In April 2026 the Academy of General Dentistry put out a podcast to preview its annual meeting in Las Vegas. Its featured speaker was Dr. David Hornbrook, whom the academy called “one of the most respected names in esthetic and restorative dentistry.” On the episode he talked about how dental ceramics had changed over his 36 years in practice. He argued that managing the bite matters more to a restoration’s success than the strength of the material. He also described a full-mouth approach that restores the front teeth first. Registrants were promised seven free continuing-education credits for his courses.
When he is not on a lecture stage, Hornbrook practices in Suite 210 at 7777 Alvarado Road in La Mesa. That is the address the Dental Board of California lists for his license, which was issued on July 30, 1986. It is less than a mile from a San Diego Trolley stop and a few miles from the campus where he earned his undergraduate degree. For more than three decades, Hornbrook has done two jobs at once: he teaches other dentists how to make porcelain and composite look like natural teeth, and he runs a small practice in an East County suburb. This is a look at how those two jobs fit together, and what a teaching dentist’s practice offers the people who live nearby.
This feature was written from public records, published interviews, journal indexes and the practice’s own materials. Dentist News Today did not interview Dr. Hornbrook or his staff, and coverage is never paid.
A painter’s hands
The practice tells his origin story simply. His father was a physician who wanted to help people live healthier lives. As a child, Hornbrook painted, sculpted and drew, and the practice says those hobbies, which call for steady hands and an artist’s eye, pointed him toward dentistry instead of medicine. He earned a bachelor’s degree at San Diego State University in 1982 and his DDS at UCLA in 1986, the same year he passed the California and national board exams.
He has belonged to the California Dental Association and the local dental society since 1986, according to his biography, and to the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry since 1989. The academy accredited him in 1990 and made him a fellow in 1995. The practice says that, at the time, only 62 dentists worldwide had reached the fellowship level. His license is current and active and shows no public disciplinary actions. The federal NPI registry lists him as a general-practice dentist at the Alvarado Road suite, with the credentials FAACD and FACD after his name.
“Dentistry for the Quality Conscious”
State records show the practice under an earlier name. On December 9, 1999, the Dental Board issued a fictitious-name permit for “Dentistry for the Quality Conscious,” a corporation at 7777 Alvarado Road, Suite 210. The permit has since been cancelled. The Hornbrook name was online by then: the Internet Archive’s first capture of hornbrook.com dates to November 2001. A 2015 announcement from the practice said Hornbrook founded the office shortly after leaving UCLA in 1986 and raised two sons in the La Mesa area. That year the practice added Dr. Sarah Winter, a hire that Becker’s Dental Review covered. She no longer appears on the practice website.
In 2020, according to the practice, Hornbrook invited Dr. Laura Souza to join him. Souza was born and raised in Brazil and earned her first dental degree in 2008 at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, on a full scholarship. She came to San Diego on vacation, stayed, and went into periodontal plastic surgery, including work at the Nordland Oral Microsurgical Institute in La Jolla. She later earned a second dental degree at Loma Linda University School of Dentistry. She has published in the International Journal of Periodontics and Restorative Dentistry and co-wrote the “Periodontal Plastic Surgery” chapter of the textbook Esthetics in Dentistry. The website lists English, Portuguese and Spanish beside the office phone number.
The live-patient classroom
Hornbrook is best known in the profession for teaching dentists with real patients in the chair, not plastic models. The Crown Council, a practice-management network, calls him one of the pioneers of live-patient, hands-on clinical education. It also credits him as founder and past director of PAC~live and the Hornbrook Group, and as a co-founder of the Las Vegas Institute for Advanced Dental Studies. LVI’s own history names Dr. Bill Dickerson as its founder, so the co-founder credit comes from Hornbrook’s biographies. His biography lists adjunct faculty posts at the University of the Pacific in 2003, the University of Texas Dental Branch at Houston in 2004 and A.T. Still University in 2009. The Crown Council lists guest faculty roles in postgraduate cosmetic programs at Baylor, Tufts, SUNY at Buffalo, the University of Missouri–Kansas City and UCLA.
