Since 1983
Same lane in Girgaon. Forty years.
3A Dental Clinic is named after three people: Ashok, Anuja and Amaey. Two generations of one family, all three treating patients, in a practice that has never moved out of the neighbourhood it started in.
Watch, 1 min 36 sec
Hear it from Dr. Amaey.
The short version of this page, filmed in the clinic by the youngest of the three A’s.
- 0:06Dr. Ashok opens the clinic in 1983
- 0:25Three dentists from one family
- 0:52Why dental anxiety is taken seriously here
- 1:06The scan, the plan, and no pressure in the chair
1983
It started with one dentist and a lot of walk-ins.
Dr. Ashok R. Parekh qualified from Nair Hospital Dental College and opened a practice off the 8th Khetwadi Lane in Girgaon.
South Mumbai in the early eighties had fewer clinics, no appointment systems worth the name, and patients who arrived when the pain became unbearable rather than when a reminder came. A practice grew or did not grow on one thing, which was whether the neighbourhood decided you were gentle.
That is the whole origin story. There is no more romantic version of it. He was careful, he was slow, he explained things, and people told their neighbours.
What changed, and what did not
Specialists arrived. The pace did not.
Dr. Anuja A. Parekh brought an MDS in periodontics into the practice, which meant gum disease, bone loss and the groundwork for implants stopped being referred out.
Dr. Amaey A. Parekh, the second generation, brought an MDS in prosthodontics and implantology, digital planning and the X-ray-first approach to rebuilding a mouth. He also brought a postgraduate qualification in counselling psychology, which is how this became a clinic that anxious patients get sent to.
What has not changed is how long an appointment takes when somebody needs it to take longer.
What “family dentist” means here
Four things that only make sense after forty years.
Your record goes back decades
We can look at what a tooth was doing in 2004 before deciding what to do with it now. Very few clinics can, because very few clinics have been in the same room that long.
We treat the whole household
Grandparents in for dentures, parents in for implants, children in for a first check. Same practice, one set of notes, no repeating the family history each time.
Nobody is upsold
In a practice that depends on a neighbourhood, a patient who feels oversold does not come back, and neither does their family. That is a stronger constraint than any policy.
We say when nothing needs doing
Watching a small thing for six months is frequently the correct treatment. You will be told that plainly, and you will not be booked in for it.
The three A’s
Ashok, Anuja, Amaey.
Dr. Ashok R. Parekh
BDS. Restorative and preventive dentistry, and the families he started with in the eighties.
Meet Dr. Ashok
Dr. Anuja A. Parekh
Specialist gum care, gum surgery and bone grafting for implant sites.
Meet Dr. Anuja
Dr. Amaey A. Parekh
Implants, full-mouth rehabilitation, smile design, TMJ, aligners and anxiety care.
Meet Dr. AmaeyThe neighbourhood
Girgaon, Khetwadi, Charni Road, Opera House. This corridor is the practice.
Patients come from across South Mumbai and from Malabar Hill, Walkeshwar, Marine Lines, Grant Road, Colaba and Cuffe Parade. A growing number fly in from London, Dubai, Toronto and Singapore, almost always because their parents were already patients here.
But the clinic is a Girgaon clinic. It was built for the people who live within walking distance, and it is still judged by them every day, which is the only quality control that has ever really worked in dentistry.
Talk to us first
Send us your problem before you send us a booking.
Tell us what is bothering you on WhatsApp. If you already have an X-ray or an OPG, send a photo of it. You will get an honest answer from a dentist, not a call centre, and you will know what you are walking into before you sit in the chair.