Dr James Tomazos, General Dentist

Role: General dentist

Qualifications: Bachelor of Science, Monash University; Doctor of Dental Surgery, University of Melbourne

Registration: Registered dentist, general registration, DEN0004000113

Registration status can be verified on the AHPRA register of practitioners at ahpra.gov.au. The service page for this scope is General Dentistry.

Background

Dr James Tomazos was born and raised in Melbourne. He completed a Bachelor of Science at Monash University before the Doctor of Dental Surgery at the University of Melbourne.

He treats patients of all ages, with a particular interest in preventive and restorative dentistry — see Children's Dentistry for the younger end of that, and What does restorative dentistry involve? for the other.

He speaks Greek fluently and has conversational Mandarin Chinese.

The Australian dental degree pathway

There are two routes to a dental qualification in Australia:

The undergraduate route — a five-year Bachelor of Dental Science or Bachelor of Dental Surgery entered straight from secondary school.
The graduate-entry route — a prior bachelor's degree, usually in science or biomedicine, followed by a four-year Doctor of Dental Surgery or Doctor of Dental Medicine. This is the University of Melbourne's model and the route Dr Tomazos took.

The two are equivalent in the eyes of the Dental Board of Australia. Both lead to the same general registration and the same scope of practice. The DDS is a professional entry-level doctorate, not a research doctorate and not a specialist qualification.

After graduation a dentist must register with the Dental Board, renew annually, complete continuing professional development, hold professional indemnity insurance and meet recency-of-practice requirements. Entry pathways into the practice for new graduates are set out under the Graduate Program and Dental Internship.

What a general dentist does

Examination, diagnosis and treatment planning
Radiographs and diagnostic imaging within the dental scope
Scale and clean, and treatment of gum disease
Fillings, inlays, onlays, crowns and bridges
Root canal treatment
Extractions, including wisdom teeth
Dentures and implant-supported restorations
Whitening and other cosmetic treatment
Referral to specialists where a case sits outside general practice

A general dentist is not a specialist. Specialist titles — orthodontist, periodontist, endodontist, prosthodontist, paediatric dentist, oral and maxillofacial surgeon and the rest — are protected under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law and may only be used by practitioners holding specialist registration in that field. See Why would I need to see a dental specialist?

The Dental Board of Australia records that “there are 13 dental specialties in Australia which are approved by the Australian Health Workforce Ministerial Council”, and that specialist registration requires, on top of an approved specialty qualification, “a minimum of two years general dental practice” and all the requirements for general registration as a dentist. What actually governs day-to-day work for every practitioner, specialist or not, is the Scope of practice registration standard (in effect 1 July 2020), which “requires dental practitioners to practise within the scope of their education, training, and competence at all times”. (Source: Dental Board of Australia — dentalboard.gov.au.)

Preventive dentistry: what actually works

Preventive dentistry is not a marketing category. The interventions with real evidence behind them are unglamorous and mostly cheap. The overview is in Caring for your teeth: 8 steps to dental health and How Do I Prevent Dental Decay?.

For decay:

Fluoride toothpaste, twice daily. This is the single most effective thing an individual can do. Spit, don't rinse — rinsing washes away the fluoride that is doing the work. See The benefits of fluoride, Selecting a toothpaste — fluoride or non-fluoride? and With so many toothpastes on the market, how can I make a wise choice?
Reducing the frequency of sugar intake, which matters more than the total quantity. Each exposure produces an acid attack lasting roughly twenty to thirty minutes. Six small snacks are worse than one larger serve. See How does sugar affect your dental health?, Sugar: What does it do to your teeth? and Dental Cavities. How does your diet affect your teeth?
Fissure sealants on the biting surfaces of permanent molars in children at risk. Well-supported by evidence. See The role of fissure sealants in children's teeth and Who is a suitable candidate for dental sealants?
Higher-concentration fluoride products for people at high risk, prescribed by a practitioner. See What can I do to strengthen my teeth?
Saliva matters. Dry mouth — caused by many common medications, some medical conditions, and radiotherapy — sharply increases decay risk, and needs specific management. See My mouth is always dry — why is this and does it affect my teeth? and My mouth always feels dry! What can I do?

On how decay actually progresses, see How does tooth decay develop? and The stages of dental decay.

What the independent bodies actually say about sugar and fluoride

Two of the recommendations above are not clinical opinion. They are settled public-health positions, and it is worth quoting them rather than paraphrasing.