His published record is easy to check. The National Library of Medicine’s PubMed index lists 19 articles under his name from 1993 to 2012. Most are hands-on clinical reports in journals such as Practical Periodontics and Aesthetic Dentistry and the Compendium of Continuing Education in Dentistry, with titles like “Porcelain veneers: optimizing esthetics while reestablishing canine guidance” (1995) and “The ‘two-by-two technique’ for porcelain veneer cementation” (1998). One 1996 paper in the Hawaii Dental Journal addressed how to build an “appearance-related” practice. He is also a past editor of the AACD’s Journal of Cosmetic Dentistry.
The honors span three decades: a Crown Council Mentor of the Year award in 1997, a GenR8TNext Lifetime Achievement Award for Educational Excellence in 1999, and a Diplomate credential from the American Board of Aesthetic Dentistry in 2018. The Crown Council says the board’s process involved a 250-hour course and a 500-question exam. He has also gone on dental podcasts again and again. He appeared on Gary Takacs’s Thriving Dentist Show in September 2013, on Glidewell’s Chairside Live in January 2016, and as the Crown Council’s Mentor of the Month in August 2024.
“The future is bright, and this is what we affectionately refer to as the ‘Platinum Age’ of dentistry.” Dr. David Hornbrook, DentistryIQ, 2004
What dental school didn’t teach
A 2004 DentistryIQ interview lays out the argument behind Hornbrook’s career. He said continuing education was essential because dental school often did not cover adhesion and aesthetics in depth, and he called aesthetic dentistry the route to a thriving practice. He described using a diode laser to contour gum tissue in most of his front-tooth cosmetic cases. Twenty-two years later, on the AGD podcast, the emphasis had shifted from materials to the bite. Modern ceramics are strong, he argued, and restorations fail more often because the forces on them are not managed.
His own publication list shows the change. In the 1990s, many of Hornbrook’s papers dealt with then-new bonding systems, fiber-reinforced composites and pressed ceramics such as IPS Empress. Recently his teaching has centered on occlusion and full-mouth planning, the kind of work where an artist’s eye has to answer to a mechanical one. The practice says dentists sometimes visit the La Mesa office to watch him work, and that some have their own smile makeovers done there.
That draw reaches patients, too. The website has a page for out-of-town visitors. It says a significant share of the practice’s patients come from out of town, out of state or out of the country, and that staff will help arrange transportation and lodging. It says the office is about a 20-minute drive from the airport. In effect, it is a destination practice, run out of a single suite on Alvarado Road.
A destination practice in a commuter suburb
La Mesa, Spanish for “the table” or “the plateau,” calls itself the Jewel of the Hills. It grew around natural springs that stockman Robert Allison renamed the La Mesa Springs after he bought 4,000 acres in 1868. The city counts its founding from 1869 and incorporated in February 1912. The 2020 census counted 61,121 residents. Grossmont Center, the city’s big shopping mall, opened in 1961.
The practice’s ZIP code, 91942, has about 41,400 residents according to the Census Bureau’s 2020–2024 American Community Survey. The median age is about 38, the median household income is roughly $92,900, and about 55 percent of households rent. The median value of an owner-occupied home is about $776,000, roughly half that of coastal ZIP codes such as Point Loma’s. By straight-line distance, the office is about 0.6 miles from the 70th Street trolley station, about 1.4 miles from the Grossmont Transit Center, and about 2.4 miles from San Diego State University, where Hornbrook did his undergraduate work.
A practice like this one gives local patients something unusual: the person writing the technique articles and the person treating them are the same. It is also a different business model from a typical neighborhood office. The practice says that, as a boutique cosmetic practice, it is not in network with any dental insurance plan. It files claims for patients, and the insurer reimburses the patient directly. It says Medi-Cal Dental is not accepted. It advertises third-party financing, with interest paid by the practice for up to 12 months on some plans, and a 5 percent courtesy discount for cash or check prepayment of $1,000 or more made at least a week before treatment.
