About Avalon
A small practice that has stayed small on purpose.
We’re family-owned and independent — no group, no corporate parent, no quotas handed down from anyone. That’s not nostalgia. It’s the only structure in which a dentist can honestly tell you that you don’t need treatment.
Our story
It started with a sixteen-year-old who wanted the job nobody wants.
Most dentists will tell you they decided on this career in college. Dr. Broschinsky decided at sixteen — and while his friends were bagging groceries, he talked his way into a job at a dental office, sterilizing instruments, pouring models, watching how people behaved in that chair.
What he noticed then is what still shapes the practice today: patients settle once they can see what is happening and know that nothing will be recommended to them that they do not genuinely need. He has spent three decades telling people that the treatment plan they arrived clutching was longer than it needed to be — and showing them, on the screen, exactly why.
He graduated dental school in 1989 and spent his first eight years in downtown San Francisco before opening the San Ramon practice — the same practice he still runs, now more than three decades on. In that time he has watched patients grow up, bring in their own children, and in a few cases bring in their grandchildren.
Outside the office he plays piano — properly, and very well — and has spent the past while locked in a slow-moving dispute with a sourdough starter. He will explain the hydration percentage if you let him. Do not let him. His wife maintains that the granola bars are the actual achievement and that the bread is a hobby the family is being very supportive about.
37 years in, we’ve watched patients grow up, bring in their own children, and — a few times now — bring in their grandchildren.
Meet the doctor
Dr. Cliff Broschinsky, DDS
Founder & General Dentist
Practicing since 1989. General, cosmetic and family dentistry, with a particular patience for people who arrive nervous.
You’ll always know what’s happening
Before anything begins, you’ll see your own images on the screen and hear what we’re looking at in plain language. No jargon, no rushing to the next room.
We’ll tell you when you can wait
Not every finding needs treating today. When something can be watched rather than drilled, we say so and write it down — and we’ll still be here when it does need attention.
Comfort is a clinical decision
Numbing that’s given time to work. Shorter appointments when that’s easier. A pause whenever you raise a hand. Gentleness isn’t a personality trait here — it’s a protocol.
Away from the office
Playing piano · Baking sourdough · Granola bars · Family time
What we believe
Four things we won’t trade away.
Honesty, including when it costs us
If a filling will hold for another two years, we’ll say so and write it down. We’ve built a thirty-year practice on people who came back, not on people who were talked into something.
Time, given properly
Longer appointments mean we’re not rushing you and we’re not rushing the work. It’s the least efficient way to run a dental office and the only way we’re interested in running one.
Continuity
The same dentist, the same hygienist, the same person answering the phone — backed by records that are fully digital. We can put this year’s images beside ones from a decade ago and see precisely what has changed, and what hasn’t.
Hospitality, not luxury
A hot drink and a comfortable chair aren’t the point. Being greeted by name and starting on time is the point.
In their words
Thirty years of families who stayed.
Every quote below is a patient's own, unedited, from our reviews.
“We LOVE LOVE LOVE Avalon Dental! Dr. B is the best dentist we’ve ever gone to”
Cassondra H. “Dr B. always does a great job and you don’t feel the work getting done”
Marie T. “The staff always make my experiences with them the best and most comfortable”
Rebecca C. “Dr. B', He is very patient and thorough! Most importanty he’s Gentle”
Maggi R. “Dr. B is outstanding. He and the hygenists are thorough, gentle, and make the experience”
Rachel Z. “Always a great experience! Been going here for as long as I can remember”
Kiralise R.