On October 17, 2025, the Dental Board of California issued a permit with a plain name and a long backstory. Fictitious-name permit No. 19927, for “Point Loma Comprehensive Dental Practice,” lists one address, 3019 Emerson Street in Point Loma, and one licensed dentist behind it: Dr. Tina Mobasseri, who received her California license in 2021. The office it covers is not new. Dr. David P. De Rosier, who has held a California license since October 1987, has practiced in Point Loma since 1991. He uses 3019 Emerson as his address of record with the state, and over the years his biography has filled up with peninsula institutions: the Point Loma Rotary Club, Point Loma Summer Concerts and the Peninsula Breakfast Club.
Paperwork like that is how most neighborhood practices change hands, without a ribbon-cutting or a news release. This one is worth a closer look for two reasons. It is a small, documented case of a national trend, as fewer young dentists own practices and more of them become owners later in their careers. And the practice has a specific clinical identity: it treats the teeth, the jaw joints and the airway as one system. That is a philosophy De Rosier built over three decades, and the new owner has said she wants to keep it going.
This feature was written from public records, archived web pages, the practice’s own published materials and other public sources. Dentist News Today did not interview Dr. Mobasseri, Dr. De Rosier or their staff, and coverage is never paid.
A street in San Diego’s oldest settled neighborhood
Emerson Street is one of Point Loma’s “alphabetical author streets.” The east–west streets begin in Roseville and run into Loma Portal, named for writers in alphabetical order from Addison to Zola. The city groups the area with the hillside above it as Roseville-Fleetridge, which it bounds by San Diego Bay and Rosecrans Street on the east, Cañon Street on the south and Catalina Boulevard on the west. The practice sits inside those lines.
Roseville is the oldest settled part of the peninsula. Louis Rose was a German Jewish immigrant who reached San Diego in 1850 and served on the first county Board of Supervisors. He bought the land in 1866, laid out streets, and built a wharf and a hotel. He hoped a railroad would one day connect his town to the city across the bay. A plaque at Rosecrans Street and Avenida de Portugal, once the corner of Main and First streets when Roseville was its own town, marks its founding in 1869. In October 2018 the La Playa Trail Association unveiled a second plaque nearby, on the site of Rose’s hotel at Rosecrans and Byron streets, where the Bellamar Point Loma condominiums stand now.
The neighborhood later became home to many Portuguese fishermen and tuna-boat owners. That is why some people still call it “Tunaville,” and why nearby St. Agnes Catholic Church has hosted the Festa do Espírito Santo every year since 1910. That festival is described as San Diego’s oldest ethnic tradition. Uphill, Fleetridge is newer. David Fleet, a son of aviation pioneer Reuben H. Fleet, developed it between 1950 and 1955 on curving streets that follow the terrain. Point Loma Park sits there, about 0.8 miles west of the practice by straight-line distance. Farther out on the peninsula, Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo’s 1542 landing is why Point Loma is sometimes called the place “where California began.”
Census figures describe who lives here now. The 2020–2024 American Community Survey counts about 21,650 residents in ZIP code 92106, with a median age of about 37. The median household income is roughly $142,900, and the median value of an owner-occupied home is about $1.5 million. About 9.5 percent of adults are veterans.
The dentist who joined everything
De Rosier’s path into dentistry ran through the University of California system. According to the practice, he earned a biological sciences degree at UC Irvine in 1983 and his Doctor of Dental Surgery at UCLA in 1987. The state issued his license, No. 35869, on October 27, 1987. It is current and active and shows no public disciplinary actions. State records also hold a trace of his early career. In September 1991, a fictitious-name permit for a partnership called Southbay Plaza Dental Office, on East Plaza Boulevard in National City, was issued under his license. That permit is now cancelled. His Point Loma biography dates his practice on the peninsula to the same year.
