The Smart Choice
Led by clinicians skilled at “transforming lives by transforming smiles” in as little as a day, Smart Arches Dental Implants extends its reach across the country and around the globe.
Simon S. Oh, D.D.S., is regarded as a foremost clinician in the field of dental implantology, even a pioneer of sorts. Naturally, he has cultivated a broad-based network of highly skilled, likeminded medical professionals around the world. He now aims to share his knowledge, with a specific endgame in mind: to improve the fortunes of anyone who has had to live with a compromised smile.
Dr. Oh co-founded Smart Arches Dental Implants, which has offices in Langhorne and Media. He leads a team of best-in-class clinicians who utilize revolutionary techniques and cutting-edge technology to “transform lives by transforming smiles” for patients in as little as a single day. While Smart Arches’ roots are planted firmly in suburban Philadelphia soil, the organization has a bold and ambitious plan to extend its reach—not only throughout the region, but also across the nation and around the globe.
In fact, it is already well on its way to achieving that goal.
“I belong to a community of elite doctors who are skilled at doing full-arch implants, and those are the people I’m recruiting to grow this brand,” Dr. Oh adds. “First we find the right doctor and build the practice around them. We’re only going to places where we have reliable, best-in-class clinicians—people who understand the process and have the talent to do it at a superior level.”
Smart Arches takes particular pride in helping patients who have been told by other practices they are not good candidates for dental implants, at least not without significant augmentation to their existing jawbone. Traditionally, these cases have required bone grafts to provide a suitable support structure, but Smart Arches is anything but traditional. Dr. Oh and his team specialize in a “graft-less” approach.
“Bone grafting is dead in the sense that most people understand it,” he says. “Instead of using grafted bone, which tends to be of poorer quality, we’re using other sources of bone. Not only does this result in instant gratification for the surgeon, but we also have the capability to change someone’s life in a lot less time—just one day, in many instances.”
Smart Arches offers zygomatic and pterygoid implants for patients who have an edentulous (lacking teeth) upper jaw. These implants are placed in either zygomatic bone, also known as the cheekbone, or sphenoid bone, which forms part of the base of the skull. Both types of bone have sufficient hardness and density, thereby providing superior anchorage.
It’s worth noting that dental implants are not an inexpensive undertaking. Dr. Oh says Smart Arches can offer treatment at a cost that is as much as 40 percent less than what patients might find elsewhere, with no compromise to the strength or quality of materials. He cites technological efficiencies, economies of scale, and relationships with key suppliers.
“We’re reducing costs to help more people,” he adds. “That’s what we care about.”
Achieving Results
Donald J. Goudreau, D.M.D., M.D., treats patients out of Smart Arches’ Media office. A graduate of the esteemed University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine, Dr. Goudreau joined Smart Arches for the opportunity to practice what he describes as “life-changing dentistry.” He also appreciates the environment or collaboration, innovation, and continual self-improvement.
“With these newer techniques, we can provide an instant result,” he says. “People don’t have to settle for staged interventions with painful, invasive reconstructive approaches. We’ve gotten to a point where almost everyone who walks in the door can have a total mouth overhaul and reconstruction with one-day surgery.”
Such results are possible in part because of Smart Arches’ embrace of advanced training, continued education, and revolutionary treatment-planning technology—namely, cone beam computed tomography, facial-scanning software, and photogrammetry, among others. In addition, each office has in-house 3D printing and milling capabilities to facilitate a quicker, more accurate, and less expensive design of each patient’s smile.
“We’ve adapted both technologies [3D printing and milling] to ensure the best care,” Dr. Oh adds. “It’s a way for us to ‘trial and error’ smiles. We also do veneers and crowns, so we can create them in house and preview what they might look like. It removes any unpredictability from the process; we have a very good idea of what the restoration will look like even before we start.”
Berfin Jacobs, D.D.S., Ph.D., who joined Smart Arches in September, works in the Langhorne office. A self-described “implant expert,” she honed her education at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry and Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry. She strives to offer a personal experience for every patient, whether they come in for a full-mouth restoration or routine maintenance.
“We transform smiles, from the simple to the complex,” adds Dr. Jacobs, a native of Turkey. “We customize our treatments to provide the best outcome for treatments and achieve the results we desire. We also educate patients on how to maintain those treatments, and they feel comfortable coming to us for hygiene.”
Smart Arches has already begun to make an impact much farther afield than its roots in Philadelphia—Florida, Texas, Virginia, the Midwest—and Dr. Oh says it has only just begun. The practice intends to open an office in the United Kingdom later this year, with others planned for Croatia, Dubai, and Turkey. More will inevitably follow.
“We’re taking people whose dental health is in horrible condition and turning their lives around in as little as a day,” he adds. “What we’re doing here has an impact on much more than a person’s smile. Their confidence changes. Their digestive health improves because they can chew their food better. Ninety percent of the smokers we treat end up quitting because they find hope that they didn’t have before. As a surgeon and a fellow human being, what we do is tremendously satisfying.”
Healthy Smiles, Healthy Communities
At Smart Arches Dental Implants, community service is not just a priority; it’s a core value. Once a quarter, Smart Arches provides a full-mouth makeover to someone in need, at no cost to the patient. So far, the practice has completed more than 20 of these full-mouth cases, valued at approximately $1 million, according to Dr. Oh; he expects that number to exceed $20 million by the time he retires.
“We’re about making a difference, not profits,” he says. “The reason I was drawn toward implantology, and medicine in general, is that I can take someone from a compromised state of health to an improved state of health. I wanted to help the sickest of the sick and restore them to good health.”
He and other Smart Arches clinicians embrace philanthropic efforts both near and far. For example, Dr. Oh helped open a training facility in Guatemala called the Operation Redentulate Central America Association. There, Smart Arches clinicians have taught some of the best local surgeons how to perform zygomatic implants. Dr. Oh says the lives of their fellow Central Americans have been greatly improved as a result.
“In an impoverished Guatemalan village, it’s common practice to send a 15-year-old into the city to get all their teeth pulled,” he adds. “That may sound dramatic, but a toothache for a 15-year-old in a remote village can ruin their life. The problem with that is that by the time that 15-year-old turns 60, they have no jawbone left. Now, we’re ethically training Guatemalan surgeons how to perform these procedures on patients, and giving them a treatment option to help their own people.”
Smart Arches Dental Implants
smartarchesdental.com
smartarchesdental.com
110 Lincoln Highway
Fairless Hills, PA 19030
(215) 269-6525
Fairless Hills, PA 19030
(215) 269-6525
1003 W. Baltimore Pike
Media, PA 19063
(484) 444-2793
Media, PA 19063
(484) 444-2793
Photo by Jody Robinson
Published (and copyrighted) in Suburban Life, February 2023.
