March 14, 2017

Meet Sako Karakozian of Dental Design in Studio City

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sako Karakozian.

Sako, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
This is fun- ok, I’ll go as far back as when I realized I wanted to be a dentist while going to Santa Monica College. I was the president of the SMC Honor’s Society which granted me access to TONS of resources around campus, and that’s when I figured out that I like medicine, I like working with my hands, and I love the interactions I can create with patients as a dentist! I transferred to UC San Diego in 2000 where I wore shorts and flip-flops no matter the weather, learned how to surf, and studied Physiology and Neuroscience. I graduated in 2003 at the age of 23, and got accepted to the NYU School of Dentistry.

I went from the relaxed beach life to the rush of the concrete jungle- what an experience! Aside from living, studying, and having a BLAST in New York City, I was elected as the campus social chair and sat on the executive student council. The administration would occasionally grant me access to a large budget to throw a social gathering – or party, if you will – which created tons of contacts around town. Those 4 years in New York were some of the best times I’ve ever had!

I graduated with a Doctorate in Dental Surgery in 2007 – it was bittersweet leaving the Big Apple, but I was very excited to move back home to L.A. and start my career! As a newly graduated dentist, trying to find a job was understandably difficult considering all the local dentists were looking for someone with experience. They loved my personality, but that wasn’t enough to give me a chance. I took advantage of my free time and became a nightlife promotor working the door of some of Hollywood’s hottest venues at the time like Vanguard and Le Deux. I was even in a training program for an infomercial for a fitness product! It paid well, but I didn’t make the cut for the commercial! Haha

Just before the economy crashed in 2008, a friend of mine convinced me to move to Las Vegas for work because it was BOOMING! I got my Nevada license, packed all my belongings in 5 boxes and drove to Vegas! I used to park my car near the back dumpsters at coffee shops that had free Wi-Fi and setup my office to make calls and send out resumes. I finally got a couple of gigs in Vegas and eventually established myself near the Las Vegas strip, working in an incredibly busy office with off-season athletes, Cirque de Soleil performers, and everyone working in the industry from bartenders and bouncers to club managers and strippers – there was a time when you could go to ANY venue in Las Vegas and tell them you were with “the dentist” and velvet ropes would open right up- it was pretty awesome!

After 3 years in Vegas, I had enough! It was like the longest Vegas binge weekend you’ve ever had, but over the course of 36 months! I had incredible experience under my belt and was ready to move back to LA and really establish myself. At the time, I made contact with my long-time family friend, and now business partner, Dr. Taline Kotchounian, and we decided to open up shop together in LA!

My dream had always been to open up a dental office in Studio City- I LOVE the vibe, the attitude, and the area. It’s where the simple life of the valley meets the extravagance of Hollywood and the West Side. It took us 2 years to find the space we’re currently in – it wasn’t easy opening a new dental office in Studio City! The restrictions and city ordinances all worked against us! Property brokers were constantly trying to convince us to open in North Hollywood or Sherman Oaks, but that just wasn’t an option- it was Studio City or bust!

During those 2 years of searching for a space, I worked in 20+ dental offices as a consultant, training new dentists and office staff to be more proficient at dentistry and managing patient care. With my experience in Las Vegas, I obtained 10 year’s worth of skills in just 3 years, and I was apparently highly sought after (which was a great feeling after being shooed out of LA the first time!) During that time I would volunteer some of my time with the Give Kids a Smile Program, I became a Clinical Director with the Special Olympics, I ran for a chair position on the Studio City Neighborhood Council (lost by 2 votes!), and I even auditioned for a Listerine commercial and got the part out of 200 dentists (here’s a link to one of the commercials https://youtu.be/6l0NXXdyA3g).

After 2 years of looking, and never giving up no matter how discouraging, Dr. Taline and I FINALLY found a space in Studio City! We reviewed and approved the space with contractors and architects and we finally got the keys to start building! The space used to be a private gym, so we’d have to gut EVERYTHING and start from scratch! Of course, permitting and zoning was a headache, as expected, but there was one city zoning issue that was hidden deep in the constructs of paperwork that wasn’t caught earlier by the L.A. City Department of Building and Safety which almost killed our entire project! The city was asking for tens of thousands in fees and a 6months waiting period to fix the problem which would have completely drained our funding! Luckily, after a week of panic and back-and-forths with attorneys and city employees, we managed to find the right person to talk to and get things done! Woo!

