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Young Innovations

Michael Helgeson, DDS (he/him/his)

CEO
Apple Tree Dental
Andover, Minnesota, United States

Dr. Michael Helgeson is one of the founders of Apple Tree Dental, an innovative non-profit organization that operates nine Centers for Dental Health and delivers on-site care in collaboration with more than 150 urban and rural organizations including Head Start centers, schools, group homes, hospitals, medical clinics, and nursing facilities. In 2020, Apple Tree opened a Center for Dental Health within the Mayo Clinic Health System campus in Fairmont, Minnesota, and in 2023 it added a Center for Dental Health in Minneapolis. Dr. Helgeson serves as Apple Tree’s Chief Executive Officer, managing a professional staff of more than 280 who delivered over $46 million worth of dental care during 2024. Apple Tree’s community collaborative practice model has been replicated in North Carolina, Louisiana, and California, and has received recognition from the Surgeon General, the American Dental Association, and the Robert Wood Johnson and Kellogg Foundations. In 2017, he was named one of the 32 most influential people in dentistry by Incisal Edge, and in 2019, the American Association for Community Dental Programs honored him with the John P. Rossetti Community Oral Health Impact Award in recognition of his leadership at the local, state, and national levels.

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