The best dentists in Austin.
Shoal Creek Dental Care in Allandale has served Austin for over 50 years and calls itself family owned and operated in its homepage headline, with a third-generation dentist on staff. KoLa Family & Cosmetic Dentistry in North University has served the city since 1945 by its own count, the longest tenure claim we could verify. For published pricing, South Austin Dental Associates posts three membership tiers from $299 a year and its owner sees emergencies after hours, and Family Dentistry on Manchaca posts family plans from $175 a year with a $29 emergency exam for new patients. Texas Capital Dental in North Austin sees children on Medicaid and CHIP, a genuine rarity on this list. Every ranked practice is a general or family dentistry office whose ownership we checked beyond its own website.
This page needed a rule no other list we have built has needed: you cannot tell who owns an Austin dental practice by reading its website. Corporate dental groups, the industry calls them dental support organizations, operate on the order of a hundred offices across the metro under local-sounding or independent-looking names, and three practices in our research pool that read as independent neighborhood offices turned out to belong to a Dallas-based dental group, a private equity firm, and an out-of-state management company. None of the three said so anywhere on their own sites. So every ranked practice here cleared an ownership check that went beyond its website: the federal provider registry, corporate hiring systems, and the practice’s own words, taken together.
What the check left standing splits into two camps that almost never overlap. The institutions compete on tenure: a North University practice serving Austin since 1945, an Allandale office in its sixth decade under a third-generation dentist, a 38th Street practice that calls itself proudly non-corporate and has sat in the same building since 1997. The newer practices compete on transparency: published membership plans from $150 a year, posted emergency-exam prices, and owners whose names and dental schools are on the site. Not one of the decades-old institutions publishes a membership plan. Every practice on this page that does publish one puts exact prices in writing, tier by tier.
Two practical notes before the list. Dental membership plans are not insurance, and the honest practices say so in writing; they are prepaid cleanings and exams plus a discount on treatment, and they only make sense if you would pay cash otherwise. And access varies more than you would guess: one ranked practice sees children on Medicaid and CHIP, one runs its office in English, Spanish, and Korean, and one answers its emergency line after hours. Those facts are in the entries, because they are usually the facts that actually decide the choice.
- 01 · Allandale
Shoal Creek Dental Care
The homepage headline says it plainly: your family owned and operated dentist in North Austin. The practice has provided care to the community for over 50 years by its own count, and Dr. Robert C. Harger is a third-generation dentist, which makes this the rare Austin office where the ownership story, the tenure, and the person holding the drill all line up in one sentence. In a category where corporate groups quietly operate under neighborhood names, a practice that leads with family ownership in its H1 and has the decades to back it is the safest first call in the city.
8015 Shoal Creek Blvd, Suite 120. General and family dentistry.
Visit their site - 02 · North University, across from UT
KoLa Family & Cosmetic Dentistry
Serving Austin since 1945, by the practice’s own banner, and its about page calls it a fixture of the Austin community for over 75 years. That is the longest tenure claim we could verify anywhere in Austin dentistry, and it comes with an address to match: 2907 Duval Street in North University, across from UT’s campus. The practice presents its heritage and its current two-dentist team side by side, and the heritage is the point. Most of the city’s dental offices did not exist ten years ago. This one has been at it for eight decades.
2907 Duval St. General, family, and cosmetic dentistry.
Visit their site - 03 · Central Austin, at 38th and Lamar
38th Street Dental
The clearest statement of independence we found in this entire category, on the practice’s own about page: 38th Street Dental is a privately owned and operated practice, based in the same Austin location since opening in 1997. The homepage goes further, in words most dentists would not commit to print: we’re privately held and proudly non-corporate, and this means we get to set our own standards of excellence and hold ourselves to them. Nearly thirty years in one building, an ownership statement that leaves no room for interpretation, and a central location that half the city drives past weekly.
1500 W 38th St, Suite 56. General and family dentistry.
Visit their site - 04 · Avery Ranch
Austin Elite Smiles
A privately owned, women-owned dental practice led by partners Dr. Elizabeth Lowery and Dr. Kasey Lowrance, in the practice’s own words, and the only office in our research that names its ownership structure and its gender ownership on the homepage. It is also unusually complete for a neighborhood practice: five dentists including Dr. Chad Orlich, a periodontist the practice describes as board-certified, so gum surgery stays in-house instead of becoming a referral. The membership plans are published in full, a wellness tier at $42 a month and a periodontal tier at $64, each with the no-maximums, no-claim-forms framing spelled out.
15004 Avery Ranch Blvd, Bldg B, Suite 100. Healthy Mouth Wellness Plan $42 a month or $504 a year; Perio Wellness Plan $64 a month or $768 a year; $198 new-patient exam for the uninsured.
