Laurence M Brownstein, DDS

Dr. Brownstein is the best dentist I’ve ever been to. I’ve been his patient for several years now since moving to bay area. He uses the latest cutting edge techniques in a professional, holistic manner. He doesnt over xray when not necessary. He has safely removed my mercury fillings and has given excellent advise on some of my other dental issues. He really listens to his patients!

Dr. Brownstein is the best dentist I’ve ever had, and that is saying something, because I have had a LOT of dental work. As long as I live here I will drive the 1.5 hours from Redwood City to Sausalito to see him. He removed 7 mercury fillings for me and replaced them with composite, following safe IAMOT protocols. He is very gentle, very professional and explains everything he is doing as he does it. He made sure I was comfortable throughout the 4 hours of work. My initial exam was the most thorough I have ever had, and I learned more about my mouth from him than I ever thought there was to know. He clearly loves his work, is very personable and seems to care about his patients.
When I had some questions after my appointment I e-​mailed him, and his responses were prompt and thorough.
The receptionist, Ellie, is efficient and caring, and the assistant, Colleen, is top notch as well.
I would recommend Dr. Brownstein without reservation. My husband is now a patient of his as well.

Dr. Brownstein removed four mercury fillings from my mouth and installed six composite fillings, and I couldn’t be happier with the results. My teeth look and feel good as new, literally. The root sensitivity I was experiencing before the procedures is gone, and they look as though they have never been filled.
Dr. Brownstein is the *only* dentist in the area who is accredited by the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology (IAOMT), which suggests that he’s the only dentist in the area who has received specialized training to *safely* remove mercury fillings (he has special procedures to ensure that patients don’t absorb/​ingest mercury during the removal).
I imagine that experiencing some degree of pain whilst receiving such procedures is practically inevitable. But what I appreciated most about these four hours worth of work is how Dr. Brownstein handled the pain:
1. He let me know what he was going to do before each and every aspect of the procedures. This may not seem like a big deal, but it made the pain and discomfort much more bearable, since I knew what to expect. Also, I’ve had dentists let me know what they’re going to do before they do it in the past, but never with the degree of precision, consistency, and detail that Dr. Brownstein exhibited.
2. He constantly checked in with me, throughout the procedures, asking how I was doing, and reminding me to raise my hand if I experienced any discomfort and was unable to communicate verbally.
3. I appreciated the way he titrated the anesthetic. I felt that he hit the sweet spot between under-​medication and over-​medication. On each side of my mouth, he gave me a local anesthetic once, then did it again for good measure. Then he cautiously started drilling. At the first sign of pain, he anesthetized again. When the pain continued, he numbed the entire half of the jaw, and continued to proceed cautiously, backing off whenever I winced and continuing again more slowly. I’m glad he didn’t numb the entire jaw from the start, because I felt like crap when the jaw-​numbing anesthetic wore off, but I’m also glad he worked his way up to that, because there’s no way I would have tolerated the pain without it.
4. He apologized for causing pain when he did. I didn’t blame him for causing pain – it seems to be inevitable, to some extent – but I appreciated the compassion nonetheless, and it was nice to know that he was concerned about my comfort.
Now that the procedures are over, I’m excited to have a mercury-​free mouth for the first time since I was young. It was definitely worth the pain to have a metal-​free mouth for (hopefully) the rest of my life.
Once again, I recommend his services without hesitation.

absolutely excellent. the other reviews covered the bases well, so ill leave it at that. the dr. and his staff are wonderful.

I’ve been going to Dr. Larry for ages and always received the most professional care anyone could expect. Dr. Larry is a dentist par excellence. Dentists don’t get any better than this.
Recently there was a change in hygeine staff. The new kid on the block, Ron, is hands down the best, most gentle scaler I’ve ever experienced. He uses an ultrasonic hand-​piece which makes the cleaning a breeze – for him and for me. I never knew a cleaning could be so quick and easy. No nicked gums, no gnarly amplification of chiseling sounds in your skull. You’re in. You’re out. And your teeth are slick and slippery and you’re not dreading coming back in 6 months.
Thanks for the great work Larry and Ron!

Dr. Brownstein makes me want to go to the dentist. He is the nicest guy, and he genuinely cares about your health. After a couple of really bad dentist experiences, I had practically written off going to the dentist ever again, but my Mom insisted I give Dr. Brownstein a try. I’m so glad I did. He has always given me great advice about what procedures he thinks are necessary, and what would be overkill. He is also one of the few dentists that acknowledge the danger of mercury fillings. My husband and I moved to San Jose this year, and we both agreed that we won’t be changing dentists anytime soon; Dr. Brownstein is worth the commute.

Dr. Brownstein is awesome. He is extremely caring and makes sure you have a good experience at the dentist and not a bad one that will leave you scared for life. He also is very good at what he does.
I was going to a dentist in the city but after moving to Marin switched. So I’ve had this weird cavity for a while and my dentist in the city said something about it’s too hard to get to so we would just wait and see how it developed. Well, when I went to Dr. Brownstein he was like, uh, you got a really bad cavity and we need to take care of it.
Turns out it was so bad I had to get a root canal. It was bad that when I flossed there and it hurt — go figure. Glad I finally got it taken care of. Dr. Brownstein is great at what he does and really makes sure his patients are being take care of.