Dr. Syed Rizvi, DDS

Dr. Syed Rizvi is a general dentist at Cedarbrae Dental Center whose day-to-day work tends to gather around the moments patients worry about most: a tooth that aches, one that has broken down, or one that may need to come out. He completed his DDS at the University of Toronto, where he received a Crown and Bridge Award recognizing his work in restorative dentistry, and that grounding in rebuilding damaged teeth still shapes how he practices. Restoring a broken-down tooth so it works again is, to his mind, some of the most satisfying work in dentistry, and it colours how he approaches even the tougher cases.

Root canal treatment is one of his central interests, and it is an area where clear communication matters as much as technique. When decay or injury reaches the nerve inside a tooth, a root canal is often what allows that tooth to be kept rather than lost. Dr. Rizvi talks patients through what is happening inside the tooth and why saving it can be worthwhile, so a procedure that sounds daunting becomes something understandable and, for many people, far less stressful than expected.

Extractions are the other side of the same coin. Not every tooth can or should be saved, and part of good care is being honest about when removing a tooth is the more sensible route. He weighs the condition of the tooth, the comfort of the patient, and what comes next, and he explains the reasoning rather than simply delivering a verdict. Where a gap will be left behind, his restorative background helps him think ahead to how the space might later be rebuilt.

That restorative thread runs through everything he does, from fillings to crowns that cap and protect a worn or repaired tooth. He works at a pace that leaves room for questions, and he treats nervous patients without judgment. With the practice open seven days a week from 9 am to 5 pm and a team that speaks nine languages, including Urdu, Hindi, Arabic, and Spanish, it is usually possible to arrange the kind of unhurried appointment that this sort of work deserves. None of it is dressed up in jargon; he would rather a patient leave understanding their own mouth than nodding along to terms they never thought to ask about.