David L Biles, DDS

After many years of bad experiences with dentists – misinformation, bad advice, poor quality workmanship, disturbing crowns– I have finally found Dr. Biles. For over 13 years, he has been able to diagnose and treat any issue that has come up with my gums, teeth, caps, bridges. He is detail oriented, does exceptional work and cares for my well-​being. Dr. Biles, a holistic dentist, is always very upfront about anything that can improve my dental health and has always done a great job «artistically» with caps – shaping and blending them with great finesse so that I don’t feel like I have a bunch of fake or odd shaped teeth (like I did with two of my last dentists).
He spends time with you discussing holistic options, and never makes you feel like he doesn’t have time for your situation. Even in a dental emergency, he has always been there and stayed late to fix or diagnose an infection, etc. He has been the best dentist BY FAR that I have ever had, and I always appreciate his advice and recommendations.
The office staff are pleasant, polite and welcoming – creating a friendly atmosphere. The waiting room is full of holistic books you can browse while waiting.
I cannot say enough about Dr. Biles and his staff – other than I hope he never gets too popular.

I am very disappointed to write this review. I really wanted to like and trust Dr. Biles. So much so that I was willing to drive an hour both ways to go to this «holistic» dentist. I think they are nice people, everyone in the office. Unfortunately my mouth bears the scars. Dr. Biles convinced me to not get a root canal because they cause cancer, and tried to drill out the decay, which failed to work and then he cracked the tooth and it had to be pulled. He recommended a partial denture, which I paid $ 1200 for, but it doesn’t fit, so I just have a gaping hole in my mouth (classy). That was just the beginning of a year of foibles on their part, which has resulted in me having to get a lot of work redone. His office is badly run, and despite my requests, they never seemed to have any semblance of a treatment plan. Their excuse for why things are so unorganized and for all their mistakes continues to be that they lost their office manager (that was a year ago), and his 2 daughters have been running the office since. They are lovely, and I’m honestly not sure why things don’t run more smoothly because they seem competent. But I consistently received bills for things I’d already paid for, notices for work needing to be done that I’d already gotten done, at every appointment I’d ask what I still needed done and it was always a different answer, they actually continued saying I needed work done on the tooth they had already pulled, and twice they were too busy and sent me home with a toothbrush and toothpaste as compensation (I had appointments). I literally had to stop Dr. Biles from dentist chair twice from drilling the wrong tooth, by asking him to check again (at that point I was onto the situation — the second was the last time I went). And he insisted that if I was his daughter, he would immediately pull two more teeth that I have root canals in, to save my life. Needless to say, I passed. At first I thought he was just eccentric, which I’m fine with… now I realize he’s extremely scatter-​brained. Not what you want in a dentist. This past year was my first year as a new mother. I’ve had to drive the hour to Santa Cruz on 12 or 13 occasions (would have been done in 2 or 3 visits at another dentist), bringing my baby every time and my mom to watch her, a whole day excursion because inevitably we had to wait hours to be seen. I’m now going to another dentist and still need to get a crown on a tooth that I paid Dr. Biles $ 450 a few months ago to fill.
So if you want to meet some nice people with interesting things to say about natural health, visit this office. If you want good dental work, don’t!

I went to Dr. Biles about twelve years ago, and I wish I spoken up sooner! The experience was frightening, because he sets himself up as a holistic dentist, but he is just out to make as much money as he can! There was a lot of posturing and pressure to commit to a plan that would cost about $ 5000. He showed me a magnification of plaque on my teeth to try to scare me into doing the work he said I needed. I fled and never looked back!

«If you were my son, here’s what we would do…» — Dr. Biles
The genuine caring and comfort created by the staff is exceptional.
In the past my experience with dentistry was not positive. I recall being anxious and fearful of the inevitable sharp nerve pain whenever the drilling occurred and the local anesthesia hadn’t kicked in yet. Not sure why this seemed to happen so frequently…
Anyways, I’ve finally found peace of mind at Dr. Biles office. I’m comforted by his genuine concern for my well being and his expertise. I can’t recommend him highly enough.

My previous review was removed. I don’t know why. Our experience was awful at this office. Very chaotic administratively (major delays without apology, miscommunication re appointments, invoices not sent to insurance, or sent too late and insurance rejects the claim, my daughters same tooth got sealed twice within 2 months, etc etc). As far as Dr Biles, unpredictable whether he’ll be welcoming or not very happy to see you. We travel to Berkeley now instead.

Dr Biles is our family’s dentist. We’ve been seeing him since the 80’s. I’ve even moved out of the area, but I drive several hours to see him.
My daughter had a negative experience as a kid and has had to have a lot of major work done throughout her life. Dr Biles always takes the time to explain what’s going on and she trusts him.
My husband has had a full mouth restoration, which means all of his teeth were in such poor condition that each one needed a crown. He also had to have his bite adjusted and is very satisfied with the results. After the reconstruction, his health has improved and he not only looks better, he’s very happy with the work done.
Dr Biles is the only holistic dentist in the area. He only uses the best, least toxic materials. Your health is your wealth and Dr Biles is by far the only dentist I recommend.

