Richard Guthrie, DDS

I have been living in San Diego for the last 3 years, and have been having a lot of trouble finding an honest dental office since I arrived. It’s been very frustrating. Everyone I tried wanted to tell me I needed expensive services and treatments that I KNEW I don’t need. I was referred by a friend to Dr. Guthrie, and even though it’s over an hour’s drive each way for me (when there’s not traffic), I won’t be going anywhere else now that I know this standard of excellent care and skill! His treatment approach is very conservative — he wouldn’t recommend treatments I don’t truly need. I appreciate that he can do the things other dentists have sent me to specialists for, like root canals. (But he will do all he can to save a tooth before going the root canal route!) Just today he did work on a tooth that was the same work I had done on another tooth previously, only Dr. Guthrie’s work was FAR superior. He also had to fix work done elsewhere that didn’t hold up! He is honest, competent, caring, and friendly, and his support staff is the same. I trusted Dr. Guthrie immediately, and that’s saying a lot coming from someone who is not only skeptical of dentists but has trust issues to begin with, haha! ;) I am relieved to have found Dr. Guthrie, and that my search for a TRULY honest and highly skilled dentist is OVER, YAY! Finally. :)

I typically hate going to the dentist. However, though it still isn’t my favorite thing to do, Guthrie and his team make a visit to the dentist a smoother and less painful experience, which is pretty hard to find. Their new office is beautiful and very clean as well.

–Dr. Guthrie is friendly, honest, thorough, and his work lasts years longer than most.
–My favorite part about this office is he typically doesn’t refer out for any special work. He does it all himself whether its orthodontics (braces/​invisalign), implants, wisdom teeth extraction, etc. And he does it better than specialists, for less expensive.
–Dental cleanings at this office are higher quality than you’d get at a periodontal specialty office. His hygienists are highly skilled, thorough, and friendly ;) ;)
–You never need to worry about over-​paying, or getting over-​treated. He is conservative and fair, and never pressuring unless he absolutely believes you need something done.
–Hands down best dentist in Orange County! Where ever you live, its worth the drive to have this kind of quality work done.

Dr. Guthrie has been my dentist for 12 years. I, too, cannot say enough good things about him! There is no better dentist in South Orange County. He has impeccable standards and expects all of his staff members to do top notch work, so you can rest assured that no corners are ever being cut. I know with great confidence that my teeth are clean and well taken care of. He is also extremely trustworthy and is not going to push you into getting dental procedures that are not necessary just so that he can make an extra buck. There was a short period of time where, due to my company’s change in dental insurance providers, I was unable to go to Dr. Guthrie. The other dentist that I went to was horrible! She recommended all sorts of dental work that surprised me. Dr. Guthrie was so kind and gave me a free second opinion, even though I was no longer technically his patient during that brief period of time. As soon as my company switched our dental insurance providers again, I went immediately back to Dr. Guthrie! Anyway… my husband has now been going to Dr. Guthrie for over 5 years and even had Dr. Guthrie manage his orthodontic braces. Soon, my toddler daughter will, too, be going to Dr. Guthrie. He truly is a dentist for the whole family! Another great plus is his awesome new office in Ladera Ranch. It is large, clean, beautifully-​decorated, and, most importantly, has top-​of-​the-​line equipment. He’s used electronic medical records as long as I’ve gone to him (no antiquated paper charts!). Seriously — don’t even bother researching other dentists. Just make an appt. with Dr. Guthrie! You’ll be glad you did!

I cannot say enough about Dr. Guthrie. He is an amazing dentist and truly cares about his patients. My 3 year old daughter recently had a dental emergency after business hours. Dr. Guthrie rushed to meet us in his office on his personal time to treat her. He was so good with her and was able to calm her and give her excellent care despite the fact that she was scared and super traumatized by her injury. After each of her procedures, Dr. Guthrie has personally called me in the evening to check on her. It’s very rare to find a medical professional with such a personal stake in his patients’ well-​being. He saved my daughter’s beautiful smile and our family will forever be his grateful, loyal patients! Thank you Dr. Guthrie!

Having gone to Dr. Guthrie for about 10 years now for cleanings, fillings, braces and more I can say his office has always been friendly and on time plus knowledgeable.

My family has been going to Dr Guthrie for 6 years now. From regular cleanings, to bleaching, to braces to fillings and veneers, we’ve received a variety of services here. I’ve been to other dentists for cleanings and gotten nicked by the tools, but that’s never been an issue here.
Billing and insurance are always taken care of by the office staff so it’s very convenient as well.
Dr Guthrie explains what needs to be done and is very good at what he does. I had to get a veneer for a yellow tooth (missing a root, I guess I biffed it a couple times as a toddler) and the veneer is the exact same color as the rest of my teeth. Yay!

As far as getting your tooth cleaned, you may run in to some dental hygienists who cleans your teeth well but might spray or have rinse water spilling from the side of your mouth. The facility has good equipment even though it’s situated in an older business park.
What I really like about this place is that they never charge me because I have PPO. Other places will charge me extra (i.e. Mission Dental Group charges me upfront before they will even admit me). But the thing that really makes this dentist better than other ones I’ve had in the past is that I usually never feel any pain regardless of the work they performed.
The dentist is really good at what he does. I’ve had several chipped tooth and he was able to shape to a point that I can’t even tell that there was a chip there in the first place.
I actually had a chipped tooth that I went to Mission Dental with and they had this junior dentist work on it and didn’t do a particularly good job. That happened 3 years ago. I now have a larger pocket than before and food always gets stuck there now.
All in all, I really like this dentist.