Your orthodontist
Brett Garrett, DMD, MS
Board Certified Diplomate of the American Board of Orthodontics. Cal Poly mechanical engineer before he was an orthodontist. San Luis Obispo and Arroyo Grande.
San Luis Obispo 805.544.3223 · Arroyo Grande 805.489.4625
The story
Dr. Garrett’s journey into orthodontics.
He started at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, planning to be a mechanical engineer. As a kid he took things apart to see how they worked and put them back together again.
What changed his mind was his internships. “You get to see a very small part of the puzzle,” he says, the design, or the manufacturing, or the quality control, but never the whole thing. “I like to see the whole thing.”
Then he watched an orthodontist work. Somebody comes in with a smile they’d like to improve, and one person works out what’s needed, plans it, chooses the appliances, sees it all the way through, and is standing there at the end when it comes off.
He worked in research and development for a medical device company, went to dental school, did his orthodontic residency, and came back to the Central Coast to practice.
When it looks good, it also functions good. And that’s the engineering part of me.— Dr. Brett Garrett
It’s why the technology in both offices isn’t a list of gadgets. Every piece of it is there to make the plan more accurate or the treatment less disruptive, a 3D picture instead of a flat X-ray, a two-minute scan instead of a tray of putty, brackets that let appointments fall two months apart instead of four weeks.
How he treats a case
The question behind every treatment plan.
If this is my son, my daughter, my mom, my dad, how would I treat this case?— Dr. Brett Garrett
It isn’t hypothetical. He has treated his own children and his parents, and they got exactly the same plan as anyone else in the chair.
He’s also careful about the word “perfect.” People come in asking for a perfect smile, and his answer is that it’s a tough request, “because what’s perfect for one person isn’t perfect for you.”
What the letters mean.
- Board Certified Diplomate, American Board of Orthodontics
- Voluntary, and most orthodontists don’t do it. Finished cases are submitted to a panel of peers who examine the actual results, then it’s renewed periodically. It is the clearest difference between a specialist and someone who took a weekend course in aligners.
- DMD, Nova Southeastern University: with highest honors
- Dental school.
- Certificate and MS in Orthodontics, Loma Linda University
- The specialty residency, two to three years after dental school, in nothing but moving teeth and jaw development.
- BS Mechanical Engineering, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
- With a business administration minor, “so I knew I’d be able to run a business.”
- Prior R&D engineer, medical devices
- Before dental school.
- Published in the American Journal of Orthodontics & Dentofacial Orthopedics
- Peer-reviewed.
- Early Invisalign doctor panels
- In the system’s early years he sat on Invisalign’s doctor panels, giving feedback while the product was still being developed.
- Voted Best Orthodontist in SLO County, 10th year
- Awarded by the New Times Reader Poll, Best of SLO County, most recently 2026.
Authority without superiority
What to look for when you’re choosing an orthodontist.
We’ve got great orthodontists in the area here. Hopefully, I’m one of them.— Dr. Brett Garrett
There are good orthodontists on the Central Coast, and you should see more than one. Here is what we would tell anybody to ask, whoever they end up choosing.
Is the orthodontist board certified?
Certification by the American Board of Orthodontics is voluntary, and most orthodontists don’t complete it. It means finished cases have been examined by a panel of peers, and it has to be renewed. Ask.
Who plans your case, and who finishes it?
In a practice with several doctors, or one owned by a corporate group, the person who designs your treatment may not be the person you see at each visit. Different hands mean different judgment. Ask who will actually be there.
Is the technology serving the plan?
Equipment lists are easy. What matters is whether the imaging changes decisions. 3D imaging that finds an extra tooth or a bone problem is worth more than a lobby full of screens.
Will they tell you when you don’t need something?
The most useful thing an orthodontist can say is that a treatment isn’t necessary, or that waiting a year is better. Notice whether you get that answer anywhere.
How long has the team been there?
Turnover at the front desk and in the clinic tells you something no brochure will.
You’ll get good treatment at several practices around here. We’d like it to be this one.
Outside the office
Where he ends up.
Married to his high-school sweetheart. Three children. Eagle Scout, and his sons made Eagle rank too. Surfing, scuba, snowboarding, dirt biking, and the 49ers.
He’s quietly of the view that you end up where you’re supposed to end up in life.
Where he practices.
Dr. Garrett is the only orthodontist at Garrett Orthodontics. San Luis Obispo on Tuesday and Thursday, Arroyo Grande on Monday and Wednesday, same doctor, same records, whichever office suits your week.
