Vyne Dental and Henry Schein One file dueling lawsuits

Two major companies in dental technology are involved in a legal battle that’s drawing attention from throughout the industry.

Vyne Dental, which provides revenue cycle management (RCM) services, and Henry Schein One (HS One), which developed Dentrix practice management software, have filed competing federal lawsuits accusing each other of unlawful conduct related to data access, interoperability, and customer communications. The accusations have come quickly and forcefully.

In court documents filed by Vyne Dental in Maryland federal courts on September 30, they allege HS One “flipped a switch” on what has been a harmonious relationship for many years. The suit alleges that “HS One openly launched an aggressive campaign to throttle Vyne’s business and interfere with Vyne’s customer relationships.”

To do this, Vyne claims that HS One has sought to “block mutual customers from using the technology that allows them to securely transmit to Vyne Trellis the dental records they store in Dentrix, patient records that, under federal law, belong to dental practices and are controlled by their patients, not HS One.”

The suit goes on to state that HS One began “surreptitiously” to distribute an updated version of Dentrix that, “like a computer virus, trawls users’ computer systems searching for any Vyne Trellis processes and then stops and disables those processes, thus barring customers from using Vyne Trellis.”

The suit says that more than 8,000 dental practices across the US rely on Vyne to manage their practices in conjunction with Dentrix. They say for the first time, HS One objected to Vyne’s methods regarding the transfer of electronic health information and accused them of hacking.

Vyne says none of the accusations by HS One are true and have one “ultimate” goal: “stamping out Vyne’s business.”

When DentistryIQ contacted Vyne for a comment, they responded: "Vyne cannot provide comment on this. Thank you for reaching out."

Henry Schein’s response

On October 3, HS One filed a suit of its own in Utah federal courts accusing Vyne Dental of unauthorized computer access, data tampering, and false advertising. Their suit states they want to stop Vyne’s “persistent and malicious hacking of HS One’s software while spreading falsehoods about its own conduct and HS One’s efforts to defend its platform security and integrity.”

Their suit against Vyne states that HS One recently uncovered details regarding Vyne’s “hacking of the Dentrix software that HS One installs in its customers’ infrastructure.” When HS One notified Vyne of updates, they claim Vyne responded by “escalating its hacking to get ahead of and circumvent HS One’s security patches.”

They allege Vyne pervasively intrudes on HS One’s technical security measures. The company is not part of HS One’s API Exchange, its security system. Unlike the 140 vendors that are part of the Exchange, HS One alleges that Vyne “seeks to directly read and write data from HS One’s software platform en masse in a way that bypasses HS One’s API,” doing so through a series of technically aggressive hacks.

The suit goes on to list six hacks that HS One claims Vyne has undertaken. The company states Vyne has gone to “great lengths to cover its tracks and obfuscate its malicious hacks of HS One’s customer-installed software systems.” They allege that despite repeated efforts, Vyne has refused to agree to HS One’s API Terms of Service.

Why this lawsuit matters for dental practices

For dental offices, the conflict highlights a growing challenge in the era of digital interoperability: how practice management systems, clearinghouses, and billing tools share patient information securely, and who controls that access.

Both companies frame the dispute as one about protecting their customers. Vyne said its efforts defend practice and patient data rights under the 21st Century Cures Act, while HS One emphasizes the need to safeguard systems from unauthorized access and potential cyber risks.

The lawsuits could have broader implications for how dental technology vendors handle third party integrations and how practices exercise their rights to control and share electronic health information.

Both companies continue to serve their respective customers. Watch DentistryIQ for updates regarding the lawsuits.