Partners: Dr. Elizabeth Lowery and Dr. Kasey Lowrance
Visit their site - 05 · Riverside
Aloha Dental
Established in 2011 and locally owned by Mark Whitney Jumper, per the practice’s own site, and one of the few offices in the city whose independence we could confirm all the way down: the federal provider registry lists Dr. Jumper himself as the practice’s president, at an Austin address. It is also the most linguistically accessible office on this list. English, Spanish, and Korean are the languages spoken in the office, stated on the site, which matters in a Riverside corridor where plenty of good practices serve only one. The savings plan is concrete: $249 a year for two exams, two cleanings, full X-rays, an emergency exam, and 30 percent off listed procedures.
1614 E Riverside Dr. Aloha Dental Savings Plan $249 a year; valid at the Riverside office; expires 12 months from purchase.
Owner: Dr. Mark Whitney Jumper II
Visit their site - 06 · North Austin, off East Braker
Texas Capital Dental
Opened in 2011 by Dr. Stacy Sheinbein-Garner and Dr. Keri Zayed, both Baylor College of Dentistry graduates, and the practice with the strongest access story on this page. It accepts most PPO plans, and it sees children on Medicaid and CHIP, which almost no other ranked practice does. The site runs in full Spanish, the office describes itself as fully accessible, ground-floor access with no steps and accessible parking near the entrance, and the emergency page is honest about its limits: dental pain does not keep business hours, and they do their best to see urgent cases the same day during office hours. Dr. Sheinbein-Garner graduated in the top ten of her Baylor class, which earned induction into the Omicron Kappa Upsilon honor society.
1015 E Braker Ln, Suite 2-3. Most PPO plans; children’s Medicaid and CHIP. Se habla español.
Co-founders: Dr. Stacy Sheinbein-Garner and Dr. Keri Zayed
Visit their site - 07 · South Austin, on William Cannon
Baines Dentistry
Dr. Baines has been in private practice since 1988, and in 1993 he became a Fellow in the Academy of General Dentistry, both stated on his own site. That fellowship is worth pausing on: it is a credential earned through years of continuing education and an examination most general dentists never sit, and Dr. Baines has held his for more than three decades. Nearly four decades in private practice, and one of the few advanced general-dentistry credentials we found in the category.
2500 W William Cannon Dr, Suite 701. General dentistry.
Visit their site - 08 · Westgate
South Austin Dental Associates
Locally owned and operated, in the practice’s words, led by owner Dr. Evan Matthysse with Dr. Shea Vogelsong, and the office that makes the most concrete after-hours commitment we found anywhere in this category: Dr. Matthysse will even come in after hours, the site says, for emergencies. The membership plan is published in full text rather than hidden in a brochure, three tiers from $299 to $699 a year with per-family-member pricing spelled out, and the honest disclosure attached: this is a discount plan, not a dental insurance plan.
4419 Frontier Trail, Suite 104. Membership tiers $299, $499, and $699 a year, additional family members discounted; most major PPO plans accepted.
Owner: Dr. Evan Matthysse
Visit their site - 09 · Avery Ranch
Walden Dental
Dr. David Frank, owner and founder, a Tufts dental graduate who has practiced in Austin since 2015, per his own bio. The reason to know about Walden is speed done properly: crowns are designed, milled, and seated same-day in one appointment, and the practice makes the same claim for veneers, made while you wait, which almost nobody else in the city commits to in writing. For anyone who has spent three weeks between a temporary crown and the real one, that is not a gimmick, it is the whole pitch.
9800 N Lake Creek Pkwy, Suite 150. Same-day CEREC crowns; CareCredit financing.
Owner and founder: Dr. David Frank
Visit their site - 10 · South Austin, on Menchaca
Grand Oaks Dentistry
We operate as a private practice, free from corporate influence, the site states, and the federal registry backs it: the practice is a DBA of its own dentist’s PLLC with no parent entity. For over 12 years it has served South Austin from the same location with the same dedicated dentist, Dr. Dimple Sharma, now joined by two associates. The billing model is the interesting part: Grand Oaks is a stated fee-for-service practice that files claims with 21 named carriers and dozens more besides, which means the dentist’s treatment plan answers to the patient rather than to an insurer’s fee schedule. Same-day emergency appointments are offered.
8700 Menchaca Rd, Suite 102. Fee-for-service; claims filed with 21 named carriers and more; same-day emergency appointments.
Dentist: Dr. Dimple Sharma
Visit their site - 11 · South Austin, on Menchaca
Family Dentistry on Manchaca
The most completely priced family practice in South Austin. The Dental Savers Discount Plan is published tier by tier: $175 a year for infants and toddlers, $275 for children, $419 for adults, and $519 for periodontal patients, and the adult tiers include unlimited emergency exams and unlimited X-rays, a formulation no other plan we read offers. New patients can get an emergency exam and X-ray for $29. Three dentists, Dr. Megha Bassi, Dr. Taylor Nguyen, and Dr. Chris Mun, run it in-network with Delta Dental and a dozen named PPO carriers. One spelling note that is not a typo: the practice keeps the road’s older Manchaca spelling in its name; maps now render the street as Menchaca.