Sugar. The World Health Organization states that “the consumption of free sugars in foods and beverages is the most common risk factor for dental caries”, and that “limiting the intake of free sugars to less than 10% of total energy intake — and ideally to less than 5% — minimizes the risk of dental caries throughout the life course”. ‘Free sugars' has a specific meaning: “all sugars added to foods and beverages by the manufacturer, cook or consumer, plus sugars naturally present in honey, syrups and fruit juices” — which is why fruit juice sits on the same side of the line as soft drink, and whole fruit does not. (Source: WHO.)

Fluoridated water. The National Health and Medical Research Council reviewed the evidence and “confirmed that community water fluoridation helps to reduce tooth decay, and that there is no reliable evidence that water fluoridation at current Australian levels causes health problems”; its 2017 public statement “recommends community water fluoridation as a safe, effective and ethical way to help reduce tooth decay”. (Source: NHMRC.) See Fluoridated water — Is it good for you?

For gum disease:

Cleaning between the teeth daily, with floss or interdental brushes. A toothbrush cannot reach the surfaces where gum disease starts. See Is flossing really that important? and What Is Gum Disease?
Not smoking. Smoking is the largest modifiable risk factor for periodontitis, and it also masks the bleeding that would otherwise warn you. On the newer products, see The effects of vaping on your oral health and Are e-cigarettes bad for my teeth?
Professional cleaning at an interval matched to your risk, which is not automatically six months. Some people need three, many do fine at twelve. See How often should I go to the dentist?
Controlling diabetes, which has a bidirectional relationship with gum disease. See Diabetes and oral health and Dental Health and General Wellbeing

What does not have good evidence: whitening toothpastes for anything beyond surface stain, charcoal products (abrasive, no fluoride, no benefit shown), oil pulling, and most “detox” oral products. See Home whitening and charcoal whitening — Does it work? Is it safe? and Can oil pulling make my mouth healthier and my teeth whiter?

Why this matters for children in particular

Dr Tomazos treats patients of all ages, and the prevention argument is strongest at the youngest end. Australian Dental Association figures record that “34% aged 5-6 years having experienced decay in primary or baby teeth and 27% aged 5-10 years having untreated tooth decay in primary teeth”, and that “only 56% of children visit the dentist before age 5”.

The ADA also surveyed 25,000 Australian adults on when a first visit should happen and found that “40% of us think around two years old is acceptable for the first dental visit, while 20% believe it should be age three and 10% believe age four or older is appropriate” — against the profession's own recommendation of “the first dental visit when an infant's first tooth or teeth emerge, typically before or around age one”. The same material notes that “one third (32%) of parents reported their child's first visit was for pain or a problem”, which is precisely the introduction to dentistry worth avoiding. (Source: ADA.)

See First Visit to the Dentist, When Should a Child First Visit the Dentist? and Combating dental anxiety in children.

Restorative dentistry: the honest version

No filling lasts forever. Every restoration will eventually need replacing, and each replacement removes more tooth structure than the last. This is why preventing the first filling matters so much. See How long do dental fillings last?
Composite (white) fillings bond to the tooth, need less tooth removal, and look better. They are technique-sensitive and generally have shorter service lives than amalgam in large load-bearing restorations. See Dental fillings: porcelain, amalgam or composite resin? and Porcelain fillings and composite fillings: What are the differences and costs involved?
Amalgam is durable and cheap. Its use is declining, driven principally by the international Minamata Convention on mercury and by aesthetics rather than by evidence of harm to patients from existing fillings. Removing sound amalgam fillings for health reasons is not supported by evidence and destroys tooth structure.
A crown is not automatically better than a filling. It removes substantially more tooth. It is indicated when there is not enough remaining tooth to support a filling, or after root canal treatment on a back tooth. See What types of dental crowns are available?
Early decay in enamel can be arrested rather than drilled with fluoride and diet change, and monitored with radiographs. A dentist who watches a small lesion instead of filling it immediately is usually practising well, not neglecting it. See Can you reverse tooth decay & do I need a filling? and Why do I need a filling?

And for the small annoyance that follows a new filling more often than people expect: Why do I bite my cheek after a filling?

Registration

Dentists are one of the registered dental practitioner divisions under the National Law. The Dental Board of Australia registers dentists, dental specialists, dental hygienists, dental therapists, oral health therapists and dental prosthetists. Every registered dentist holds a DEN-prefixed number, and any conditions on practice appear on the public register.

The standards that attach to that registration each carry a date of effect: Scope of practice, 1 July 2020; Continuing professional development, 1 December 2015; Recency of practice, 1 December 2015; Professional indemnity insurance arrangements, 1 July 2016; English language skills, 18 March 2025; and Criminal history, 15 July 2026. (Source: Dental Board of Australia, Registration standards — dentalboard.gov.au.) None of them is optional, and all of them are conditions of remaining on the register rather than achievements to advertise.

