Dentistry practices to merge.

Byline: Tim Christie The Register-Guard

Correction (published Aug. 13, 2009): Business: Mike Shirtcliff is the president and CEO of Advantage Dental, a Redmond dentistry group that aquired the assets of Hayden Family Dentistry Group. His name was misspelled in a story on Page B4 Wednesday.

A Redmond dental group has bought Hayden Family Dentistry Group, a Eugene-based practice with 13 clinics across Oregon.

Advantage Dental also acquired two companies affiliated with Hayden Family Dentistry: West Coast Dental and Oregon Professional PC.

The deal more than doubles the number of Oregon Health Plan dental patients covered by Advantage Dental. Hayden Dentistry's 60,000 Oregon Health Plan patients combined with Advantage's 58,000 makes the privately held, dentist-owned company the state's second largest provider of dental services to OHP patients.

Capitol Dental, with 132,000 patients on the Oregon Health Plan, is the largest. The Oregon Health Plan is the state's program for providing health and dental coverage to low-income residents. Statewide, about 400,000 people are enrolled in OHP dental plans.

"We've both grown to the size that it made sense to do some kind of partnership," Mike Shirtwell, Advantage Dental's CEO, said Tuesday.

The merger will make Advantage Dental "more competitive and helps grow our dental network in all markets," and moves the company closer to its goal of a statewide network, he added.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but includes Hayden owners Matt and Ross Hayden as holding ownership and management committee positions. In addition, the Haydens will continue to operate three clinics under the Hayden Family Dentistry name and contract with Advantage Dental, Shirtwell said.

Hayden Dental, based in Eugene, operates dental clinics in Hermiston, Portland, Tigard, Salem, Eugene, Florence, Bend, North Bend, Medford, Klamath Falls, Heppner and Boardman. In addition to its Oregon Health Plan patients, Hayden also serves a large number of patients covered by commercial insurance.

Hayden Family Dentistry, founded in 1995, has about 150 employees, including 20 dentists and 17 dental hygienists. The family's dental roots date to 1949. Brothers Matt, Ross and Christopher Hayden are practicing dentists, as was their father, Cedric, a former state legislator. Representatives of the practice did not return a message Tuesday seeking comment.

The acquisition is the second big deal of the summer for Advantage Dental. Last month, the company sold its commercial business, which included about 35,000 members, to PacificSource Health Plans of Springfield for $3.5 million.

Shirtwell said proceeds from the Pacific Source deal enabled Advantage Dental to acquire the assets of Hayden Family Dentistry.