11200 Manchaca Rd, Bldg 4, Suite 4. Plans $175 to $519 a year; $29 new-patient emergency exam and X-ray; in-network with Delta Dental and most PPOs.
Visit their site - 12 · Anderson Mill
Glauser Family Dentistry
Dr. Grant Glauser is a third-generation dentist, carrying a family tradition that started with his grandfather’s dental office in Houston, and his own training runs deeper than the family name: a UT School of Dentistry DDS, implant surgery certification through the Engel Institute, and membership in the Spear Institute, all stated on the practice’s site. He practices alongside Dr. Kathleen McNeil, a UT Health San Antonio graduate with two decades in the field. The practice offers same-day care for urgent dental issues and covers the full family range, from children’s sealants through implants and dentures, in a part of town thick with dental offices and thin on ones with a story like this.
12401 Hymeadow Dr, Bldg 5. Same-day urgent care; most insurance plans accepted.
Dentist: Dr. Grant Glauser
Visit their site - 13 · Southpark Meadows
Austin Artistic Dental
Dr. Jarett Hulse writes his own website in the first person, and he does not hedge: we are not owned by a large corporation, that can be found in almost every shopping area across the city. He describes his approach as very conservative, his emphasis, and the cosmetic work is the draw: veneers, smile makeovers, full-mouth rehabilitation, and Bioclear, with an out-of-town-guests page for patients who travel in for it. The office runs Tuesday through Friday, closed Mondays and weekends.
9900 S IH-35, Suite P-200. Open Tuesday through Friday, 8am to 5pm.
Dentist: Dr. Jarett Hulse
Visit their site - 14 · Five locations, from Anderson Lane to Round Rock
Forest Family Dentistry
A counterexample to the corporate-group story: a multi-office practice that is genuinely Austin’s own. Dr. Robin Bethell opened the first office on Anderson Lane in 2013, and the group has grown to five locations and seventeen dentists with no parent company on any of its five federal provider records, one of which lists Dr. Bethell herself as owner and dentist, with a sixth office planned for Westlake by the end of 2026 by its own announcement. The membership plan is the cheapest flat annual fee among our picks, $150 a year, structured as a straight discount, 50 percent off cleanings, exams, X-rays, fluoride, and sealants, and 25 percent off treatment, with no age limits and no annual maximums.
Anderson Lane, Burnet Road, East Austin, Research Blvd, and Round Rock. FFD Discount Plan $150 a year; in-network with most PPO carriers, participation varies by location.
Founder: Dr. Robin Bethell
Visit their site
Places that came up in the research and did not make the list, and why.
- Castle Dental. The most visible dental brand in the city is a corporate chain, not a local practice. Castle Dental is one of the brands of Smile Brands, an Irvine, California dental support organization that says it supports over 600 offices across 29 states. Sixteen Austin-metro offices carry the Castle name, from Westgate to Round Rock, and every one runs back to that parent. This page ranks practices whose ownership is local and documented, and Castle is neither.
- Smiley Dental & Orthodontics. A Texas chain by its own description: Dr. Pham and her business partners started Smiley Dental & Orthodontics in 2003 and have 31 locations in Texas, per the company’s own site. The Austin location’s page names no dentist at all, and the chain’s own footer omits Austin from the list of cities it serves. A practice page that cannot tell you who will be treating you is not a practice we can rank.
- Swish Dental. Swish presents as a set of local Austin studios, and its founding was genuinely local. But its owner’s own website settles the question: Mereo Capital Partners, a private equity firm, lists Swish in its portfolio and describes it as a Texas-based dental services organization operating clinics across Austin, Houston, and San Antonio. Nothing on Swish’s own site discloses this. We rank practices whose ownership matches their presentation.
- Legend Dental & Orthodontics. Legend presents as a two-office local group in Austin and Georgetown. Its hiring runs through the careers system of MB2 Dental, the Carrollton-based dental partnership organization, where a Legend posting asks candidates to travel among sister locations including BLVD Riverside, BLVD 5th Street, and Advanced Dental Care of Hutto, and federal provider records for both Legend offices share a single Dallas corporate mailing address and the same authorized official. None of that appears on Legend’s own site, which is exactly why the check matters.
- Emergency Dentist of Austin. An emergency-first operation rather than a practice you can belong to: its services and its own name are built around emergencies, extractions, and root canals, and at our reading three of its seven weekly days were listed as coming soon rather than hours. Same-day emergency care matters, which is why the ranked entries flag who actually offers it, from an office that will also see you next year.
