In the second quarter, we continued our momentum in executing on our growth and operational plans, delivering a strong first half to the year with core growth of just over 7%. The dental market continued to show its characteristic resilience as patient demand for dental care remained stable despite macro pressures. For the second quarter, Envista posted a 5% core growth, delivering balanced growth across both reporting segments and all major geographies. Our continued growth and focus on operational excellence led to another quarter of both growth and EBITDA margin expansion, up 70 and 230 basis points respectively.
A strong top line converted to even stronger earnings growth, with adjusted EBITDA up 28% and EPS growing 58%. We also had strong free cash flow conversion in the quarter, coming in at 158%. Rounding out Slide 4, based on our strong first half performance and continued momentum, we are raising our full year guidance. Our updated 2026 expectations are now for core growth to grow 3.5% to 4.5%, adjusted EBITDA to grow 11% to 14%, and adjusted EPS of $1.50 to $1.55.
Let's now turn to progress we made in the quarter in support of our three core priorities of growth, operations, and people. Starting with growth, we delivered continued broad-based performance across the portfolio with balanced contributions coming from both reporting segments, all major geographies, and volume and price. In terms of segment performance, core growth in Equipment and Consumables was 8.5%, as both diagnostics and consumables were up high single digits. Geographically, North America, Europe, APAC, and Latin America all grew nicely, with new products continuing to play an important role, and I will provide further detail on this in just a moment.