Dr. Tariq Jabaiti and Dr. Nuriel Lavi are not the kind of dentists who rush. Both trained at the University of Southern California, both recognized by the California Dental Association, and both recipients of the California Best Dentist distinction, the two partners have spent years building something that is harder to manufacture than credentials: a reputation for actually listening. Their practice, Dental Group of Beverly Hills, sits in the heart of one of the most image-conscious zip codes in the country — and yet the doctors will tell you that image is almost beside the point. "It is our utmost desire to help our patients maintain optimal oral health through education and preventative dental care," the practice states, "and we strive to develop long-lasting and trusting relationships with all our dental patients." In a city where the pressure to look a certain way is constant and relentless, that orientation toward health over aesthetics is not a marketing line. It is a clinical commitment that shapes every decision made inside the practice.
Dr. Jabaiti and Dr. Lavi are members of both the American Dental Association and the California Dental Association — affiliations that reflect ongoing engagement with the standards and evolving science of the profession, not just a line on a website. But spend time understanding how they practice and it becomes clear that the credentials are almost secondary to the philosophy. The doctors have built Dental Group of Beverly Hills around a belief that is straightforward and, in practice, surprisingly rare: that patients who understand what is happening in their mouths make better decisions about their health, and that a dentist's job is to create the conditions for that understanding — not to manage patients through a production line of procedures.
For anyone in Beverly Hills who is trying to make sense of what good dental care actually looks like — and what to look for when choosing a dentist — here is a closer look at how Dr. Jabaiti and Dr. Lavi think about that work, and what patients need to understand before they make a single decision.
What Good Dental Care Actually Requires — And Why Prevention Is the Whole Game
"People come to us because they want a beautiful smile," Dr. Jabaiti says. "But what they really want is someone who will be honest with them, explain what is happening in their mouth, and help them stay ahead of problems before those problems become expensive." That framing — prevention as the primary value, aesthetics as the downstream benefit — is not how dental care is typically marketed. It is, however, how the doctors at Dental Group of Beverly Hills have chosen to practice, and it produces a meaningfully different kind of patient relationship.
The foundation of that relationship is diagnosis. The practice uses digital X-rays, 3D intraoral scanning with the iTero system, and Cone Beam CT imaging — tools that allow the doctors to see far more than a traditional film X-ray ever could. The result is earlier detection, more precise treatment planning, and, critically, the ability to show patients exactly what is happening in their own mouths rather than asking them to take a dentist's word for it. "When patients can see what we see," Dr. Lavi explains, "they understand why we are recommending what we are recommending. That changes the conversation entirely."
Laser dentistry is another area where the practice has invested meaningfully. Using the Solea laser system, the doctors can perform procedures — cavity treatment, gum surgery, certain orthodontic adjustments — that would traditionally require drills, sutures, and extended recovery times. The difference in patient experience is significant. Less pain, less bleeding, faster healing, and, perhaps most importantly, less fear. "Patients used to dread certain procedures," Dr. Jabaiti notes. "When we can do that work with significantly less discomfort, they stop avoiding the chair. And when people stop avoiding the chair, we can actually keep them healthy." The logic is circular in the best possible way: better technology reduces anxiety, reduced anxiety improves compliance, improved compliance produces better long-term health outcomes.
Dr. Lavi is direct about why preventative care — cleanings, comprehensive exams, early-stage screenings — forms the backbone of the practice. "The mouth is a window into your overall health," he says. "Gum disease has been linked to cardiovascular issues, diabetes complications, and systemic inflammation. When we talk to patients about their oral health, we are really talking about their whole health." That framing redefines what a dental visit is actually for. It is not a transaction. It is a longitudinal health relationship, and the value of that relationship compounds over time in ways that episodic, procedure-driven care simply cannot replicate.
Cosmetic dentistry — veneers, Invisalign, custom whitening — is also a meaningful part of what the practice offers. But Dr. Jabaiti is careful about how he positions it. "We are not a smile factory," he says. "When someone comes in for cosmetic work, we do a full health evaluation first. We want to make sure the foundation is solid before we talk about aesthetics. A beautiful smile built on unhealthy teeth is not going to last." That insistence on clinical integrity before cosmetic outcome is one of the things longtime patients describe as the practice's defining quality — and it is one of the things that separates a practice oriented toward long-term relationships from one oriented toward high-volume procedure revenue.