Dr. Biles has been amazing with our son. He is the perfect person to work with people as highly sensitive as my son. We have worked with him for a year now. Our son was born with severe acid reflux and a floppy larynx. We did elimination diets and he was pretty happy until requiring more out-​of-​home care and we had less control over food. At the age of 4, he suddenly got a lot of cavities which required many crowns and oral surgery. We ran a blood test and found he was intolerant of most foods he had been eating like «oats», «sweet potatoes», «cucumbers», etc. The dentist used «non-​toxic» stainless steel crowns on 10 teeth.
Our son started developing tics/Tourette’s at the age of six and eventually had what the pediatrician thought were either several fainting spells or seizures. When we turned to Chinese medicine and visited three practitioners, the first thing they all noticed was all the metal in his mouth.
Metal that close to the brain can be REALLY BAD. I researched cranio-​sacral therapy, diet, myo-​fascial therapy, and allergy elimination therapies — but the one thing that kept bothering me was the metal. We visited Dr. Biles for a consultation.
While it was difficult to get an appointment, and he was late for our initial meeting, he completely focused on us and spent hours reviewing possible treatments. He explained that someone as sensitive as my son was likely reacting to the nickel and cadmium in his metal crowns. We actually cried TOGETHER! He was the first person not judging me or my son for the hard life my son was experiencing and partnered with us to find the least invasive, least-​toxic way to unburden his immune system.
It had never occurred to me before that if my son was so sensitive to food, he was likely also sensitive to the various sedatives and toxic dental materials required for most dentistry. He designed a custom plan and worked with us over many visits. He invited us in early so he could work with us when it was quiet and not pressure my son. He also met us on a Saturday to demonstrate the various tools and things we were going to do.
He got my 6 year-​old son’s FULL CONSENT for everything before doing! We used an injection to numb an area once and my son had a negative reaction, so Dr. Biles designed a workaround and everything went better! He even extracted a tooth that had been a baby pulpectomy without any problem, my son willingly participating.
None of this was cheap. And very, very little was covered by insurance. But the cost was nothing compared to the original overtreatment by the renowned dentist who put all the metal in his mouth for $ 30,000 (most of it covered by insurance).
After our many visits with Dr. Biles, my son improved a LOT! Between diet changes and eliminating the metal, we got rid of the tics/​Tourettes. Dr. Biles taught us many things about toxins in the environment we never realized that we needed to question for someone as sensitive as my son. He recommended books like «Excitotixins» which was a game-​changer. Dr. Biles also taught us how toxic the medical industry can be when it rushes and over-​treats things that can be managed much better with natural remedies and with behavior changes but don’t make the same money as extensive interventions.
I think the most lasting change is that Dr. Biles would not give up on teaching us proper oral hygiene. We failed and failed and failed and he kept emphasizing proper protocol. We still use the natural products he recommended that we bought on Amazon, we use a tongue scraper twice a day, we bought a Rotadent toothbrush. We do all five steps religiously, twice a day. Now we get GREAT reports of hygeine when we visit! This will improve the quality of my son’s life the rest of his life.
Now that more adult teeth are coming in, we are TAKING CARE OF THOSE! Thank goodness we did what we did, though – some of those stainless steel crowns on baby teeth would have been in his mouth for another 7 years!!!
Thank you, Dr. Biles!

Dr. Biles is a caring, personable dentist, knowledgeable about the newest, healthiest cutting edge procedures and techniques. I am so happy with my new FLEXITE dentures! They are BPA free, compact and comfortable. They take the place of a large flipper bridge, that I need to use because of the costs to do so many implants. Even my yoga teacher noticed how much less stress I was carrying in my jaw! Be clear about your treatment, and the costs, and you will get amazing results.

Biles is a guy who presents himself as a kind of renaissance man, but with me he seriously defaulted on his professional ethics. I paid for a crown (over $ 1500), but the crown was not done properly and it broke within a few months. I came back to him and his attitude was all of a sudden not so friendly. He did it again and the second on also failed. When I returned. his attitude was blaming of me. He refused to replace it with out me paying again.
In a huff I left his office and went to another dentist who charged me less and that crown has lasted years… I can not recommend him. Like other reviewers, I agree he has an inflated attitude about himself.

