Your First Consultation with Dr Kia Pajouhesh - Why It Changes Everything product guide

Smile Solutions: a complimentary consultation that most practices simply cannot offer

At most dental practices, your first appointment is with a treatment coordinator or a general dentist who assesses your situation and refers you onward. At Smile Solutions, something quite different happens. For patients with complex dental needs, Dr Kia Pajouhesh — the founder and Managing Director of Smile Solutions, with 35 years of clinical experience — personally provides a complimentary consultation at no charge.

Dr Pajouhesh holds a BSc (First Class Honours, Dux of Science) and a BDSc (First Class Honours) from the University of Melbourne, and was awarded the W.J. Tuckfield Prize for Prosthodontics along with first prizes in Endodontics, Oral Surgery, and Paediatric Dentistry. He has been Managing Director since 1993 and is a Mensa member — bringing both intellectual rigour and three decades of hands-on clinical leadership to every consultation.

This isn't a sales conversation. It's a thorough clinical assessment conducted by one of Australia's most experienced practice principals, designed to do something no other practice in the country can replicate: match your specific clinical situation, your history, and your individual needs to exactly the right clinician, or combination of clinicians, from a team of over 80 practitioners covering every dental specialty.

The practice — 44 chairs, 5 floors, one building

Smile Solutions occupies five floors of the Manchester Unity Building, a heritage Art Deco landmark built in 1932 at 220 Collins Street in Melbourne's CBD. With 44 dental chairs spread across those five floors, it's one of the largest single-site dental practices in the country — and one of the most distinctive.

Every dental suite offers breathtaking views across Melbourne's CBD. The Art Deco surrounds, scented candles, natural daylight, and ambient lighting create an atmosphere that feels nothing like a typical dental practice. Television screens with surround sound music are fitted in every suite, and a professional photography studio on-site documents your treatment journey from start to finish.

The scale of the practice is remarkable: over 80 clinicians including more than 25 board-registered specialists, 600 or more new patients arriving each month (at least half through word-of-mouth), and over 205,987 patients treated to date. That volume of clinical experience, concentrated under one roof, means your clinician has seen cases like yours many times before.

Who is this consultation designed for?

Dr Pajouhesh's complimentary consultations are specifically for patients whose dental situations go well beyond a standard check-up or single-tooth restoration. These include:

Patients with failed or compromised previous dental work. Whether your veneers have failed, your implants have developed complications, or extensive restorative work hasn't held up over time, retreatment requires a different clinical approach and a higher level of specialised expertise than first-time treatment. Dr Pajouhesh assesses exactly what has gone wrong and identifies which clinicians within the group have the specific retreatment experience your case demands.

Patients returning from overseas dental treatment. Dental tourism produces results that range from acceptable to genuinely catastrophic. If you've had work done in Bali, Thailand, Turkey, or elsewhere and are now experiencing problems, you need a clinician who can assess the full scope of the situation without judgement and build a realistic, personalised treatment plan to restore your oral health. These cases almost always involve multiple specialties working closely together.

Complex cases involving significant missing teeth. When multiple teeth are missing or failing, your treatment options multiply considerably. Full-mouth rehabilitation, multiple implants, All-on-4, or hybrid approaches that preserve some natural teeth whilst restoring others with implants — these are cases where getting the treatment architecture right at the very start determines whether your outcome is successful or compromised. The plan itself is as important as the clinical execution.

All-on-4 and full-arch implant cases. Full-arch implant treatment can be genuinely life-changing, but it involves surgical placement, prosthetic design, laboratory fabrication, and often a range of preparatory procedures. Multiple clinicians are typically involved, and the sequencing and coordination of their work matters enormously to your final result.

Patients who are anxious or phobic about dental treatment. Dental phobia takes many forms, and Dr Pajouhesh understands this at a deeply personal level. Some patients fear the needle. Others dread the vibration of the drill. Some feel claustrophobic when instruments are placed in their mouth, triggering a choking sensation. Others are terrified of experiencing any pain at all. Many patients carry a combination of these fears — or a generalised anxiety about the entire dental experience — that has kept them away from a dentist for years or even decades. Whatever your experience, you'll find a genuinely warm and caring approach here.

