Precise work, plainly explained.

I'm a general dentist and have owned my practice in Lakewood since 2022. I love what I do, from crown and bridge to LANAP, and I'm happy to spend my chair time on whatever my patients need.

Practice Eight years: practice owner since 2022, associate in a busy group practice 2018 to 2022
Production Over $1.1M personal gross production in 2019, 2021, 2023, 2024, and 2025, at two practices
Experience 1,000+ crowns, 2,500+ extractions, 550+ LANAP quadrants, 350+ root canals
Credentials DDS, LSU School of Dentistry, 2018. LANAP certified. Colorado license, active. 5280 Top Dentist, 2024, 2025, and 2026.
Status Looking to build my skills alongside other dentists, with room to grow into a partnership.
Dr. Mark Whatcott in a white coat, arms crossed
Mark D. Whatcott, DDSDenver

What I do.

Area Figure Notes

Restorative and prosthodontics

 1,000+crowns, Colorado and Louisiana Crown and bridge, direct restorative, fixed and removable prosthodontics, implant restoration, and injection-molded composite smile makeovers. I ran same-day crowns and onlays as an associate, and chairside milling is the one thing I've wanted in my own office and never had.

LANAP laser periodontal therapy

 165+patients since Nov 2022 From full-mouth to single-quadrant cases, plus LAPIP around implants. Outcomes for three patients and the full group are below.

Surgery

 2,500+extractions, career Surgical extractions, socket grafting, and ridge preservation.

Endodontics

 350+root canals 2018 to 2022, about 120 molars Mostly anterior and premolar, molars when the schedule needs it, with a reciprocating file system. I refer endo out at my own practice because I don't have a CBCT there.

Implant placement

 About 15placed, none since 2022 About half guided, all in one associate year at Robinson Dental Group, 2021 to 2022. I'd like to build this back up.

Airway and sleep

 2026program launched Home sleep screening, an oral appliance, and a re-measure.

Chairside technology

 All digital Digital workflows, intraoral scanning, digital restorative design, and a set photo series on every complex case.

Cases.

Four patients, de-identified. Photos appear with each patient's written permission, and every LANAP figure is that patient's own chart.

Restorative: rebuilt before his 50th reunion.

A man in his late 60s with fractured upper and lower front teeth, and his 50th high school reunion coming up.

Composite let him restore every fractured tooth at once, twelve crowns in one visit, at a cost he could start with. If one chips later, porcelain is his upgrade, one tooth at a time.

Then a custom sleep appliance, to protect the work at night. His wife is sleeping in the same room with him for the first time in years.

Sleep test: breathing events per hour (RDI), before and with the appliance

Night one
29→1
Night two
27→4

Home sleep tests in April and August, two nights each.

Before treatment: front view, teeth apart, upper and lower front teeth fractured.
After twelve composite crowns: the same view, five weeks later.
Before · May 2026 After · June 2026
Drag to compare. The same view five weeks apart, color-matched on the gums.
The visits, 2026
March 31Exam, x-rays, photos, and a full perio chart
April 16Review of Findings: he sees his own photos and x-rays before I propose anything
April 23, 30Gum treatment first, scaling and root planing; a ceramic crown seated on a back tooth
May 12Diagnostic wax-up of twelve front teethBefore photo
June 9Twelve direct composite crowns, upper and lower, in one visit
June 18Impressions for the sleep applianceAfter photo
July 15Sleep appliance delivered, adjusted over the next month

LANAP Case 01: 70 deep sites, and 69 closed at a year.

A 69-year-old man with generalized Stage IV periodontitis. Full-mouth LANAP over two surgical visits on back-to-back days.

Five teeth that couldn't be saved came out at surgery. The numbers cover the 19 teeth that stayed, all still in place at 12 months.

