We pride ourselves on being one of the most modern and technically advanced 
dental practices in the entire country, while maintaining a very “patient-centered”,
gentle and conservative approach in providing care. 

Comfort:

Dentistry no longer has to hurt!  There is always something we can do to keep 
you comfortable.  Modern local anesthetics work much better than the older
"Novocains" that were used a few years ago.  With newer techniques, they work
much more quickly and much better for "difficult teeth".  We can prescribe 
medication that will literally let you sleep through a long appointment.  We can 
even provide dental treatment with a general anesthetic (completely asleep) 
administered by an anesthesiologist.  The bottom line really is, we don't want 
to hurt people and people don't want to be hurt. We are committed to 
preventing both the pain and anxiety that many people still associate with the
older styles of dental treatment. 

Value:

Value begins with prevention. The least expensive problem to treat is the the one that never happens! We use the prevention protocols established by the UC San Francisco Dental School for all of our patients. (If you would like to see these protocols, either ask us for a printed copy or click here.) We sincerely believe that prevention is the single most important service we provide.

The second part of value is prudence when recommending the replacement of the restorations you already have in your mouth. Because all restorations have a limited lifetime, with an average of only 8 to 10 years, we adhere to the philosophy of. "If it isn't broken, don't fix it!" We are very conservative in our treatment recommendations and try to explain in every situation why something needs to be replaced and what options are available.

The third component of value is the quality of the treatment we provide. One can of Campbell's Chicken Noodle soup is virtually identical in every way to every other can of the same soup. McDonalds works very hard to ensure that a Big Mac from Los Angeles is the same as a Big Mac from New York.    But dentistry is not like canned soup or Big Macs. Dentistry is a hand-crafted product. Comparing a dental restoration to a piece of artwork is a little pretentious. But the results any dentist, or artist, produces come from that individual's hands, brains, education and experience. We constantly strive to be very good at what we do ... and to continually improve our skills. We are also very conservative by removing the smallest amount of a tooth necessary to eliminate decay and retain the new restoration. To accomplish these objectives, all of our new restorations are chemically bonded to the remaining tooth structure. Modern dentistry is both an art and a science. It requires constant practice and re-education.

Appearance:

Yes, we do "Extreme Makeovers." But we also do some much more subtle, conservative treatments, often without any drilling or shots, that can provide some major improvements in a smile. 

We think the appearance of your smile is a very personal issue. Our goal is to let you know what is available but never push you towards a solution.

We provide both Cosmetic and Esthetic Dentistry. Cosmetic Dentistry is something that is done solely to improve how something looks (and how something looks often affects how people feel). Tooth Whitening is a good example of a purely cosmetic procedure. "Beige" teeth chew just as well as white teeth, but most people feel much better smiling with nicer looking teeth. Esthetic Dentistry means that we strive to make every tooth we work on look better as well as work better. In the past, the best materials we had for fixing teeth worked fairly well but looked terrible. Current materials and techniques both work well and look great.