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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: Endodontists in Somerset County, NJ
How We Selected These Endodontists
This guide covers Somerset County.
A practice is on this page when it has an endodontics office in Somerset County and at least one named dentist whose New Jersey dental license the state register showed as Active on September 24, 2026, and who holds an endodontics specialty permit on that register at that office’s town, primary or branch, or a legacy specialty permit that the practice’s own words tie to endodontics. That is a test, not a judgment. Practices are listed alphabetically.
About This Guide
This guide is produced by Garden State Circle. Practices appear here because they meet the criteria described above — an endodontics office in the county named above and at least one named dentist with an Active New Jersey dental license and an endodontics specialty permit. 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 Somerset County. Contact the publisher at jake@gardenstatecircle.com. How every guide is made, in one place: how every guide is made.
The Endodontists, Compared
| Practice and town | Specialist(s) named, and the permit as the register prints it, checked Sept 24, 2026 | Record checked (Sept 24, 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Aspen Dental Bridgewater | Mark Fakory — Dentist license Active · Endodontics Specialty Br Prmt 07571-04 Active | Sept 24, 2026 |
| KK Dental Center Somerset | Libertad Negron — Dentist license Active · Endodontics Specialty Permit 06716 Active | Sept 24, 2026 |
| Mid Jersey Endodontic Group Somerville | Carmen Cicalese, DMD — Dentist license Active · Specialty permit Active (legacy type, discipline as published by the practice) Annika Lucarelli, DDS — Dentist license Active · Specialty permit Active (legacy type, discipline as published by the practice) | Sept 24, 2026 |
Checked against the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs Dentistry licensee search.
Permit status is what the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs licensee register showed on September 24, 2026, looked up by name. Record checked names the date we last checked that practice’s record ourselves.
The Practices
Aspen Dental, Bridgewater
976 US Highway 22, Bridgewater, NJ 08807
Named on the practice’s own site, with the register record as of Sept 24, 2026: Mark Fakory — Dentist license Active · Endodontics Specialty Br Prmt 07571-04 Active.
The practice’s provider page for Dr. Fakory says he “specializes in diagnosing tooth pain and saving natural teeth through careful and precise root canal treatment”. An Aspen Dental office; the endodontist named is Dr. Fakory.
KK Dental Center, Somerset
1743 Rt. 27, Somerset, NJ 08873
Named on the practice’s own site, with the register record as of Sept 24, 2026: Libertad Negron — Dentist license Active · Endodontics Specialty Permit 06716 Active.
On the practice’s own site, her page says “specialized root canal treatments and advanced endodontic care” and “Advanced three-year residency program” (University of Maryland School of Dentistry, Endodontics). A general dental office where Dr. Negron is the endodontist named.
Mid Jersey Endodontic Group, Somerville
57 West End Avenue, Somerville, NJ 08876
Named on the practice’s own site, with the register record as of Sept 24, 2026: Carmen Cicalese, DMD — Dentist license Active · Specialty permit Active (legacy type, discipline as published by the practice); Annika Lucarelli, DDS — Dentist license Active · Specialty permit Active (legacy type, discipline as published by the practice).
On the practice’s own site: “dedicated exclusively to endodontic care in central New Jersey”; Cicalese “received his Endodontic specialty certificate at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey”; Lucarelli “General Practice Residency and Endodontics Residency at the Manhattan VA Hospital”. Lucarelli is on the American Board of Endodontics Diplomate List, Sept 24 2026.
Common Questions
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.
Verified
Verified means we checked identity, licence and published details - not service quality or results.Every detail on this page was checked on September 24, 2026 against each practice’s own website and the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs licensee register.
Additional Resources
The same guide for other markets
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, insurance participation, 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.