His published biography reads like a membership directory. It lists the American Dental Association, the California Dental Association, the San Diego County Dental Society, the Academy of General Dentistry, the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry, the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine and the L.D. Pankey Study Club of Southern California. In his own words on the practice site, he calls himself “admittedly a continuing education junkie.” He writes that he serves on the county dental society’s ethics committee. He also calls himself an alumnus of the Pankey Institute, the Key Biscayne, Florida, continuing-education institute named for Dr. L.D. Pankey, which marked 50 years in 2019. The practice describes the Pankey program as centered on full-mouth reconstruction, TMJ therapy and advanced cosmetic work.
“I take films according to what is appropriate for you, not what your insurance will pay for.” Dr. David P. De Rosier, practice biography, Point Loma Comprehensive Dental
That same biography explains how he approaches patients. He begins every new relationship with a thorough exam, he writes, and the office describes its approach as “one size fits one.” Outside the office, the practice says he lives in Point Loma and likes cycling, vintage cars and sailing.
His civic résumé connects to one of the peninsula’s best-known summer rituals. Point Loma Summer Concerts is a volunteer-run nonprofit founded more than 25 years ago by Bridget Cantu Wear. It puts on free Friday-evening shows at Point Loma Park. Its first concert drew almost 300 people, according to a May 2026 Times of San Diego story. The 2026 season ran five concerts from July 10 to August 7, and organizers budgeted about $40,000 per show and set out to raise $60,000 from the community. The group gives $10,000 to $20,000 a year from raffle proceeds to local youth music programs. De Rosier’s biography lists him as an active member. Other community groups named in the concerts’ own listings, including the Point Loma Rotary, the Peninsula Lions and the Point Loma Optimist Club, help put the shows on.
Teeth, joints and airway
The practice’s clinical identity was in place before the change of ownership. The earliest archived copy of pointlomacomprehensivedental.com, from September 2020, already lists TMJ and sleep apnea therapy, jaw pain, snoring and bite therapy. Those services sit next to standard restorative work: periodontal care, implants, veneers, crowns, composite fillings, bridges and dentures. That fall the site also posted a COVID-19 office-safety page, and later blog posts from 2023 discussed family dentistry and palate expansion in children.
Today the office describes its philosophy as a “whole-system” approach. It treats the mouth as connected to how the jaw works and how a patient breathes, and it aims at causes, not only symptoms. Its current service list covers preventive care, comprehensive exams, periodontal treatment, fillings and bonding, crowns, bridges, veneers, dentures, implants, Invisalign, TMJ and orofacial pain care, bite therapy, sleep apnea treatment, emergency care and pediatric dentistry. On pediatric care, it says it watches early airway development in children, alongside fluoride and sealants. The practice does not publish clinical outcome data, and none is implied here.
The handoff
Mobasseri’s route to Emerson Street began on the East Coast. The practice says she earned a biology degree at the University of North Carolina and a scholarship to Virginia Commonwealth University, where she completed her DDS. The Dental Board issued her California license, No. 106753, on July 30, 2021, through the ADEX examination pathway. The license is current and active, and her record lists the Emerson Street office as her practice location. Her federal NPI record, which providers update themselves, still shows an earlier practice address on Lake Murray Boulevard in La Mesa.
In a first-person note on the practice website, she writes that she and her husband moved to San Diego after she finished dental school and decided to build both their careers and their home in the city. She lists memberships in the ADA, the CDA and the San Diego County Dental Society, and says she takes advanced courses through Spear Education, a large continuing-education company for dentists. Her note ends with a promise to the practice’s existing patients.
“My goal is to ensure this practice continues to feel like a place where you and your family are truly cared for and supported.” Dr. Tina Mobasseri, practice biography
The public timeline is short. The Internet Archive first captured her biography page and De Rosier’s current page in October 2025, the same month the state issued the new permit. The practice website now calls her the “Practice Owner” and still lists De Rosier on the team. No public source gives the terms of the transition or says how often De Rosier now sees patients.
Why a quiet ownership change matters
Every independent practice eventually faces the question of who comes next, and national data show the road to ownership getting longer for younger dentists. The American Dental Association’s Health Policy Institute reports that 72.5 percent of U.S. dentists owned their practices in 2023, down from 84.7 percent in 2005. A June 2025 HPI brief found that only about 21 percent of 2016–2020 graduates owned a practice a few years out of school, compared with 63 to 70 percent of those who graduated in 2010 or earlier. The same brief concluded that most dentists still become owners eventually, just later in their careers, and it identified 2011 as a turning point.