What This Means for People in Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills places an outsized premium on appearance, and that creates a specific kind of pressure for dental practices operating here. Some respond by leaning hard into cosmetic offerings, positioning veneers and whitening as the primary value proposition and building their marketing accordingly. The result, in a market as affluent and image-focused as this one, can be a proliferation of boutique smile studios that are very good at one thing and less equipped to handle everything else that dental health actually involves.
Dr. Lavi has seen the consequences of that model in his own exam chair. "We see patients who have had cosmetic work done elsewhere and are coming to us because something went wrong, or because they were never told about an underlying issue that the cosmetic procedure masked," he says. It is a candid observation — and a revealing one. In a market where dental tourism and specialty cosmetic practices have multiplied, the value of a practice that treats cosmetic outcomes as the result of good health rather than a substitute for it becomes considerably clearer.
There is also the question of anxiety. A significant number of adults avoid the dentist not out of indifference but out of genuine fear — fear of pain, fear of judgment, fear of bad news. Dental Group of Beverly Hills has invested in both the technology and the interpersonal approach to address that directly. The Solea laser system reduces the need for drills in many procedures. The iTero scanner eliminates the discomfort of traditional impressions. And the doctors themselves are known, by patient accounts, for taking the time to explain what they are doing and why before they do it. In a city where time is treated as a luxury, that willingness to slow down and communicate is not a small thing. It is the practical expression of a practice philosophy that treats patients as participants in their own care rather than recipients of it.
The practice's location in Beverly Hills also means it serves patients who are accustomed to high standards in every professional relationship they maintain. Dr. Jabaiti and Dr. Lavi have built a facility and a team that meets those expectations — not through opulence, but through the kind of consistent, attentive, technically sophisticated care that makes patients feel that their health is being taken seriously at every visit.
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What to Look For When You Need a Dentist
Choosing a dentist — particularly if you have had bad experiences in the past, or if you have been avoiding care for longer than you would like to admit — is one of those decisions that is easy to put off and genuinely consequential when you do. A few things are worth prioritizing when you are evaluating your options.
Ask specifically about the diagnostic technology the practice uses. A practice that relies entirely on traditional X-rays is working with limited information compared to one that uses digital imaging, 3D scanning, and cone beam CT. Those tools are not gimmicks — they genuinely change what a dentist can see, catch early, and explain to you. The quality of your diagnosis is the foundation of the quality of your treatment, and it is worth asking about directly.
Ask about the practice's approach to treatment planning. Are they recommending everything at once, or are they helping you understand what is urgent, what can wait, and what is optional? A dentist who gives you a clear, prioritized picture of your oral health — including the tradeoffs of different approaches — is one who is treating you as an informed adult. One who presents a long list of immediate treatments without that context is worth scrutinizing more carefully.
If you have anxiety about dental visits, ask how the practice handles that. The answer tells you a great deal. Do they dismiss it, or do they take it seriously? Do they have systems in place — gentler techniques, better technology, clear communication about what to expect — or do they simply tell you to relax? A dentist's willingness to adapt to the patient, rather than expecting the patient to adapt to the office, is a meaningful signal about the kind of care you will receive.
Finally, ask about continuity. Seeing the same dentist over time — rather than cycling through a rotating roster of providers — allows for the kind of longitudinal awareness that catches problems early and builds the trust that makes difficult conversations easier. "We know our patients," Dr. Jabaiti says. "We know what their gums looked like three years ago. We know when something has changed. That history is genuinely valuable, and it is one of the things that gets lost when people treat dental care as transactional."
A Practice Built on Something That Lasts
There is a version of dentistry that is purely transactional — you come in, you get a cleaning, you leave, and nobody involved is particularly invested in what happens between visits. And then there is the version that Dr. Jabaiti and Dr. Lavi have spent years building at Dental Group of Beverly Hills: one grounded in relationship, in education, and in a genuine commitment to the long-term health of every patient who walks through the door.
In a city that can sometimes mistake surface for substance, that distinction matters more than it might elsewhere. The doctors are quick to point out that the most sophisticated technology in the world is only as good as the conversation that surrounds it — the explanation, the question, the honest assessment of where a patient's health actually stands. It is that combination of clinical rigor and human attentiveness that has made Dental Group of Beverly Hills a trusted presence in the community, and a practice that patients, by all accounts, actually look forward to visiting.
For anyone in Beverly Hills who is trying to figure out where to turn for dental care they can actually trust, that combination is worth understanding. The conversation starts with a visit, and it starts on your terms.