One might be surprised to hear that Dr. Mark Simeone—a man who has committed his life to maintaining healthy smiles—tends to assign higher priority to something other than his patients’ teeth.
“The teeth are almost secondary,” says Dr. Simeone. “My focus is on the patient first and what their concerns are as a human being.”
Dr. Simeone, a dentist with the Chalfont-based practice A+ Family Dental Care, provides the full gamut of general, cosmetic and restorative dentistry services to patients—from routine dental exams and teeth whitening to dental implants and porcelain veneers to the treatment of periodontal disease.
“Principally, what we do is try to understand each patient’s concerns, and those concerns generally fall into three categories: pain, time or money. With pain, we can prescribe the right course of treatment to eliminate or treat the pain. With time, we’re open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. five days a week and, if needed, we can also do Saturday hours. And we’ve always found ways to make our services affordable, partly because we participate with just about every kind of insurance. … We also have an in-office deep discount dental plan, the PresiDental Plan for people who just don’t have dental insurance or are underinsured.”
Dr. Simeone has followed a rather remarkable career path. Originally from Philadelphia, he attended Lehigh University in Bethlehem Pennsylvania for his undergraduate degree in biology, and then worked as a clinical research assistant in the regional burn-treatment center of Crozer-Chester Medical Center, where he authored several scientific papers on wound care. He also attended Temple University’s Kornberg School of Dentistry, and was then admitted into the highly selective residency program at the University of New Jersey Medical and Dental School. At UMDNJ he received his Advanced Education in General Dentistry certificate.
“I’ve always had an interest in helping people,” he says. “At A+, we’re trying to serve the community in the most convenient way possible. We offer all the major procedures under one roof, and we’re there for working parents and their families with our extended hours, and we work hard at ensuring that we have the lowest cost for the average consumer. … With our approach, it can be quite a difference in out-of-pocket cost to the patient. I’d estimate that we’re saving them hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.”
Dr. Simeone’s patient-first ideology extends to every member of the A+ Family Dental Care team, including Dr. Olga Kandov, who performs general, cosmetic and restorative dentistry for the practice.
“The most important thing for me is for patients to feel very comfortable in the chair, to not be nervous, and for me to answer every single question they might have,” says Dr. Kandov, who, like Dr. Simeone, received her doctorate from Temple University’s Kornberg School of Dentistry. “Whenever a patient leaves the office happy, and they’re bringing their friends and family back here because of it, that’s the best experience.”
No matter the patient’s needs, Dr. Kandov and her colleagues have the expertise and state-of-the-art technology to treat them safely and thoroughly.
“I have a variety of patients, and some of the cases I do are very complicated,” says Dr. Kandov. “You have to take a different approach to every single patient because every patient is different. … We discuss the details of treatment as much as we can, in a way that is going to make them happy and make their family happy. We’re going to do whatever we can to make them more self-confident in their smile whenever they’re leaving our office.”
One of A+ Family Dental Care’s greatest strengths is its multidisciplinary approach to treatment, with dentists and related specialists collaborating to give each patient the healthiest smile possible. Dr. George Bandelac is a good example. Originally from France and having also trained in Belgium before coming to the United States, Dr. Bandelac is a renowned periodontist and dental implant surgeon whose interdisciplinary training and years of clinical experience enable him to restore form, function and aesthetics to a patient’s teeth and gums.
“Mainly, I’m focused on aesthetic and periodontal plastic surgery to recreate the natural profile of gums and teeth, and to create harmony between the two,” says Dr. Bandelac, formerly an associate professor in the University of Detroit Mercy’s Department of Prosthodontics and Periodontology. “With everything we do, the goal is to provide a comprehensive and safe treatment plan that will create a better smile, a natural smile and a healthy smile.”
Dr. Bandelac is committed to minimally invasive treatment techniques. His areas of expertise include multidisciplinary protocols in dental implants, fixed and removable prosthetics and periodontal procedures, which include plastic surgery, cosmetic dental implants and advanced bone grafting. His experience shows that, with the proper diagnosis, many conditions that once required complicated surgery can now be treated less invasively using modern technologies.
Technology, in fact, is an essential part of the practice’s approach to treatment. For example, the dentists use low-radiation digital X-rays for enhanced diagnostics, as well as intra-oral cameras to take pictures of the patient’s mouth during procedures and an on-premise laser for certain cosmetic procedures.
“We’re a younger practice, so everything we do is on computers, and this enables us to show patients exactly what we’re seeing,” says Dr. Simeone. “If they have a cavity that is visible on the biting surface or some other underlying issue, we can show them and say, ‘This is why you need a root canal, Mrs. Smith.’ I think it shows that you care when you take the time, and it also helps facilitate trust.
“The mouth is gateway to whole body health,” he continues. “If there’s a chronic infection, even a low-grade one, it can affect someone’s quality of life and overall health. There are few things more satisfying than improving the quality of life for a patient. … We’re here to improve and change people’s lives for better.”
In this spirit of change and self-improvement, A+ Family Dental Care has extended a special offer to Suburban Life readers: Contact the practice today for a complimentary teeth-whitening treatment, a service that typically has a value of approximately $350.
Rob Hall is a photographer based in Plumsteadville.
A+ Plus Dental Care
1500 Horizon Drive, Suite 104
Chalfont, PA 18914
Phone: 215-997-9980
Web: www.myfamilydentalcare.com | www.presidentalplan.com