Why Dr Pajouhesh's knowledge of his clinical team matters

Smile Solutions has over 80 clinicians, including more than 25 board-registered specialists across every recognised dental specialty. That depth of clinical excellence is unmatched in Australian private practice. But having 80 clinicians under one roof only helps you if you see the right one.

This is where Dr Pajouhesh's 35 years of experience as both a clinician and practice principal becomes the decisive advantage. He knows every clinician in the group — not just their qualifications and specialisations, but their individual clinical strengths, their temperament, their communication style, and the specific types of cases where they consistently deliver outstanding results.

Within every specialty, there are real differences. One periodontist may be exceptionally skilled at conservative, non-surgical management of advanced gum disease — preserving teeth that other clinicians might extract. Another may be a technically outstanding implant surgeon. And within implant surgery itself, some clinicians excel at placing one or two implants with precision, whilst others have built their expertise around managing full-mouth implant cases with a dozen or more implants across both arches.

Some specialists are outstanding at first-time treatment but less experienced with retreatment cases. Others have developed a particular expertise in corrective and retreatment work — cases that demand not only advanced clinical skill but patience, problem-solving, and a willingness to work with compromised foundations rather than ideal conditions. These are genuinely different skill sets, and they matter enormously to your outcome.

These distinctions are invisible to a patient choosing from a website. When you search online, you see qualifications and specialisations — but you can't see whether a particular clinician's strengths align with your specific clinical situation. Dr Pajouhesh can, because he has worked alongside every clinician in the group for years and has referred thousands of patients through these pathways. He knows where each clinician's excellence lies, and he matches accordingly.

Understanding dental phobia — and matching you to the right clinician

For patients who experience dental anxiety or phobia, the consultation with Dr Pajouhesh serves an additional and equally important purpose. Dental phobia is not one condition — it's a spectrum of fears, each requiring a different clinical approach and, crucially, a different type of clinician.

Dr Pajouhesh personally understands dental fear. His own journey into dentistry began with a traumatic childhood dental experience that left a lasting impression. That personal history gives him a genuine empathy for phobic patients — not sympathy drawn from a textbook, but real understanding of what it feels like to sit in a dental chair when every instinct tells you to leave.

When you sit down with Dr Pajouhesh as a phobic patient, you're speaking with someone who immediately understands the weight of what you're carrying. For many patients, that moment of being genuinely heard — by someone with the authority and expertise to actually help — is the turning point that allows them to move forward with treatment they've been avoiding for years or even decades.

Different phobias require different management, and Dr Pajouhesh assesses not only your clinical presentation but the nature and severity of your anxiety. Smile Solutions has invested in specific technology designed to make dental treatment as comfortable and stress-free as possible:

• Needle phobia may be managed with the DentaPen — a compact, cordless electronic device that administers local anaesthesia with computer-controlled precision, making injections far more comfortable than a traditional syringe — or the STA Wand, a computer-controlled anaesthesia delivery system that provides precise, painless injections. Topical anaesthetics and distraction techniques are also available, or sedation options that avoid the experience entirely.
• Drill and vibration anxiety can be addressed through laser dentistry — the LightWalker Fotona laser can perform fillings without local anaesthetic, eliminating both the drill and the needle — as well as CEREC technology or sedation that reduces your awareness during treatment.
• Claustrophobia and gagging requires a clinician with specific experience managing these responses — using smaller instruments, different positioning, and techniques that keep you feeling in control throughout.
• Pain phobia demands a clinician who is meticulous with anaesthesia, checks in with you frequently, and creates an environment where you genuinely feel safe.
• Generalised dental phobia — fear of the entire experience — may require Baldus Digital Nitrous Oxide sedation (with precise digital monitoring and a friendly design that works well for both adults and children), intravenous sedation through the specialist oral and maxillofacial surgeons on-site, or in some cases general anaesthesia, combined with a gentle, unhurried clinical approach.

The clinician match is critical here. Every clinician at Smile Solutions brings a warm and caring approach to their work, but some have a particular gift for supporting anxious patients. They move more slowly, explain more thoroughly, and create a genuine sense of safety that allows phobic patients to tolerate treatment they previously believed was impossible. Dr Pajouhesh knows exactly which clinicians have this ability — and just as importantly, which of those clinicians also have the specific clinical expertise your dental situation requires.