Before LANAP surgery: front view, teeth apart.
One month after LANAP: the same view. One year after LANAP: the same view.
Before surgery 1 year
Drag to compare. The same view at each visit, color-matched across the series.
Sites 5mm or deeper
1of 70
Sites 7mm or deeper
0
Deepest pocket
5mm
7mm or deeper5 to 6mmClosed, 4mm or shallower

Each square is one of the 70 sites that were 5mm or deeper at baseline, sorted by depth. One still measures 5mm, and it stays on the chart as open.

Case 01, charted values
Exam Sites 5mm+ Sites 7mm+ Deepest
Baseline704312mm
12 months105mm

Baseline is the chart from the day of surgery. Sites not charted that day use the full chart from six weeks earlier.

69 of 70 sites closedNo teeth lost after surgery4 maintenance visits over 12 months

LANAP Case 02: 87 deep sites, and every tooth kept.

A 46-year-old man with Stage III, Grade B periodontitis. Full-mouth LANAP over two surgical visits on back-to-back days.

All 28 teeth stayed, charted on the day of surgery, at 14 months, and at 23 months.

Sites 5mm or deeper
5of 87
Sites 7mm or deeper
0
Deepest pocket
5mm
7mm or deeper5 to 6mmClosed, 4mm or shallower

Each square is one of the 87 sites that were 5mm or deeper at baseline, sorted by depth. Five sites still measure 5mm. I count them as failures in the 94%.

Case 02, charted values
Exam Sites 5mm+ Sites 7mm+ Deepest
Baseline 87 12 8mm
14 months 13 0 6mm
23 months 5 0 5mm
82 of 87 sites closed, 94%No teeth lost7 maintenance visits over 23 months

LANAP Case 03: a 12mm pocket, and all 24 sites closed.

A 59-year-old woman with Stage III, Grade C periodontitis, diabetes, and obstructive sleep apnea, a combination many dentists assume rules out LANAP. Both lower quadrants in one surgical visit. She's still on three-month maintenance.

Before surgery Deepest pocket 12mm
At 35 months 24 of 24 sites closed
Follow-up 3+ years of perio maintenance and charting
Teeth lost 0 since surgery

163 LANAP patients, over time.

Every figure comes from my own patients, treated since November 2022. Teeth taken out during LANAP as part of the plan aren't counted as lost.

Tooth retention

Teeth with a pocket 7mm or deeper before surgery.

One year708 of 721 kept, 13 lost
98%
Two years323 of 334 kept, 11 lost
97%
Three years159 of 168 kept, 9 lost
95%
KeptLost

Deep sites per patient

Median for first-time full-mouth cases. A site counts as closed when it goes from 5mm or deeper to 4mm or shallower.

Before surgery
66.5
Most recent exam
8.5
Pocket closuremedian, same group
86%

What it doesn't do.

LANAP controls periodontal disease. It doesn't cure it. Most of these patients still have a pocket or two deeper than I'd like, and the results last only as long as they keep coming in for maintenance.

The FDA clearance applies to the PerioLase and lets the maker claim regeneration. That isn't proof of a cure. In my experience, the deepest areas sometimes need retreatment after a few years, and I treat just those areas, not the whole mouth again.

Two programs most general offices refer out.

Patients often turn down a perio referral over cost and the extra trip. Doing it in house takes care of both.

LANAP laser periodontal therapy

LANAP certified since 2023
How I frame it
Periodontal disease is chronic. I tell patients at the first visit that LANAP manages it and won't fix it for good.
The appointment
A laser fiber clears the diseased tissue, a piezo scaler cleans the root, and the gum reseals against the tooth on the patient's own clot. No scalpel, sutures, or grafts. A full mouth is two visits, often a day apart and never more than a week, three to four hours of chair time total.
The last step
I adjust the bite on the worst teeth. They're often the ones still holding the bite, and taking them out of heavy contact helps them heal.
Recovery
With no flap, recession is usually minimal. I have never prescribed anything stronger than ibuprofen after LANAP, severe full-mouth cases included.
Who it fits
Patients in their twenties and their seventies, diabetics, smokers, one stubborn site or the whole mouth. Many come from my hygiene schedule, others as new patients.
Equipment
My PerioLase can come with me, so you don't need to buy a laser for me to use it.