The service list starts with cosmetic work, including porcelain veneers, smile makeovers, gum recontouring, whitening and laser dentistry. It also covers routine and restorative care: preventive and periodontal treatment, crowns, bridges, clear aligners, guided biofilm therapy cleanings, oral conscious sedation and emergency visits. Hours are early. The office opens at 7 a.m. Tuesday through Thursday and is closed Friday through Sunday.
Questions patients ask
What are the office hours?
The practice lists Monday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Tuesday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. It is closed Friday through Sunday. The phone number is (619) 463-7797.
Does the office take dental insurance or Medi-Cal?
The practice says it is not in network with any insurance plan but will file claims, with reimbursement going to the patient. It says Medi-Cal Dental (Denti-Cal) is not accepted at the office.
What languages are spoken?
The website lists English, Portuguese and Spanish next to the phone number. Dr. Souza was born and raised in Brazil. Patients who need a specific language should confirm when they call.
Can I get there without a car?
The office is at 7777 Alvarado Road, Suite 210, La Mesa, CA 91942, about 0.6 miles in a straight line from the 70th Street station on the San Diego Trolley.
Do I have to want cosmetic work to be a patient?
No. Alongside veneers and smile makeovers, the practice lists general and preventive care, periodontal treatment, restorative work and emergency visits.
Sources
- License details: Hornbrook, David Scott (Dentist 34497), Dental Board of California / Department of Consumer Affairs, checked Nov 9, 2026
- Permit details: Dentistry for the Quality Conscious (FNP 2593, cancelled), Dental Board of California / Department of Consumer Affairs, checked Nov 9, 2026
- NPI 1558587469: David S. Hornbrook, DDS, CMS NPPES NPI Registry
- Hornbrook Center For Dentistry | La Mesa Dentist, Hornbrook Center for Dentistry
- Meet David Hornbrook DDS, FAACD, FACE, FASDA, Hornbrook Center for Dentistry
- Meet Dr. Souza, DDS, Hornbrook Center for Dentistry
- Tourism Dentistry in San Diego, Hornbrook Center for Dentistry
- Dental Insurance and Financing, Hornbrook Center for Dentistry
- Contact Hornbrook Center For Dentistry, Hornbrook Center for Dentistry
- Hornbrook Center for Dentistry in La Mesa Welcomes New Dentist, 24-7 Press Release, 2015
- Dr. Sarah Winter joins Hornbrook Center for Dentistry in California, Becker’s Dental Review, 2015
- hornbrook.com, first archived Nov. 29, 2001, Internet Archive Wayback Machine
- Featured Podcast: Preview AGD2026 — Dr. David Hornbrook on Occlusion, Ceramics and Clinical Mastery, Academy of General Dentistry, April 13, 2026
- Find Your Passion with Dr. David Hornbrook, Crown Council podcast, Aug. 1, 2024
- Creating a passion for dentistry, DentistryIQ, Jan. 1, 2004
- Search results: Hornbrook DS[Author] (19 records, 1993–2012), PubMed, National Library of Medicine
- Solutions for Increased Case Acceptance of Ideal Care with Dr. David Hornbrook, The Thriving Dentist Show, Sept. 4, 2013
- Chairside Live Episode 110: An Exclusive Interview with Dr. David Hornbrook, Part II, Glidewell, Jan. 20, 2016
- The LVI Story, LVI Global
- La Mesa, California, Wikipedia
- ZCTA 91942 profile (ACS 2020–2024 5-year), Census Reporter / U.S. Census Bureau
- ZCTA 92106 profile (ACS 2020–2024 5-year), for home-value comparison, Census Reporter / U.S. Census Bureau
- Census Geocoder: 7777 Alvarado Rd, La Mesa, U.S. Census Bureau
- OpenStreetMap (coordinates used for straight-line distances), OpenStreetMap contributors