Common questions

I have been told I need a filling. How do I know it is really necessary?

By asking three specific questions, and by knowing that the disagreement you may be sensing is real rather than paranoid.

Ask to see it. A decayed surface on a radiograph or an intra-oral photograph is visible to a patient once it is pointed out. “Show me” is a reasonable request and a practitioner who cannot show you what they are treating is asking for more trust than the situation requires.

Ask what happens if you wait. Early decay confined to enamel can often be arrested rather than drilled — with fluoride, diet change and better cleaning — and monitored with a repeat image in six or twelve months. Decay that has crossed into dentine generally will not reverse. The honest answer to “what if we watch it?” tells you which of the two you have. See Can you reverse tooth decay & do I need a filling? and The stages of dental decay.

Ask what the alternatives cost, in writing and itemised.

And the honest part: dentists do not always agree. A consumer submission to the Australian Senate's inquiry into private health insurance and out-of-pocket costs observed that “private patients can go to multiple dentists and receive conflicting diagnoses and widely varying quotes for unpredictable dental fees”, and that “there are no consumer guidelines to ascertain the reasonableness of dental fees charged” (Submission 265, McGrath, 2017 — a consumer submission, not a finding of the inquiry). That is a fair description of the position a patient is in: there is no national fee schedule to check a quote against, and no register of who diagnoses conservatively.

Which is why a second opinion before anything substantial is ordinary and reasonable, and why a practitioner who is untroubled by you getting one is telling you something useful.

How often should I actually come in?

At the interval your own risk justifies, which is the honest answer rather than the tidy one.

We are not able to point you to an independent Australian source that sets a single interval for everyone, because we could not find one in the reference material behind this site. Six months is convention rather than evidence, and it is worth saying so plainly instead of repeating it as though a regulator had set it.

What does move the interval is well established: active decay, gum disease, smoking, dry mouth, poorly controlled diabetes, a heavily restored mouth, orthodontic appliances, and a diet high in frequent sugar all argue for shorter gaps. A stable mouth, low sugar frequency, no bleeding gums and no new decay for several years argues for longer ones.

So ask directly: “What is my risk, and what interval follows from it?” A recall interval that has never been reconsidered in ten years is a habit, not a plan. See How often should I go to the dentist? and Dental Cleans and Hygienists.

How do I check the registration, and what will the register not tell me?

Search the name at ahpra.gov.au — free, about a minute. The Dental Board of Australia states that Ahpra “publishes an online register of all dental practitioners that provides the profession and the public with up-to-date information about a dental practitioner's registration status”, including “the specialty or specialties for dentists who hold specialist registration”.

What it will not tell you: it does not publish how many procedures a practitioner has done, their complication rate, what they charge, which languages they speak, or any patient-experience measure. No Australian body publishes outcome data for individual dental practitioners. There is no league table, and anything presenting itself as one is a directory selling listings.

What the register does show — registration category, any specialty, and any conditions, undertakings or reprimands — is the regulator's own record and is worth the minute. Everything else is a question for the consultation.

What should I bring to a first appointment?

Your medicines and medical conditions, written down. Several common medicines reduce saliva, and dry mouth raises decay risk sharply enough to change the whole plan — which is why this is a dental question, not a formality.
Your previous radiographs, or the name of the practice holding them. Images are part of your record and are sent on request. The radiology principle is that “strict and individualized justification should determine the prescription of each radiograph”, and that a justified radiograph “should make a substantial contribution to distinguishing between treatment options” — so a usable recent image should not be repeated without a reason, and you may ask what the reason is. For scale, the International Atomic Energy Agency puts a routine intraoral radiograph at 1–8 μSv, “usually less than one day of natural background radiation”. See How safe are dental x-rays.
Anything already quoted elsewhere, named or by item number, so that two plans can be compared as plans rather than as prices.
Your questions, on paper, and the one that most often gets left out: what happens if we do nothing for now.

See Understanding Your Treatment and the Price Guide.

Practical details

Dr Tomazos's registration can be checked on the AHPRA public register. See Contact Us to ask about appointments or which practitioner suits a particular problem. The full clinical team is on Our Team, and published fees in the Price Guide.

Smile Solutions, Level 1, 220 Collins Street, Manchester Unity Building, Melbourne VIC 3000. Phone 13 13 96, or theteam@smilesolutions.com.au. Monday–Friday 8.00am–6.00pm, Saturday 8.30am–1.30pm, Sunday by appointment. Location and directions.

This page records qualifications and career history as published by the practice. General information only — it is not a diagnosis, a treatment plan or a promise of any particular clinical outcome. Practitioner availability changes; confirm when booking.

Smile Solutions trades under ABN 28 193 514 103.