The short version
- The office is built around dental anxiety rather than around pretending it away.
- Guest lobby, massage room, pillows, blankets, essential oils.
- Digital X-rays, intraoral cameras and cosmetic imaging.
- Dr. Back has practiced exclusively in Sarasota since 1995.
- CareCredit financing. What a case costs is established at consultation.
- In Sarasota since
- 1995
- Qualified
- University of Kentucky
- Open
- Mon to Thu, 8a to 4p
- Financing
- CareCredit
Most people do not look forward to the dentist, and plenty arrive carrying a bad experience from somewhere else. The office is built around that fact rather than around pretending it is not true.
The lobby
You are greeted at the front desk. The guest lobby has gourmet coffee, hot tea and homemade cookies.
There is a massage room with a professional massage chair and theater surround sound. The private guest lounge has free internet and a television.
None of that is dentistry. It is there because the twenty minutes before an appointment decides how the appointment goes for an anxious patient.
In the chair
You are offered a pillow and a blanket. Essential oils are used for the same reason.
Dr. Back explains what the problem is and how the treatment addresses it before doing it. Patients who describe having been frightened of dentists before consistently name that as what changed, more often than they name anything in the lobby.
The technology, and what it is for
Digital X-rays, intraoral cameras, cosmetic imaging and non-invasive cameras.
Cosmetic imaging matters most to anyone considering veneers or a makeover, because it projects the likely result before you commit to anything. It is the difference between agreeing to a plan and seeing one.
The intraoral camera does something subtler: it lets you see what the dentist is seeing, which turns a recommendation into something you can evaluate.
Dr. Back
She has practiced exclusively in Sarasota since graduating from the University of Kentucky in 1995, and she still takes hundreds of hours of continuing education. She teaches at the Nash Institute.
She has authored articles published nationally, including in the Woman Dentist Journal, and holds memberships in the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentists, the Florida Association of Cosmetic Dentistry, the American Dental Association, the Academy of General Dentistry, the West Coast Dental Association, the Sarasota Dental Association and the Seattle Study Club’s Sarasota chapter.
The fuller account is in her training and credentials.
How she designs a case
She takes into account face shape, age, sex and personality, rather than applying a standard set of teeth to every patient.
The method for establishing what you want, before any technical planning starts, is in co-designing a smile with the patient. The measurements behind the design are in how a smile is designed.
The staff
You deal with the front desk and the hygienists more often than with the dentist, which is why who they are matters. Patients return year after year and come to know them.
Paying for it
The practice offers CareCredit financing. What a given case costs depends on what it involves, and that is established at the consultation rather than from a price list.
Ask what is included when you are given a figure. It is a fair question and the answer is informative.
Where to find it
3800 Clark Rd, Sarasota, FL 34233, first floor at Lakeshore Village. Open Monday to Thursday, 8am to 4pm, and a straightforward drive from Nokomis, Osprey, Venice and Siesta Key.
The work is in the gallery and what patients say is in their own words.
Call 941-927-5411.