Fast forward 2.5 years to today, and we’ve been the proud owners of Dental Design Studio City, or DDScity for short. We have a small, but INCREDIBLE team of passionate employees, who want nothing more than to please our amazing patients. We pride ourselves on our service and attention to their needs. We make ourselves VERY available (you can text our office phone number whenever you want and we’ll get it and respond!) and Dr. Taline and I have a combined 20+ years of dental experience to help you with any dental concerns. We are a full service dental office, offering everything from cosmetic work to general dental treatments, including our specialists who come into the office to place dental implants, do root canals, and oral surgery to remove wisdom teeth. Over 50% of our patients are in the film industry, and we LOVE working with them! We’ve worked on patients for Dr. Phil and I’ve even been featured twice on The Doctors nationally broadcasted television show. Our office is draped with incredible art from local artists that we change out occasionally to help share their talent with the community, and we’ve even leant our office out to be used as a film set for several TV shows and movies! It’s so exciting!

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
But yes, it’s definitely been a rough road to establishing the office. Once we opened, our personalities and love for what we do just lit the path – our patients felt it and loved the vibe in our office, so it was only a matter of time for them to spread the word and help us take off!

The toughest part was trying to open a small business in Studio City. I swear it felt like the city of Los Angeles was doing EVERYTHING possible to keep it from happening. Especially with all the provisions and ordinances in Studio City – but you know what – the harder it is getting INTO something, the more valuable it is when you actually make it in!

Please tell us about Dental Design Studio City.
We are a full service dental office, offering everything from cosmetic work to general dental treatments, including our specialists who come into the office to place dental implants, do root canals, and oral surgery to remove wisdom teeth. Dr. Taline and I have a combined 20+ years of dental experience to help our patients with any dental concerns.

We literally specialize in AWESOMENESS. We don’t want to be good, we want to be THE BEST. We want to be your personal dental concierge. We want to be your dental Google so you can ask us anything, we want to be your dental coach so we can help you through your process, we’ll be your dental psychiatrist if you’re nervous, and you’re actual dentist to do what you want us to do! Ultimately, we want to be there – we’re always available for our patients (you can text us questions!) and we never want anyone to feel like we’re not accessible and attentive to their needs.

We have an AWESOME patient demographic. A large portion of our patients are in the film industry, and we LOVE working with them! We’ve worked on patients for Dr. Phil and I’ve even been featured twice on The Doctors nationally broadcasted television show. Our office is draped with incredible art from local artists that we change out occasionally to help share their talent with the community, and we’ve even leant our office out to be used as a film set for several TV shows and movies! It’s so exciting!

I could not be more proud of our office. It has turned into something BEYOND my dreams, and I feel like we have SO MUCH MORE to share with the community! I never wanted to be a typical dentist in a typical office, and we are DEFINITELY not typical! Come by and check it out, people are typically super excited their first time when they see all our cool art (currently by Studio City resident, Gino Perez) and stuff we have around the space, ranging from a full-sized PINK mannequin in the waiting room and my collection of 80s boom boxes and 50s props decorating some of the smaller rooms, to our graffitied and tagged private staff bathroom (only certain people get to see it!). We even have one room with a LARGE window that has a great view of the L.A. “river” – it’ll take some time with the city’s beautification project, but it’ll be a nice looking river soon!

Patients always leave impressed and extremely happy, and always comment on how it was the best dental experience they’ve ever had. We are a passionate group of people who want to serve the community, and not just be good at it, but be THE BEST at it. We love what we do and we never judge our patients or make them feel bad. We are only here to listen to what people want and help guide them on how to get there. We will never stop improving and never stop helping the great people of Studio City and our surrounding neighbors! I remember creating our motto before we even had a name for the office, and it couldn’t be any truer than it is today – “You’ll Love Us in Your Mouth”… and we truly love being in it! Haha 🙂

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
There are so many! Childhood overall was just a great memory, but I guess one fun memory was meeting my first girlfriend (she’s married to someone else with kids now, so it’s not one of those romantic stories about us ending up together or anything)…

I was 15 at the time and at a school dance in our cafeteria and one of the girls in our class had brought a friend with her to the dance. I totally remember the first time seeing her across the room – she had these breath-taking blue eyes, and it was like that scene from Wayne’s World when Wayne sees Cassandra for the first time and “Dream Weaver” is playing – she was moving in slow motion and everything disappeared around her – my feet just elevated off the floor and I floated through the crowd towards her! And that was it! We said hello and danced awkwardly and we were officially boyfriend/girlfriend. It was pretty magical for being 15. It lasted for like 3 years until hormones kicked in and I eventually moved on to the new girl in class. She was pretty awesome and I was pretty dumb for letting her go – my grandma never let me forget it either! Haha

Pricing:

We’re more than happy to offer a FREE First Exam and Xrays to employees and residents of Studio City and its surrounding communities so people can come by and meet us and ask dental questions! (Only for people without insurance though! We’ll end up billing your insurance if you have it.)
People always asking about teeth whitening – we use the in-office ZOOM! procedure for teeth whitening which costs $399.

Contact Info: