We did the homework here.
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Finding a Dentist in New Jersey: What I’d Actually Want to Know Before I Book
By Tiffany Slowinski
Finding a new dentist should not be this annoying.
You ask a friend. You Google. You end up staring at 17 practices that all have somewhere between 4.7 and 5 stars, beautiful photos of extremely white teeth and websites promising some version of “gentle, comprehensive care.”
Great. Which one am I actually supposed to call?
For something this personal, I want more than a star rating. I want to know who I am seeing, whether I can get an appointment without rearranging my entire life and whether the dentist is going to explain what is happening before handing me a treatment plan that costs more than my first car.
I also want to like them.
That matters.
A dentist is one of those people you hopefully stay with for years. I do not want to reintroduce myself every six months or wonder whether I am ever going to see the same person twice. If I choose a practice because I read about a specific dentist, I want to know if that is actually the person I am going to see.
Then there is the very practical stuff.
Can I get an appointment when I need one? Are there early morning, evening or Saturday appointments? What happens if something hurts? Can I book online, or am I entering a three-day game of phone tag?
A gorgeous office is not especially useful to me if I cannot get there without canceling half my workday.
I also want to know what happens if I need more than a cleaning.
Some practices handle a wide range of treatment in-house. Others refer out for root canals, oral surgery, implants, orthodontics or more complicated cases. Neither is automatically better. I just want to know before I need something.
And yes, I care about how my teeth look too.
I can want healthy teeth and still be interested in whitening, straightening something that has bothered me for years or fixing a chipped tooth I stare at in every photo. If cosmetic dentistry matters to you, ask what the dentist actually does regularly instead of assuming every office that uses the phrase “cosmetic dentistry” offers the same thing.
The biggest thing for me is communication.
I do not need a dental degree. I do need to understand what you see, what you recommend, why you recommend it and what happens if I do nothing right now.
If there are multiple options, tell me. If one costs significantly more, tell me why. If something can wait six months, I want to know that too.
Trust gets a lot harder when you are lying backward under a bright light while someone throws around words you do not understand and you are nodding because there are four instruments in your mouth.
I want a dentist who explains things like a normal person.
I would also pay attention to treatment philosophy.
If a dentist recommends something significant, I want to understand what needs attention now and what can be watched. I want to know my options. For something expensive or irreversible, I am completely comfortable asking questions or getting another opinion.
That is not being difficult.
Those are my teeth.
Then there is the money.
Dental insurance is confusing enough. Before significant treatment, I want the office to explain what they expect it to cost, what they expect insurance to cover and what I am responsible for. If the practice is out of network, tell me. If payment plans exist, tell me. If there are different treatment options at different price points, I want to know that too.
Nobody enjoys talking about money while wearing a paper bib.
Talk about it anyway.
And if you hate going to the dentist, you are hardly alone.
Some people had a terrible experience years ago. Some hate needles. Some have sensitive teeth. Some are embarrassed because it has been way too long since their last cleaning.
A perfectly fair question is: How do you handle nervous patients?
Pay attention to the answer.
You are not looking for someone to promise that nothing will ever be uncomfortable. You are looking for an office that listens when you tell them what makes you anxious and does not make you feel ridiculous for saying it.
At the end of the day, you can research a dentist for three hours online and still learn more in 20 minutes sitting in the chair.
How does the staff treat you? Does the dentist listen before talking? Do you feel rushed? Are your questions welcomed or tolerated? Do you leave understanding what happened and what comes next?
That is the stuff that makes you stay.
It is also why we built these guides.
Garden State Circle checks the public information available on each practice, including active dental licenses, who the practice actually names as its dentists, whether it appears to be independently owned or part of a larger group when that information is published, how it handles new patients and whether it offers evening or weekend hours.
We are not telling you which dentist is “the best.”
I do not think a spreadsheet can tell you that.
The dentist I love may not be the dentist you love. You may care deeply about Saturday appointments. I may care about seeing the same person every time. Someone else may want a practice that can handle the whole family or offers a specific service.
What we can do is make it much easier to compare them.
Because choosing a dentist should start with better information than whoever happened to show up first on Google.
You do not need to find the fanciest dentist.
You need to find the dentist you will actually go back to.
The Guide: Dentists in Parsippany, NJ
How We Selected These Dentists
Every practice in the table has an office you can walk into in Parsippany-Troy Hills, and at least one dentist whose New Jersey dental license the state register showed as Active on September 21 or September 24, 2026. That is a test, not a judgment. Practices are listed alphabetically.
Where fewer than five practices in these towns met the criteria, the nearest practices that met the same criteria are listed in a second table, each with the town it is based in.
About This Guide
This guide is produced by Garden State Circle. Practices appear here because they meet the criteria described above — an office in Parsippany-Troy Hills, and at least one dentist with an Active New Jersey dental license. That is a test, not a judgment, and it is the only route onto this page. No practice can pay to be included in this guide, to be listed higher, or to change what the comparison table says about it. Practices are listed alphabetically, and every detail in the table was verified against each practice’s own website and the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs licensee register in September 2026.
Everything under the heading that begins this guide is governed by the rules above, on every guide we publish. Where a sponsor’s message appears above that heading, it is paid for and labelled, and it buys nothing in the guide. Garden State Circle is supported by the businesses that participate in it. Participation pays for our ongoing work: keeping a business’s entry accurate, re-checking its record, and publishing a page of its own details that the business maintains. There is no paid placement in this guide. Participation does not buy a place here, a position here, or anything the comparison table says. Where a row carries a verification date, that is when we last checked that business’s record ourselves. A row without one has not been checked recently — that is a fact about our work, not about the business. Nothing on this page is medical advice. Every treatment described here carries risks that depend on your own health and history, and the person to discuss them with is a licensed provider who has examined you.
Garden State Circle is published in New Jersey by Tiffany and Jake Slowinski and covers Parsippany-Troy Hills. Contact the publisher at jake@gardenstatecircle.com. How every guide is made, in one place: how every guide is made.
The Dentists, Compared
| Practice | Dentist(s), as named on their own site | NJ license | Ownership | New patients | Evening or Saturday hours (as published) | Record checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First Care Dental Center | Elizabeth M. Llamera Kassem Farhat Ali K. Farhat | 22DI01901300 · Active · checked Sept 21, 2026 22DI01957600 · Active · checked Sept 21, 2026 22DI02991900 · Active · checked Sept 21, 2026 | Not published | Request an appointment | Saturday 9:30 am to 3 pm; no weekday evening | September 2026 |
| Morris Plains Center for Dentistry | Joshua Bagley | 22DI02844900 · Active · checked Sept 24, 2026 | Not published | Online booking | Monday to 6 pm; Wednesday and Thursday to 7 pm; no Saturday | September 2026 |
| NKS Dental | Nayanesh K. Shah Sachi N. Shah | 22DI01627200 · Active · checked Sept 21, 2026 22DI02663300 · Active · checked Sept 21, 2026 | Not published | Not published | Tuesday and Wednesday to 6 pm; Thursday noon to 6 pm; Saturday 8:30 am to 1 pm | September 2026 |
| Zen Dental Care | Sheren Elsaid | 22DI02640400 · Active · checked Sept 21, 2026 | Not published | Online booking | Monday, Wednesday and Thursday to 6 pm; no Saturday | September 2026 |
License status is what the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs licensee register showed on September 21 or September 24, 2026, looked up by name. Record checked names the month we last checked that practice’s record ourselves.
Nearby options
| Practice | Based in | Dentist(s), as named on their own site | NJ license | Ownership | New patients | Evening or Saturday hours (as published) | Record checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine Family Dental | Boonton | Sharmila Chopra | 22DI02527500 · Active · checked Sept 21, 2026 | Not published | Request an appointment | Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday to 6 pm; Saturday 9 am to 2 pm | September 2026 |
| Boonton Family Dental | Boonton | Nicholas Morelli Gabriel Cornick | 22DI03033700 · Active · checked Sept 21, 2026 22DI02722400 · Active · checked Sept 21, 2026 | Not published | Online booking | Tuesday to 7:30 pm; no Saturday | September 2026 |
The Practices
First Care Dental Center
250 New Rd, Parsippany, NJ 07054 · (973) 882-5005
Elizabeth M. Llamera, DDS, Kassem Farhat, DDS and Ali K. Farhat, DDS hold Active New Jersey dental licenses. The practice’s website carries the names Belleville Dental Center and First Care Dental Center, and takes requests for an appointment through a button on its pages.
Morris Plains Center for Dentistry
2839 Route 10 E, Ste 201, Morris Plains, NJ 07950 · (973) 644-0088
Dr. Joshua Bagley holds an Active New Jersey dental license. The office is in Parsippany-Troy Hills, although its postal address reads Morris Plains. The practice’s website says “We’re Accepting New Patients!” and takes requests for an appointment through a form.
NKS Dental
1081 Parsippany Boulevard, Suite 100, Parsippany, NJ 07054 · 973-299-6161
Nayanesh K. Shah, DDS and Sachi N. Shah, DMD hold Active New Jersey dental licenses. The practice’s website says Sachi Shah works alongside her father in the office, and lists a phone number for scheduling.
Zen Dental Care
2200 NJ-10 Ste 105, Parsippany, NJ 07054 · (973) 370-5221
Sheren Elsaid, DMD, FAGD holds an Active New Jersey dental license. The practice’s website says the address may appear as Morris Plains, 07950 on GPS.
Nearby options
Alpine Family Dental, Boonton
550 West Main Street, 2nd Floor, Boonton, NJ 07005 · 973-334-3002
Alpine Family Dental is based in Boonton. Sharmila Chopra, DDS holds an Active New Jersey dental license. The practice takes requests through a callback form on its website.
Boonton Family Dental, Boonton
362 Hawkins Pl, Boonton, NJ 07005 · 973.334.9350
Boonton Family Dental is based in Boonton. Nicholas Morelli, DMD and Gabriel Cornick, DMD hold Active New Jersey dental licenses. The practice takes appointments through an online booking button.
Common Questions
Is every dentist here accepting new patients?
Where the New patients column reads “Not published,” the practice’s website does not publish a statement about current availability. That is a fact about what each practice’s website says, not a claim that they are closed to new patients — call and ask.
How do I check a license myself?
The New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs publishes a licensee search under Dentistry. Search by the dentist’s last name. The record shows the license number, the status and the town on file.
Additional Resources
More guides to Parsippany
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- Orthodontists in Parsippany, NJ
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The same guide for other markets
- Dentists in Basking Ridge, Bernardsville and Bedminster
- Dentists in Bridgewater
- Dentists in Chatham and Madison, NJ
- Dentists in Clinton, Flemington and Annandale
- Dentists in Long Branch and Oceanport
- Dentists in Mendham and Chester, NJ
- Dentists in Somerville and Hillsborough
- Dentists in Denville and Mountain Lakes, NJ
- Dentists in Montville and Kinnelon, NJ
- Dentists in Randolph, NJ
- Dentists in Morristown, Morris Township and Morris Plains, NJ
NJ Division of Consumer Affairs license verification
Something out of date?
If anything here is wrong or has changed — a credential, who is at the practice, or whether they are taking new patients — tell us and we will check it. Corrections are free, for every practice on this page. A practice that is not listed here and meets the criteria described at the top of this guide can write to the same address.
admin@gardenstatecircle.com
This is not a ranking.
Part of Parsippany Guides

