This Month’s ‘Best-in-the-Nation Sedation Dentist’ Honoree: Dr. Keerti Sahasrabudhe

DOCS Education is proud to showcase members of our "2018 Best-in-the-Nation Sedation Dentists" honor society. Through their dedication, training, and clinical experience, they’ve earned inclusion in “Best-in-the-Nation Sedation Dentists” honor society.

This month we salute longtime DOCS Education member Dr. Keerti Sahasrabudhe - known to her patients as “Dr. Keerti” - one of our “2018 Best-in-the-Nation Sedation Dentists.”

Based in Redmond, WA, in the heart of Microsoft Country, Dr. Keerti named her practice Enso Dentistry – Enso being a symbol of the Zen philosophy representing, among many other things, wholeness, completeness, tranquility, and balance.

“The ‘Enso’ is at the heart of our practice philosophy,” Dr. Keerti explains on her website. “At the center of our enso circle is – YOU, our patient, who has chosen to put your trust in us. We take it very seriously. We promise to work with your complete and best health interest at heart, always. We will strive to do so with excellence, compassion and integrity. Be it a complete smile makeover you desire or routine care, you will experience this mantra over and over again.”

Dr. Keerti is a continuing education fiend; she has a master’s degree in oral medicine from the University of Washington, and she recently obtained fellowship status from the Academy of General Dentistry. She is now working towards a fellowship from the Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry, and has studied TMJ disorders at the graduate level.

This is all in addition to her post-graduate work at the University of California - Los Angeles in cosmetic dentistry.

So it comes as no surprise that Dr. Keerti, who was born and raised in India, decided - in 2005 - to add sedation dentistry to her skills toolkit. And, it requires no suspension of disbelief to realize why it took Dr. Keerti only two years to become a DOCS Fellow. She is, after all, driven.

What may be astonishing, however, is how she took a niche expertise - sedation dentistry - and built a wildly successful practice that has been serving the greater Redmond community for the past nine years. Many fearful and anxious patients who previously avoided the dentist altogether now not only happily visit Dr. Keerti for regular restoration and prevention appointments, they have become evangelists for Enso Dentistry, recommending it to family, friends, and colleagues.

Dr. Keerti’s enthusiastic patient evangelist, Isaac R. Sundsted — *To watch a video featuring one of Dr. Keerti’s enthusiastic patient evangelists, Isaac R. Sundsted, a 31-year-old business strategy consultant, click on the photo above.*

Although the dental profession in Southeast Asia where she first studied dentistry is vastly different than in the United States, Dr. Keerti recognized the one that factor in common to patients around the globe: A fear of visiting the dentist.

Dr. Keerti’s education in dental sedation has proven to be a boon for her patients. She recalls how patients used to sit in their vehicles in the dental office parking lot - fearful of coming inside for their appointment. Now, however, thanks to oral sedation, these same patients tell her that they drive to the dental office as comfortably as they would anywhere else.

Dr. Keerti has been in practice in Washington State about as long as DOCS Education has been offering classes - since 1999. It’s DOCS Education’s solid reputation, highly-skilled faculty members, opportunities for rigorous continuing education, sense of community, and a love of “fun” that keep her returning time and again.

Dr. Keerti regularly encourages other dentists to attend DOCS’s conferences (the next ones will be held in August in Atlanta; October in Las Vegas; and November in Scottsdale).

In addition to the invaluable support network that DOCS has provided her (she once emailed the legendary instructor Dr. Leslie S.T. Fang with a medical question and received his reply within hours), she has also formed meaningful friendships through her DOCS affiliation.

With all of her training and experience, however, Dr. Keerti points to one factor that has ensured her success above all others: Her team.

Every one of her colleagues has “a sense of service in their heart,” she explains. “And I think if you want to do dentistry, and (especially) if you are practicing sedation dentistry, if you have that (dedication) I think it shows through. And I think everything emanates from there.”