Dr. Steve Mark Gan

“Did I make the right decision?” This is a question Dr. Steve Mark Gan, president and CEO of Gan Advanced Osseointegration Centre (GAOC), often finds himself asking. He was a business major before shifting to dentistry in college, and changing the landscape of dental health care in the country wasn’t part of his life plan; he didn’t even realise he wanted to be a dentist until he already was one. Now a sought-after dental surgeon who specialises in dental implants – with some of the biggest names in Philippine show business, politics, and the business sector as regular visitors to his clinics, getting all kinds of dental treatment – you’d know there’s no other answer to his own question than a resounding, one hundred per cent “yes.”

Innovation is one of the things Gan is very much known for. “What I love most about this industry is the technology,” he says. “Dentistry has a five-year paradigm shift and what we have in our clinics are the latest in technology.” Gan never holds back from investing in high-end equipment and cutting-edge facilities, making GAOC one of the most advanced dental clinic in the Philippines, if not the most advanced. “I’m a perfectionist, and I’m always mindful of mistakes,” he says.

Having these machines reduces the possibility of human error. Mixing rubber materials, for example, is something they do, not with a gun type or hand mixer, but with a dispensing unit. “Sure, you can mix it on your own, do it manually, but there’s always that possibility of .01 or even one per cent error, and we don’t want that,” he says. Crowns are also made in his own laboratory, with a cad/ cam system, a computer-aided design milling machine. “Manual fabrication of dental framework prosthesis is a thing of the past. We use advanced technology and premium materials to ensure precision. We want to make sure everything is as accurate as possible.”

TOOTH FAIRIES. A team of GAOC doctors at work

All the fancy equipment and high-tech apparatus, according to Gan, is not what makes his clinics special, though. He believes this is only standard, something all other clinics should have. “What make our clinics special are the people,” Gan says proudly. “Our doctors, the entire team, have the heart and the passion to give only the best treatment to our patients.” And they continue to give the best because, besides the passion, Gan makes sure they also have the skills, and that these skills are always up-to-date. “They have to keep learning, so we send all our doctors to seminars abroad,” he says. “We also joined a new programme recently, the Asian Dental Alliance. We send our team to countries in Asia to learn the different kinds of trade practice in dentistry outside of the Philippines.”

Bringing the latest state-of-the-art technology to his clinics and providing quality treatments and exceptional service to his patients, Gan has raised the bar for dental practice in the country. With a long, long way to go before his retirement, that bar sure is still about to reach greater heights.

Printed in Philippine Tatler Vol 13 No 149 | Download the digital version for your iPad or iPhone via Magzter and Zinio.