- How can you tell if an Austin dentist is independently owned?
- Not from the website, usually. Corporate dental groups operate on the order of a hundred Austin-metro offices under local-sounding names, and the ones we caught in our research disclosed nothing on their own sites. Three checks work better: the practice’s own words, since genuinely independent offices tend to say so plainly, the way 38th Street Dental calls itself privately owned and operated; the federal NPI provider registry at npiregistry.cms.hhs.gov, where an out-of-state mailing address or a corporate officer listed as the authorized official is a strong tell; and the careers page, since corporate practices usually hire through their parent company’s recruiting system.
- What does a dental membership plan cost in Austin?
- Among the practices we researched, published annual plans run from $89 to $792 a year. Forest Family Dentistry’s $150 is the cheapest flat annual fee among our picks, structured as a straight discount; one unranked practice undercuts it with an $89 signup fee that then charges per visit. Aloha Dental charges $249 including cleanings, exams, and X-rays. Family Dentistry on Manchaca prices by family member, $175 to $519. South Austin Dental Associates runs three tiers from $299 to $699, and periodontal tiers elsewhere reach $768 to $792. Remember what the honest practices state in writing: these are discount plans, not insurance, and they make sense mainly if you would otherwise pay cash.
- Which Austin dentists see children on Medicaid or CHIP?
- It is rarer than it should be. Among our ranked picks, Texas Capital Dental in North Austin accepts children’s Medicaid and CHIP alongside most PPO plans, and states it on its homepage. Most of the practices on this page, like most private dental offices in Texas, do not take Medicaid at all, so a family that needs it should confirm by phone before booking anywhere.
- What is the oldest dental practice in Austin?
- The oldest tenure claim we verified belongs to KoLa Family & Cosmetic Dentistry in North University, which states it has served Austin since 1945. Shoal Creek Dental Care in Allandale claims over 50 years, Bell Dental Studio in Westlake and 12 Oaks Integrative Dentistry both claim more than four decades on their own sites, and Baines Dentistry has been in private practice since 1988. A pattern worth knowing: not one of these institutions appeared in the map-derived business data we started our own research from, which may be why long-tenured practices so rarely show up on lists like this.
- Can I get a same-day crown in Austin?
- Yes. Walden Dental in Avery Ranch designs, mills, and seats CEREC crowns in a single appointment, and makes the same-day claim for veneers. Several other ranked practices, including Westlake-area and Anderson Mill offices we researched, advertise in-house milling as well. If avoiding the temporary-crown wait matters to you, ask specifically whether the crown is milled in the office or sent to a lab.
- What should I do about a dental emergency after hours in Austin?
- Most practices, including good ones, offer same-day appointments during office hours only. The strongest after-hours commitment among our picks is South Austin Dental Associates, whose owner states he will come in after hours for emergencies. Family Dentistry on Manchaca’s adult plans include unlimited emergency exams, and its $29 new-patient emergency exam is the cheapest priced entry point we found. For pain outside any office’s hours, a practice with an on-call line beats an emergency-only storefront: the one we reviewed listed three of its seven days as coming soon.
- Do any Austin dentists take insurance and publish real prices?
- A growing number publish exact figures, and they tend to be the newer independent practices. Family Dentistry on Manchaca posts every plan tier. South Austin Dental Associates posts three tiers with per-family pricing. Austin Elite Smiles posts monthly and annual figures for both of its plans. The decades-old institutions on this page publish no plans at all, and quote by phone. If price certainty matters most, start with the practices that put numbers in writing, and treat any advertised special without a printed price as a phone call, not a promise.
We started from our own census of Austin businesses, which holds 145 dentist listings, filtered to general and family dentistry, 107 listings collapsing to 85 distinct practices, and researched the top 60 plus an institutions sweep for long-tenured practices the map data missed. Every claim on this page traces to a page of the practice’s own website read on a dated pass in July 2026. Ownership was checked beyond each practice’s site, against the federal NPI provider registry and corporate hiring systems, because three practices in the pool that read as independent were not. Specialist-led offices, orthodontics-first brands, and emergency-only storefronts were excluded. Multi-office groups qualify only when founded and run from Austin by a named dentist. We do not publish Google ratings, and no practice paid to appear or can pay to be ranked.
Of the 145 dentist listings in our Austin census, at least ten flagged as independent in the underlying map data actually belong to national chains, out-of-state management companies, private-equity-owned groups, or multi-metro corporate groups, and the three that present most convincingly as local neighborhood practices disclose nothing about it on their own sites. Meanwhile, not one of the nine longest-serving practices we verified, including one serving Austin since 1945, appeared in the map-derived data at all. The two camps even price differently: five of the fourteen ranked practices publish exact membership prices, from $150 to $768 a year, while not a single ranked institution with a stated founding before 2000 publishes a plan at all.