About Carlos M. Longa, DDS
I always knew I wanted to be a doctor, but I never thought I would be a doctor of dental surgery. The seed of dentistry wasn’t planted until after college when I returned to San Francisco and started working for a grant project to increase access to oral health care for persons with developmental disabilities through the University of the Pacific Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry. Three years later, the associate dean of the dental school finally convinced me that I was destined to be a dentist. During dental school I was humbled when the student body and faculty awarded me “Most Compassionate Student Award” in 2005. My role as a dental educator and advocate for disabled persons prior to dental school has fueled my passion for helping others and continued during and after my doctorate. Born and raised in San Francisco, I am proud to be a native San Franciscan. I love this city and for the past 8 years I have really embraced the neighborhood of Glen Park as both a resident and business owner in this community. The small town feel of Glen Park is a wonderful departure from the all too familiar hustle and bustle of San Francisco and I feel blessed to have my home and work all within the tight-knit community of Glen Park. Dentistry is no longer just a matter of diagnosing cavities and filling them. The role of the dentist has expanded to screen and treat various systemic conditions which arise or manifest in the mouth such as oral cancer, herpes, HIV, sleep apnea(OSA), diabetes, hypertension, TMD, migraine headaches and facial pain. All of these conditions have an oral component and most dentists are not educated in this arena because it is not taught in dental school. It is up to the dentist to learn about these potentially life-threatening conditions so that they do not go undiagnosed and untreated. It is our mission at Glen Park Dental to stay at the very forefront of dentistry and all it has to offer our patients. Education is never-ending, especially in health care. We will never know everything there is to know when it comes to health, but we must strive to do so, because in the pursuit of perfection we can achieve excellence. I believe in a patient-centered, interdisciplinary approach to health care. Prior to my career as a dentist, I did research in the field of radiation oncology thru UC Irvine Medical school. As a research scientist, it is well understood that the greatest benefit from science comes from the sharing of information; however, this principle is often lost in the field of healthcare. At present, our healthcare system is centered around treating illness rather than preventing it. Here at Glen Park Dental, we collaborate with oral surgeons, endodontists, periodontists, primary care physicians, sleep physicians, chiropractors, massage therapists, acupuncturists and anybody who will listen and contribute to the common goal of keeping our patients healthy. One of the most fulfilling aspects of dentistry is that in most cases, things can be prevented. It is our goal to educate patients on how to maximize their oral health in an effort to minimize the amount of dentistry they require in the future. Our primary objective is to educate and elevate the systemic health of all our patients. Our best reward is patient satisfaction and we stop at nothing to achieve a level of care above the rest. A Solid Educational Background: My journey as a student is never ending but the start of that journey was at St. Brendan’s Elementary School. Following St. Brendans, I took a drastic departure from private Catholic School and went to Lowell High School and graduated in 1996. Undergraduate education was completed at University of California, Irvine with a Bachelors of Science in Biology. Followed by Dental School at the University of the Pacific, Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry. I have pursued various postgraduate education courses including the California Center for Advanced Dental Studies and the California Dental Society; however the place where I transformed into a comprehensive oral health provider was at the Las Vegas Institute for Advanced Dental Studies.
