Lifelong Dentist Brings Dream to Westwood

Daniel Kazachkov has wanted to be a dentist for a long time. 

Even now, at age 30, the Russian native and Norwood resident, looks back at his youth, always enamored with the art of dentistry. 

"I knew I was going to do this since I was 5," he said. "I used to take out my sister's baby teeth." 

And after six years of training and study at the University of Massachusetts and the Tufts School of Dental Medicine, Kazachkov has achieved the dream of opening his own dental office, which he did with the Dental Arts of Westwood in May on High Street in Westwood. 

And working in dentistry goes beyond just fixing his sister's teeth. When he was less than 5 years old, Kazachkov underwent a four-hour root canal procedure with no anesthesia while still living in Russia (he moved to the United States in 1991).

The dentists who worked on him at the time used a large metal drill powered by a foot crank; the pain was so severe he passed out from the procedure, and his mother, who was forced to wait in another room, also lost consciousness due to the screams. 

But the event wasn't one to steer him away from dentist. Instead, he pledged from then on to make sure no one underwent the same painful procedure. In actuality, he bought that very drill years later and it now sits on display in the Westwood office.

Kazachkov said he settled on the Westwood location due in part to uniqueness of the large yellow building on High Street, the listing for which he found one morning around 12:04 a.m., only two minutes after the building itself had been listed. 

"The town has been really nice to us," said Kazachkov, who works with two other dentists in the office; his wife Shauna, who is currently serving in the U.S. Navy, will also join as a dentist once she is finished with her service. 

Kazachkov has also worked with U.S. troops before they are deployed to keep them healthy in the line of duty, and looks to continue that type of work at the Westwood office. 

The Dental Arts of Westwood is open Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday each week. Learn more about the office here.