Against that backdrop, the Point Loma handoff is a small data point in the other direction. The state permit names a single individual dentist as the owner, and the practice still answers to a dentist who works in it. For patients, the most practical effect of a handoff like this is continuity: the same address, the same phone number, (619) 222-7400, and, for now, the same senior dentist on the team page.
It also shows how a practice’s specialty can outlast its founder’s working years. TMJ and sleep-related care depend on long relationships with patients, because bites, joints and airways change over time. The practice has kept those services at the center of its site through the transition.
Questions patients ask
What are the office hours?
The practice lists Monday through Wednesday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Thursday, 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. It is closed Friday through Sunday. The office asks that urgent matters be handled by phone at (619) 222-7400, not through its online form.
Does the office treat jaw pain, clenching or snoring?
TMJ and orofacial pain care, bite therapy and sleep apnea treatment are on the practice’s service list, and De Rosier lists membership in the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine. Whether a treatment fits a particular patient is a question for an exam.
Is Dr. De Rosier still seeing patients?
The website lists both dentists, and both California licenses are active. The practice does not publish De Rosier’s schedule, so patients who want a specific dentist should ask when booking.
Does the office take my insurance or Medi-Cal?
The practice does not publish a list of insurance plans and does not say whether it takes Medi-Cal Dental. Its website has a payment page, and the office can answer coverage questions by phone.
Does the practice see children?
Yes. Pediatric dentistry is on its service list, and it says it welcomes patients from age one.
Sources
- Permit details: Point Loma Comprehensive Dental Practice (FNP 19927), Dental Board of California / Department of Consumer Affairs, checked Nov 9, 2026
- License details: Mobasseri, Tina (Dentist 106753), Dental Board of California / Department of Consumer Affairs, checked Nov 9, 2026
- License details: De Rosier, David Paul (Dentist 35869), Dental Board of California / Department of Consumer Affairs, checked Nov 9, 2026
- Permit details: Southbay Plaza Dental Office (FNP 773, cancelled), Dental Board of California / Department of Consumer Affairs, checked Nov 9, 2026
- Point Loma Comprehensive Dental, Point Loma Comprehensive Dental
- Dr. De Rosier, Point Loma Comprehensive Dental
- Dr. Tina Mobasseri, Point Loma Comprehensive Dental
- About Us, Point Loma Comprehensive Dental
- Our Philosophy, Point Loma Comprehensive Dental
- Contact Us, Point Loma Comprehensive Dental
- Point Loma Comprehensive Dental homepage, archived Sept. 23, 2020, Internet Archive Wayback Machine
- Family dentistry and palate expansion in children, archived Sept. 2023, Internet Archive Wayback Machine
- Dr. Tina Mobasseri page, first archived Oct. 12, 2025, Internet Archive Wayback Machine
- NPI 1437483013: David DeRosier, D.D.S., CMS NPI Registry
- NPI 1184398356: Tina Mobasseri, DDS, CMS NPI Registry
- Roseville-Fleetridge, San Diego, Wikipedia
- Louis Rose, Wikipedia
- Point Loma, San Diego, Wikipedia
- Plaque commemorating historic Roseville Hotel unveiled in Pt. Loma, Times of San Diego, Oct. 9, 2018
- Point Loma Summer Concerts seeks donations, Times of San Diego, May 25, 2026
- Point Loma Summer Concerts, San Diego Tourism Authority
- 50 Years of Pankey Excellence, Aegis Dental Network, Jan. 16, 2019
- Dental Practice Research, American Dental Association Health Policy Institute
- HPI: Younger dentists still become practice owners, just later in careers, ADA News, June 17, 2025
- ZCTA 92106 profile (ACS 2020–2024 5-year), Census Reporter / U.S. Census Bureau
- Census Geocoder: 3019 Emerson St, San Diego, CA 92106, U.S. Census Bureau
- OpenStreetMap (coordinates used for straight-line distances), OpenStreetMap contributors
