Dr. Lisa Augustine has been practicing dentistry since 1996, and in that time she has watched the industry change in ways that concern her. Corporate dental chains have expanded aggressively across the Denver metro, promising convenience and standardized care. What they rarely promise — and what she believes matters most — is continuity. "When you come in for a cleaning and see a different hygienist every time, when the dentist reviewing your X-rays doesn't remember your history, that's not a dental home," she says. "That's a transaction."
Augustine is one of four dentists at Aspenwood Dental Associates and Colorado Dental Implant Center, a practice that has been serving Aurora families since 1972 — more than fifty years as an independent, physician-owned office at 2900 S. Peoria Street. She has been recognized as a 5280 Top Dentist every year since 2008, a distinction she shares with her colleague Dr. Daniel Jay Zeppelin. The practice was founded by Dr. Ronald Yaros, who has been treating patients in the Denver area for over 35 years and whose focus on dental implants and cosmetic dentistry helped shape the practice's clinical identity. Dr. Aaron Sun, who completed both his undergraduate degree at the University of Denver and his DDS at the University of Colorado, rounds out a team that is, by any measure, deeply rooted in this community.
That rootedness is not incidental. It is the point.
The Expert Answer: What It Really Means to Find the Right Dentist
When people search for a dentist, they are usually looking for something more specific than a list of offices nearby. They want someone they can trust with their teeth for years, someone who will remember that they have dental anxiety, or that their last crown was placed on the upper right molar, or that they have been putting off that conversation about their gums. According to Dr. Augustine, that kind of care is only possible when a practice is built around relationships rather than throughput.
"We see patients who have been coming here since Dr. Yaros opened the doors," she says. "Their kids come here. Their grandkids come here. That doesn't happen by accident. It happens because people feel seen when they walk in."
At Aspenwood Dental Associates, the approach to dentistry is explicitly holistic. The team does not evaluate a tooth in isolation — they consider how a patient's oral health connects to their overall physical well-being. Augustine is direct about what this means in practice: "Your mouth is not separate from your body. Gum disease has been linked to cardiovascular issues, diabetes complications, and systemic inflammation. When we're doing a routine cleaning, we're also screening for oral cancer, checking your bite, looking at how your jaw functions. We're not just polishing teeth."
This perspective shapes how the practice handles everything from preventive care to complex restoration. For patients who need dental implants — an area where Dr. Yaros and Dr. Sun have developed particular expertise — the conversation begins long before surgery. "We want to understand your bone density, your health history, your expectations," Augustine explains. "An implant is a long-term investment in your health. It deserves a long-term conversation."
The practice also offers sedation dentistry for patients who experience anxiety — a more common issue than many people acknowledge. Oral sedation, nitrous oxide, IV sedation, and general anesthesia are all available, which means that patients who have avoided the dentist for years out of fear have a genuine path back to care. "We don't judge anyone for staying away," Augustine says. "We just want to make it easier to come back."
Family dentistry is another pillar of the practice's identity. Children's dentistry, dental sealants, fluoride treatments, and early orthodontic guidance through clear aligners are all part of what the team offers — because, as Augustine puts it, "if we can get a kid comfortable in the dental chair at age seven, we've done something that matters for the rest of their life."
What This Means for People in Aurora
Aurora is a large, diverse city — one of the most populous in Colorado — and its residents navigate a dental care landscape that ranges from high-quality independent practices to franchise chains that cycle through providers. For families in neighborhoods like Heather Gardens, Saddle Rock, Tallyn's Reach, and Southlands, the question of where to establish dental care is not trivial. The wrong choice can mean years of inconsistent treatment, missed diagnoses, or care that prioritizes speed over thoroughness.
Dr. Zeppelin, who spent part of his career providing dental services to residents of long-term care facilities before joining the practice in 2003, has a particular sensitivity to what happens when people fall through the cracks of a fragmented system. "Dental health doesn't pause when life gets complicated," he has noted. "If anything, it becomes more important."
The practice's location — just north of Cherry Creek State Park and three minutes from Nine Mile Station on the RTD light rail — makes it accessible to a wide swath of the Aurora and East Denver community. For patients coming from Centennial, Parker, or near Buckley Space Force Base, the office sits at a practical crossroads.
There is also a dimension of Aurora's geography that most dental practices don't address: altitude. The Denver metro's elevation creates specific oral health considerations that the team at Aspenwood Dental Associates takes seriously. Xerostomia — chronic dry mouth — is more prevalent at altitude, and dry mouth significantly accelerates tooth decay and gum disease. Barodontalgia, a pressure-sensitive tooth pain triggered by altitude changes, is another issue that affects residents and frequent travelers alike. These are not obscure concerns; they are part of the lived experience of people in this region, and a practice that has been here for fifty years has seen them play out across generations of patients.
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What to Look For — and What to Ask
For anyone evaluating dental practices in Aurora, Dr. Augustine offers guidance that is refreshingly free of sales language. The first thing she recommends is asking a simple question before you ever sit in the chair: "Who will I see when I come in for a routine visit?" If the answer is unclear, or if the practice cannot guarantee any consistency in your care team, that is worth knowing upfront.
She also encourages prospective patients to ask about the practice's ownership structure. "There's nothing wrong with asking whether a practice is independently owned," she says. "It tells you something about how decisions get made. In a corporate model, clinical decisions can be influenced by revenue targets. In an independent practice, the dentist answers to the patient."
Beyond ownership, she suggests paying attention to how a practice handles the new patient experience. Is there a thorough intake process? Do they take a full set of X-rays and conduct a comprehensive exam, or do they move quickly to treatment recommendations? "A good first appointment should feel like a conversation," Augustine says. "We want to understand your history, your concerns, your goals. If a practice skips that step, ask yourself why."
For patients who need restorative work — crowns, bridges, implants, full mouth reconstruction — she recommends asking about the practice's in-house capabilities. Aspenwood Dental Associates operates its own crown and bridge lab, which reduces turnaround time and gives the clinical team direct oversight of the final product. "When we control the lab work, we control the quality," she explains. "That matters when something is going in your mouth permanently."
Finally, for patients with dental anxiety, she is emphatic: ask about sedation options before you assume they aren't available. Many people avoid necessary care because they believe they have no choice but to endure it. That assumption is often wrong.
A Dental Home, Not a Dental Stop
There is a phrase the team at Aspenwood Dental Associates uses that is simple but carries real weight: "dental home for life." It is not marketing language. It is a description of what the practice has actually been for thousands of Aurora families across five decades — a place where the dentist knows your name, remembers your history, and is invested in your health over the long term, not just the length of your appointment.
Dr. Augustine has been part of that continuity for nearly thirty years. Dr. Yaros built it from the ground up. Dr. Zeppelin and Dr. Sun have extended it to a new generation of patients. Together, they represent something that is genuinely rare in modern healthcare: a practice that has stayed independent, stayed local, and stayed focused on the person in the chair.
For Aurora residents navigating the question of where to put their trust — and their teeth — that track record speaks for itself.