I gave Dr. Biles three weeks to exhibit that I’d misperceived his business ethic before posting this review:
Dr. Biles and his staff are good sales people and may work out fine if you don’t have any serious dental issues and/​or if you are a breatharian (or live on juice, etc.) and only care how your teeth look, but don’t actually need to use them to masticate food.
If you want good service, one key is DO NOT PAY IN ADVANCE for anything.
In my case, suddenly there was no room in the schedule for the work I’d just paid over $ 6k for and the seemingly nice, but incredibly inefficient and often stressed out, office staff made excuse after excuse for why they didn’t follow up on anything they promised; apparently the 5% book-​keeping discount results in 95% discounted service, which is the complete opposite of the business ethic I was expecting based on the holistic emphasis and refined sales pitch.
And be sure you fawn over the guy’s ego every chance you get, because apparently if you don’t, he won’t check his previous work or bother to pay attention to your questions, and you’ll be left hanging like I was after I trusted him (because they seem so nice and talk a good game, seem to be health-​oriented and share my values, etc.) and had his special frenectomy after which he never once followed up or checked on my bite such that now my bottom teeth have been sharpened to such an extent that they cut my tongue when I talk, and my tongue is now the only thing keeping my bottom teeth from protruding out further than my palette, which is incredibly painful.
When I tried to bring the issues I was having up to get some resolution, he rolled his eyes and walked out of the room saying he’s too busy to deal with this, and left me to work it out with Bobbi, which would be fine if Bobbi had the bandwidth to follow up on anything (then again, it might have just been that they already had all my money and so there was no need for any further ‘sales’ pretense).
Initially we seemed to have so much in common, but once I paid in full for what was supposed to be a 4 appointment treatment plan and then couldn’t get on the schedule for 4 – 6 weeks between appointments to have any of it done, I finally had to cut my losses after 4 months (and having ¾ of the fillings fall out within 3 days of the work), and now am scrambling to find another dentist to correct the problems that trusting Dr. Biles created.
I’ve never had a worse experience with a dentist or his staff. Less inauthentic sugarcoated ‘salesy’ type friendliness and more efficiency would have worked a lot better for me.

Dr. Biles is well informed about the dangers of dental amalgams and toxic substances. He will always choose the safest method possible. He is highly skilled and does everything he can to avoid causing pain. Great guy, too.

Compassionate, friendly, and comfortable — three words you don’t often hear associated with a dentist. Excellent work repairing my chipped tooth; you can’t even tell it was ever damaged!

I have been fortunate to be under the Care of Dr. Biles for the last five years and I can’t say enough about his team’s professionalism and expertise. In regards to his attention to detail and willingness to educate me on his procedures and overall information pertaining to dental hygiene, Dr. Biles is at the very top of his class in my opinion. This is coming from a person who has had all of his wisdom teeth removed, worn braces for 7 years, and had one root canal. With that being said, I have had several years of experience in and out of dental and orthodontic offices, and have never dealt with such a pleasant caring team of experts. Thanks for handing my records off so promptly to Dr. Cemarka, I will miss you up here in the Pacific Northwest. Best Wishes!
Max Capestany

No one actually likes to go to the dentist, right? But I truly look forward to visiting the dental office of Dr. David Biles. Kind and caring staff, up to the minute procedures and equipment, a dentist who treats the whole person… I have found all this and more at this practice. I despaired of ever finding such a thing here (I did have a great dentist back east) after five years and challenging experiences with various Santa Cruz dentists
I am, to say the least, relieved, and so far, extremely happy with the quality of Dr. Biles’ work and that of his hygienists. He and his staff go out of their way to explain all procedures before they happen, and to make recommendations (what’s necessary and what’s advisable but not crucial) with absolutely no pressure to undertake any course of treatment.
I have some special needs as a patient; one is that I can’t tolerate dental anaesthetics. Another is the need to sit upright which is admittedly hard on the personnel as they need to stand while they work on me. I am delighted to report that this has not been a problem, and that I have had next to no discomfort in the chair, and no pain after my procedures. Highly recommended.

First of all let me say that this is coming from someone who’s avoided dentists her whole life… Dr. Biles was recommended to me by a friend who knows how terrified of dentists I am. (My last attempt (6 years ago) at going to a dentist did not end well. I left crying and never went back, I was 27.) So, I went with an open but cautious mind. and Dr. Biles was the PERFECT pick. The assistants were AWESOME and explained everything, they make you very comfortable through the whole process. And Dr. Biles makes sure he explains not only everything from his end but who he is, why his life experience has led to him caring about this work, and most importantly he recognizes that those teeth are YOUR teeth and they are precious, and he tells you all that he can tell you with honest recomendations he would give to his own family and then lets you decide what you want to do with your teeth. Maybe other dentists really get that across too but not the ones I’ve been to.
Anyhoosers, had my wisdom teeth out and It was so much better than anyone I know who’s had their wisdoms out! Had some throbbing the first night but after that I was fine… Only took some arnica for a couple days and they healed up great! I think it has a lot to do with his skill level and style in his surgery (DURIING WHICH I WATCHED THE MAKING OF PAUL SIMON“S GRACELEND ALBUM!!! So awesome. He has a whole binder of dvd options to choose from for while he works.pimp.) The surgery was painless as well.
So I’m very happy with my dentist situation right now… They have payment plan options too because its not pocket change but it is a worthy investment, I am just a student and am working it out as I go but I feel really good about finally making sure my smile/​mouth is happy and healthy.