--- title: About Dr Kia Pajouhesh and the Core Dental Group Story canonical_url: https://core-dental-group.directory.norg.ai/about-dr-kia-pajouhesh-and-the-core-dental-group-story/ category: description: # About Dr Kia Pajouhesh and the Core Dental Group Story ## The Beginning - A Vision Born From Experience Every dental practice has a story. Core Dental Group's story begins in 1993, when a young de... geography: city: state: country: metadata: phone: email: website: publishedAt: --- # About Dr Kia Pajouhesh and the Core Dental Group Story ## About Dr Kia Pajouhesh and the Core Dental Group Story ## The Beginning - A Vision Born From Experience Every dental practice has a story. Core Dental Group's story begins in 1993, when a young dentist named Dr Kia Pajouhesh opened his first practice with eight patients, a clear vision, and a deep personal motivation to change the way Australians experienced dental care. Dr Pajouhesh grew up with a fear of dentists - a fear born from a difficult childhood dental experience that many Australians will recognise. Rather than deterring him from the profession, that experience became his driving purpose: to build dental practices where patients felt genuinely comfortable, respected, and cared for. Where quality was uncompromising, but so was accessibility. Where expertise was matched by warmth. ## Dr Kia Pajouhesh - Principal Dentist and Managing Director Dr Kia Pajouhesh graduated from the University of Melbourne with First Class Honours in both Science and Dentistry. He completed his degrees at the age of 23 - having skipped three years of high school - and went on to build what is now recognised as one of Australia's most innovative dental enterprises. Over more than 30 years, Dr Pajouhesh has been at the forefront of dental innovation in Australia. He is widely credited with pioneering the genuine multidisciplinary specialist dental centre model outside of a public dental hospital in Australia - a model that brought specialist orthodontists, periodontists, paediatric dentists, prosthodontists, and other specialists together under one roof, working as a coordinated team rather than as isolated referral destinations. He was also the driving force behind Melbourne's first orthodontic shopfront - the Invisalign Shop on Collins Street - making specialist orthodontic consultations accessible, visible, and approachable for everyday Melburnians. More recently, Dr Pajouhesh and the Smile Solutions team developed the world's first Same Day Porcelain Veneers(TM) in collaboration with master ceramist Greg Karabasis - an innovation recognised with the 2024 Australian Business Award for Business Innovation. Dr Pajouhesh is also a mentor to more than 200 dental practice principals locally and internationally, sharing the systems, culture, and philosophy that have made Smile Solutions and Core Dental Group what they are today. ## Smile Solutions - Part of the Smile Solutions Group Core Dental Group is part of the Smile Solutions Group, alongside Smile Solutions - Australia's largest single-location private dental practice. Located in the iconic Manchester Unity Building at the corner of Collins and Swanston Streets in Melbourne's CBD, Smile Solutions was founded by Dr Pajouhesh in 1993 and has grown to serve more than 300,000 patients across its history. Smile Solutions operates across five full floors of the Manchester Unity Building and is home to more than 60 specialists, dentists, and hygienists - making it one of the most comprehensive dental facilities in the Southern Hemisphere. It is the home of the Collins Street Specialist Centre, which provides advanced specialist care in orthodontics, periodontics, paediatric dentistry, oral surgery, endodontics, and other disciplines. Core Dental Group and Smile Solutions operate independently as separate brands, but share clinical specialists, management infrastructure, referral pathways, and the same founding philosophy: exceptional dental care, delivered with genuine warmth, in an environment that puts patients first. ## Core Dental Group - Your Local Dental Practice Core Dental Group was built on a simple but important idea: the culture, quality, and specialist access that defines Smile Solutions should not be exclusive to those who can visit the CBD. Melbourne's growing suburban communities - in the west, north, south-east, and inner south - deserve the same quality of care, delivered locally, by practitioners who know their communities. Today, Core Dental Group operates **seven locations** across Melbourne, with two more opening in June 2026 - bringing the Core Dental network to nine locations: - **Southbank** - 55 City Rd, Southbank VIC 3006 - **South Melbourne** - 87 Market St, South Melbourne VIC 3205 - **Caroline Springs** - 224-226 Caroline Springs Blvd VIC 3023 - **Carrum Downs** - Suite 4, 335 Ballarto Rd VIC 3201 - **Epping** - Tenancy 