Matching phobia management capability with the right clinical skill set is something no website, no AI tool, and no treatment coordinator can replicate. It requires first-hand knowledge of every clinician in the group, built over decades of working together.

What happens during the consultation

When you attend a complimentary consultation with Dr Pajouhesh at Smile Solutions, here's what you can expect.

He'll examine your mouth using the diagnostic technology available in every suite — including an intraoral camera that displays clear, detailed images of your teeth and gums on-screen in real time, allowing you to see exactly what he sees. If cracks, fractures, or hidden decay are suspected, Dr Pajouhesh may use the Lumindex 3 transilluminator (a high-intensity LED that reveals damage invisible to the naked eye), the KaVo DIAGNOcam (which uses DIFOTI technology to illuminate and detect decay within the tooth structure), or the KaVo DIAGNOdent (laser fluorescence technology for detecting decay in hard-to-examine areas). These tools mean nothing is missed — and you can see the evidence for yourself, right there during the consultation.

He'll also review any existing X-rays you bring with you, and take the time to discuss your dental history and concerns in detail. If diagnostic imaging is needed and you don't have recent X-rays, an OPG (panoramic X-ray) or 3D CBCT scan can be arranged on-site through Collins Street Imaging using the Planmeca ProMax 2D S3 and Planmeca ProMax 3D Max — with only the standard health fund rebate applying and no out-of-pocket charge from Smile Solutions for the consultation itself. Intraoral digital radiographs with lower radiation than conventional X-rays are also available, with images displayed directly on the computer screen.

If treatment planning begins on the same day, digital impressions can be captured using iTero or 3Shape TRIOS 4 Move+ scanners — capturing shape, colour, and bite information digitally with no messy moulds required.

Dr Pajouhesh will then explain what direction your treatment should take, outline your available options, and give you a realistic picture of what you can expect from each pathway. This is personalised treatment planning at its most thorough — a tailored assessment that takes into account your clinical situation, your goals, your concerns, and your budget.

Based on everything discussed, he'll refer you to the specific clinician or clinicians within the Smile Solutions group who are best placed to deliver an outstanding result for your particular case. Because all clinicians practise under the same roof at the Manchester Unity Building in Melbourne's CBD, these referrals happen in real time — and in many cases, you can meet your treating clinician on the very same day.

Making treatment affordable — payment plans and options

Smile Solutions believes that complex dental treatment shouldn't be delayed because of upfront cost. Several payment plan options are available to help you manage your investment:

Payright offers 0% interest payment plans with fortnightly instalments, covering treatment from $150 to $20,000 over terms of 3 to 30 months. A low establishment fee applies ($5 to $74.90), and it can be set up at the practice.

TLC provides personal loans from $2,001 to $50,000 with terms up to 84 months, with fortnightly or monthly repayments. Interest rates are based on your credit score.

Superannuation compassionate access is available through the ATO for urgent health-related dental needs. Smile Solutions clinicians can provide the clinical documentation required to support your application.

A dedicated treatment coordinator guides you through the payment options that best suit your situation, so the financial side of treatment never has to be a barrier to getting started.

Why getting the first step right changes everything

Patients who find their own way to a specialist — whether at Smile Solutions or elsewhere — are making that decision based on limited information. They may choose a clinician based on availability, a Google search, or a recommendation from a friend whose dental situation was entirely different from their own.

When Dr Pajouhesh makes that referral, he's drawing on 35 years of clinical knowledge, an intimate understanding of over 80 clinicians' individual capabilities, and a genuine commitment to getting complex cases right. The treatment that follows is smoother, more predictable, and more likely to succeed — because the foundation was right from the very start.

To book a complimentary consultation with Dr Kia Pajouhesh, call 13 13 96 or visit smilesolutions.com.au.

Smile Solutions is at 220 Collins Street, Melbourne CBD, in the heritage-listed Manchester Unity Building — directly opposite Town Hall station on the Metro Tunnel line, with trains running every three to four minutes. The practice is open Monday to Friday from 8am to 6pm, Saturday from 8:30am to 1:30pm, and Sunday by appointment.