Kent Kohli

Kent D. Kohli is a graduate of the University of Utah & Weber State University, and the Clinical Research Associates’ Archibald Fixed Prosthodontics program for laboratory technicians. Kent is a board-certified dental technician (CDT) with a specialty in Dental Ceramics and has practiced for 36 years as an owner/partner of numerous labs, a Master Dental Ceramist, an CEO & COO and General Manager of a number of full-service labs ranging in size from 3 to 125 employees. Kent has served as a key opinion leader to several dental manufacturers & supply companies, including: Ivoclar Vivadent, Kuraray-Noritake, GC America, Jensen Dental-Creation Dental Ceramics, Zahn Dental Supply (Henry Schein), MPF Brush Company, Renfert, SmileLine & SmileLine USA, Zubler Gmbh (Ulm, Germany) & Zubler USA and the Anaxdent Corporation in Germany. Kent has also been a technical consultant, laboratory hands-on clinician, North American Technical Director, technical troubleshooter, technical consultant, lab general manager, independent laboratory technical consultant, independent business consultant, laboratory business advisor & growth consultant, master-mind business start-up & scale advisor, business operations consultant & advisor, board member & advisor of numerous laboratory and private boards of directors, Vice Chair of the NADL’s FDLT (Foundation for Dental Laboratory Technology) Board of Directors and a techno-clinical educator & instructor for the internationally-renowned Clinical-Technical Dr David Hornbrook Group.
Kent started his career over three & a half decades ago as the owner and operator of Contemporary Dental Aesthetics, LLC, a small, high-end boutique lab committed to excellence in all areas of smile design reconstruction, full arch & full mouth reconstruction, and esthetic implant reconstruction, including: treatment, surgical, implant & restorative multi-disciplinary case planning for anterior & All-On-X Implant Restorations.

Kent’s passion is education, and he commits a significant amount of time annually to reading, both clinical & technical journals, studying journal articles and various publications, attending & participating in advanced clinical, laboratory, implant & aesthetic restorative continuing education to continuously increase his knowledge base and upgrade his skill sets.

Kent is also a passionate industry advocate and educator for improved doctor-laboratory communication, successful case facilitation through use of predictable, progressive, efficient & effective analog & digital dental workflows.

Kent has worked for and consulted for many dental ceramic manufacturers and supply companies as Director of North American Technical Support and Education for the Microstar Corporation, Darby Dental Lab Supply (Zahn Dental-Henry Schein) and Kuraray-Noritake Dental. He was an International Instructor, lecturer and hands-on clinician for Kuraray-Noritake Dental for over 22 years. Kent has been a member of Ivoclar Vivadent’s KOL Group, Technical Advisory Board and Technician Mastermind Group for many years.
Kent has published many technical & techno-clinical articles on aesthetic smile design reconstruction, advanced dental ceramics, technical tips n’ tricks for ceramists, natural tooth morphology & contour for anterior & posterior aesthetic restorations, advanced pressable ceramics best practices, the Internal Live Staining Technique (Hitoshi Aoshima, RDT/MDT), advanced micro-layering techniques for all-ceramic restorations, principles of esthetic implant restoration, advanced comprehensive layering for aesthetic anterior & posterior pfm & all-ceramic restorations, functional & aesthetic considerations for full- arch & full-mouth smile design reconstruction, and modern all-ceramic restorative materials in contemporary dental aesthetics.

Kent is the author of the book “Smile Beautifully: The Ultimate Consumer’s Guide to Cosmetic Dentistry.” Most recently, Kent co-authored an article with Dr. David Hornbrook in the clinical journal, “Dentistry Today,” on effective clinical-laboratory communication. Kent has also served as a techno-clinical consultant, instructor & faculty member with the “Hornbrook Group,” presenting extensive live patient continuing education to restorative doctors and staff members on topics such as Functional Aesthetics and Demystified Occlusion.

Prior to joining Ivoclar North America in September of 2025 as North American Director of Technical & Digital Services, Kent was a partner and CEO/Lab General Manager for Natural Aesthetics, a high-end boutique lab specializing in Smile Design Restoration, all-ceramic restorations, and minimally invasive PrepLess & NoPrep veneer restorations for the NFL, MLS, the NBA, WNBA, the mega wealthy ‘dot com’ who’s who, the actors of Hollywood & Beverly Hills, and the professional music scene in Nashville, L.A. and Atlanta. Prior to joining Natural Aesthetics, Kent owned, managed (CEO) & operated (COO) Precision Dental Designs, a high-end cosmetic lab specializing in digital workflow for smile design reconstruction, esthetic full-arch/full-mouth smile design and All-On-X restoration, and complex anterior esthetic implant restoration. Prior to buying Precision Dental in Anchorage, Alaska, Kent was a partner and managed operations as COO and General Manager/Lab Manager at Utah Valley Dental Lab, a large high-end cosmetic lab specializing in Smile Design Reconstruction, All-on-X and aesthetic implant reconstruction in the esthetic zone. During his tenure & leadership at UVDL Kent was instrumental in cultivating a culture of gratitude & teamwork, and he and his fellow executive & management team grew & scaled the lab from 72 people to over 110 team members, and they collectively grew production & revenue from $8M to $19M and net profit to a very respectable & significant percentage in less than 4 years.

Before his tenure at UVDL, Kent worked for National Dentex Corporation as a Fixed Facilitator/Trainer/Educator and Fixed Quality Assurance Specialist, and he finished his tenure at NDX as President and General Manager of NDX nSequence Guided Prosthetics in Reno, Nevada. There, Kent and his team developed a patented, full-arch AOX surgical treatment & implant placement planning & stackable guide system, creating surgical & restorative treatment plans and guiding over 2250 full arches annually, with an impressive internal remake percentage of less than ¼ of 1% (.0025) and a net profit in excess of 20%.
Kent has been married for 35 years to his sweetheart Debra, and they are the parents and grandparents of 4 amazing adult children and four beautiful grandchildren. Kent enjoys playing classical, jazz & big band trumpet & flugel horn, hiking in the forests & mountains, collecting & shooting firearms, with special interest in precision shooting, sharpshooting & long-distance shooting, weight training & conditioning, advanced nutrition, landscape, dental and macro photography, watching The Ohio State University Buckeyes athletics and serving in the church.