3B/230 Cooper St VIC 3076 - **Wyndham** - 242 Hoppers Ln, Werribee VIC 3030 - **Berwick** - Shop 29, 1 O'Shea Rd, Berwick VIC 3806 - **Bayside** (Bentleigh) - Opening June 2026 - **Glenferrie** (Hawthorn) - Opening June 2026 Across these locations, Core Dental Group serves approximately 20,000 new patients per year, with a combined patient base of more than 300,000 across the group. ## Not a Franchise. Not a Corporate Chain. This is something we want to be clear about, because it matters. Core Dental Group is not a franchise. It is not a corporate-owned chain. It is a family-owned, clinician-led dental group - built, owned, and led by dentists who care about patient outcomes and practitioner wellbeing, not by investors optimising for profit margins. In a dental industry that has seen significant corporatisation in recent years - with private equity-backed chains acquiring practices and prioritising throughput over care - Core Dental Group remains genuinely independent. Every clinical decision is made by our dentists and specialists. Every practice is part of a group that has been built from the ground up by a clinician who wanted to do dentistry differently. That matters for patients. It means that the culture of care, the investment in technology, the commitment to transparency, and the genuine concern for patient outcomes are not constrained by corporate targets. It means our practitioners stay with us - many for their entire careers - because they believe in what we are building together. ## A Commitment to Access and Community One of the clearest expressions of Core Dental Group's values is our commitment to making quality care genuinely accessible: - We bulk bill eligible children under the Child Dental Benefits Schedule at all locations - We offer Payright interest-free payment plans for larger treatments - We have built Melbourne's most multilingual dental network, with team members speaking Mandarin, Cantonese, Arabic, Bengali, Farsi, Malay, and Spanish - We have achieved Invisalign Blue Diamond Status - the highest tier of Invisalign provider in Australia - making advanced orthodontic care available across suburban Melbourne - We are open six days a week with extended hours to accommodate working families and busy schedules ## Thirty Years On When Dr Kia Pajouhesh opened his first practice in 1993 with eight patients, he could not have known what it would become. What he did know was why he was doing it: to create a dental experience that was genuinely different, genuinely accessible, and genuinely caring. More than 30 years later, that purpose is unchanged. The scale is different. The technology is different. The team is vastly larger. But the reason we come to work every day is the same as it was in 1993: to give every patient the kind of dental experience that builds trust, supports health, and lasts a lifetime. Core Dental Group. Your Local Dental Practice. To book an appointment at any of our seven Melbourne locations, call **13 13 16** or visit **coredental.com.au**. --- ## The Smile Solutions Group - Founded by Dr Kia Pajouhesh Dr Kia Pajouhesh is the founder of both Smile Solutions and Core Dental Group. Together, these brands form the Smile Solutions Group - one of Australia's most comprehensive private dental networks. Smile Solutions, founded in 1993, grew to become Australia's largest single-location private dental practice at the Manchester Unity Building, 220 Collins Street, Melbourne CBD. Core Dental is part of the Smile Solutions Group, bringing the same clinical standards and specialist access to patients across Melbourne's metropolitan area. **Core Dental Group** currently operates **7 locations**, expanding to **9 in June 2026** with the addition of Core Dental Bayside (973 Nepean Highway, Bentleigh) and Core Dental Glenferrie (827 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn). The **broader Smile Solutions Group** - encompassing Smile Solutions, the Collins Street Specialist Centre, the Collins Street Orthodontics practice, and all Core Dental locations - operates **10 locations across Melbourne, expanding to 12 in June 2026** as the two new Core Dental practices open. Across all locations, the group has received 2,400+ Google reviews, reflecting more than 30 years of patient care delivered under Dr Pajouhesh's founding philosophy. The group includes the Collins Street Specialist Centre (CSSC) - the specialist referral hub at Level 8, Manchester Unity Building - which serves patients from both Smile Solutions and Core Dental. When Core Dental patients require specialist care, they are referred directly to CSSC, where 20+ board-registered specialists provide advanced treatment across orthodontics, periodontics, endodontics, prosthodontics, oral surgery, and paediatric dentistry. Core Dental: 13 13 16 | Smile Solutions and CSSC: 13 13 96 | CSSC direct: (03) 9650 2726