Dr. Ahn’s story

Problems I did not understand

Growing up, I was taught to understand how deeply our lifestyle choices influence our health. Yet despite a healthy upbringing, I struggled with problems I did not understand.

I was born with restrictive tongue fascia that affected the development of my jaws, teeth, airway and TMJ. At age 12, four premolars were extracted to make room for crowded teeth, followed by headgear to retract my upper teeth. My teeth eventually looked straight, but I was left with a deep overbite, a recessed chin, difficulty comfortably closing my lips and a bite that never felt right. I became deeply self-conscious about my smile and facial appearance, and three attempts at orthodontic treatment still failed to create lasting comfort or stability.

I also experienced seemingly unrelated health concerns: daytime drowsiness, cold hands and feet, skin rashes, digestive issues and other symptoms I never imagined could be connected.

A growing understanding of beauty

Because of my own experience and love for aesthetics, I developed an early passion for aesthetic dentistry. I understood personally how much our smile and facial appearance can influence the way we feel about ourselves, and I loved helping patients regain that confidence through beautiful dentistry.

But as my training and experience grew, so did my understanding of beauty.

Through advanced education in craniofacial development, aesthetic and neuromuscular dentistry, TMJ and sleep therapy, and airway health, I began to recognize that the most natural and lasting aesthetic outcomes could not be separated from health, structure, function and biology. My own concerns were not isolated problems. They were interconnected factors influencing how I breathed, slept, functioned, aged, and ultimately how I looked and felt.

I began seeing the same patterns in my patients. They came seeking a more beautiful smile, relief from TMJ pain, treatment for worn teeth or sleep-disordered breathing, or solutions for facial aging and other health concerns. Yet often, these were different expressions of underlying structural, functional and lifestyle imbalances.

That realization transformed my approach to aesthetics, from simply creating beautiful smiles to Regenerative Aesthetic Care that supports the health, function and natural architecture beneath them.

Why I created Aviara

Aviara brings together structural health, breathing, sleep, lifestyle and functional medicine, holistic aesthetic dentistry and regenerative aesthetic medicine within one comprehensive philosophy of care.

I created Aviara for people who want to look and feel their best without choosing between beauty and health, because I believe the most beautiful, lasting results are created when we honor both.

Beauty Follows Health™.

Dr. Katherine Ahn Wallace, DDS
Founder of Aviara

Her education and advanced training