Heartland Dental LLC ?s performance improvement through 2025 exceeded our expectations. We now forecast momentum to persist into 2026 and 2027, supporting our view of sustained free cash flow and reduced leverage. Consequently, we raised our issuer credit rating on Heartland and our issue-level rating on its senior secured debt to ?B? from ?B-?. The recovery rating remains ?3? (50%-70%; rounded estimate: 55%). Heartland plans to raise a $200 million fungible first-lien term loan add-on. It will use proceeds to fully repay senior secured notes due in 2028. The stable outlook reflects our expectation that S&P Global Ratings-adjusted leverage will trend near 6.1x (approximately 6.4x including preferred shares) over the next 12 months and that Heartland will sustainably fund most