PerioLase MVP-7. IALD year-long live-patient continuum.

Airway and sleep dentistry

Live since 2026
The program
I built this program and launched it this year. Patients screen at home with a pulse oximeter, we go through their overnight data together, then I make a mandibular advancement appliance and re-measure. The first appliance went out in July 2026.
Who makes it work
The hygienists do most of the screening. They have the patient for an hour; I have ten minutes.
Training
Spear Education, Airway Prosthodontics and Sleep Dentistry with Jeff Rouse and Jamison Spencer, January 2026, following Spencer's appliance-first approach.
Scope
I don't diagnose sleep apnea; a physician does. Severe cases may also need help from ENT, sleep medicine, primary care, or orthodontics.

Experience and credentials.

One solo practice I bought and run, and four years in a group where I could take a case down the hall.

Owner and General Dentist

Colorado Advanced Dentistry
Lakewood, CO, 2022 to present
  • Bought the practice in 2022 and have run it as a solo practitioner since, from routine restorative to surgical extractions and LANAP.
  • Built the airway program, and rebuilt how the office runs LANAP: written perio guidelines, one-page cheat sheets, post-op and consent forms, and team training so everyone knows the answers.

Associate General Dentist

Robinson Dental Group
Lake Charles, LA, 2018 to 2022
  • A busy group of up to four doctors. Over $1.1M gross production in 2019, my first full year, and again in 2021.
  • A wide daily mix of restorative, extractions, endo, and implants.
  • Trained doctors and staff on practice-management software, intraoral scanning, and four-handed dentistry, and built the group's lab case tracking.
Education DDS, Louisiana State University School of Dentistry, 2018. B.S. Biological Sciences, University of Arkansas, Dean's List all years.
Fellowship Fellow, Institute of Advanced Laser Dentistry, 2023 to present. Certified in LANAP through the IALD's year-long, live-patient training continuum.
Licensure Colorado dental license, active and in good standing. Current BLS certification.
Recognition 5280 Magazine Top Dentist, General Dentistry, 2024, 2025, and 2026.
Spear 53.25 CE credits since 2024, with a campus workshop every year:
  • 2024 Treatment Planning with Confidence
  • 2025 Occlusion in Clinical Practice
  • 2026 Airway Prosthodontics and Sleep Dentistry

How I practice.

Evidence-based
I check the literature before I change how I treat something, and I'll tell you when the evidence behind a procedure is thin.
Materials
I read the instructions for every material I use, and built a searchable database of them so I can pull up the manufacturer's protocol mid-appointment.
Documentation
Procedures, tray setups, and training standards are written down. Checklists make sure every procedure is done correctly.
People
I train my assistants until they can talk a case through with me, and I want to keep learning too. I learned fastest in a group practice, picking up skills and techniques from the doctors next to me.
Transparency
On complex cases the patient looks at their own photos and X-rays, and we reach the diagnosis together before I propose treatment. In my own data, those patients accepted more treatment and stayed with the practice longer than matched patients who didn't.

Software, built on the side

I built tools for my practice with AI coding tools: a searchable database of material instructions, huddle prep, and production dashboards. The LANAP outcomes on this page came out of them, every chart checked site by site.

I can tell quickly which admin work is worth automating. Building anything for another practice would be a separate conversation from clinical days.

I show people their own mouth first: the photos, the scan, the probing depths, on a screen where they see what I see. Then we decide together.

I tell patients plainly when something is likely to work and when the evidence is thinner than the marketing. I've lost cases that way. I'd still rather a patient hear a smaller promise and get a real result.

Email[email protected]
Phone479-431-9997
ResumeDownload the PDF
LocationDenver