others on the list include Sovereign Health Group in San Clemente; Crossover Health and Pacific Cos. in Aliso Viejo; Renovo Solutions in Irvine; Behavioral Health Works in Anaheim; PharmedQuest and Coury & Buehler Physical Therapy in Brea; and Pacific Dental Services in Irvine.
Bits & Pieces
ReVision Optics in Lake Forest, which makes an implantable corneal inlay to correct presbyopia, got a $10 million credit line from Square 1 Bank, a division of Pacific Western Bank. … Plastic surgery center CosmetiCare in Newport Beach added Dr. Brian Reagan to its staff. He had been doing research on the science of wound care. … Cianna Medical Inc. in Aliso Viejo said its Savi Scout got more FDA 510(k) clearance to help doctors better schedule surgery using the medical device, which uses radar to localize and direct the removal of breast lesions that cannot be detected by manual examination.
