Finding a good dentist in La Quinta starts with a short, high-quality field: Dental.me tracks 30 practices here, 13 of them rated, carrying a 4.68 average across 1,675 reviews. Because the rated group is small, comparing star ratings against review volume — not name recognition — is the fastest way to choose confidently.
How La Quinta’s dental field breaks down
La Quinta is a compact desert market, and its dental directory reflects that. Of the 30 practices Dental.me lists across the city, 13 currently carry a star rating, and every one of those rated offices sits at 4.0 or higher — there is no rated practice in La Quinta scoring below 4.0. That changes how you should read the numbers. When the entire rated field clears a 4.0 bar, the star rating alone stops separating offices, and the count of reviews behind each rating becomes the deciding signal.
The distribution is genuinely top-heavy. Eight of the 13 rated practices score 4.8 or above, and the remaining five land in the 4.0-to-4.49 band. Notably, no La Quinta office falls into the middle 4.5-to-4.79 range — the city splits cleanly into a large group of near-perfect scorers and a smaller group in the low 4s, with nothing in between.
The highest-rated practices in La Quinta
The table below ranks the six practices Dental.me surfaces with the strongest profiles, sorted by star rating and then by review count. The gap that matters is not between a 5.0 and a 4.9 — it is between an office reviewed a few dozen times and one reviewed a few hundred. Apex Dental Group of Dr. Kristina Fernandez alone carries 324 reviews at a 4.9, meaning its score rests on a far deeper base of feedback than a five-star office with 50 reviews. Both are worth a call; they simply earn their rating from different amounts of evidence.
| Practice | Rating | Reviews | Profile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jamie Carstairs | 5.0 | 50 | View profile |
| Apex Dental Group of Dr Kristina Fernandez Corp | 4.9 | 324 | View profile |
| Larry Kunkle, DDS, Apc | 4.9 | 205 | View profile |
| Daoshun Zhou | 4.9 | 123 | View profile |
| Caleo Bay Orthodontics | 4.9 | 41 | View profile |
| Nash Sourial DDS Inc | 4.8 | 26 | View profile |
Read the reviews column as a confidence dial. The three practices above 100 reviews — Apex Dental Group, Larry Kunkle’s office, and Daoshun Zhou — have each been rated by enough patients that a single unusual visit barely moves their average. Caleo Bay Orthodontics and Nash Sourial’s office score just as high but on lighter volume; Dental.me does not record why. The chart below shows how unevenly La Quinta’s review activity is spread across these six offices.
What a website URL on file tells you
Twelve of La Quinta’s 30 listed practices have a website URL on file with Dental.me — a shade under half the directory. That figure is not a verdict on any office; a missing website URL is a gap in the records, and Dental.me does not record why. What the presence of a URL does give you is a faster path to the practical details you actually need before booking: which insurance plans an office accepts, whether it treats children, how it handles after-hours emergencies, and what new-patient paperwork looks like.
The practical move: for the 12 practices with a listed website, start there to confirm insurance and services, then call. For the other 18, the phone is your first step — treat the call as your intake interview, asking the same questions you would have checked online.
Specialty care in La Quinta
La Quinta covers the major specialty needs well. Dental implants lead with eight practices associated on Dental.me, and cosmetic dentistry, orthodontics, and periodontics each show seven (the Invisalign page covers the same orthodontic group), while teeth whitening shows five. That breadth means most residents can stay local for implant restorations, aligner therapy, or gum treatment rather than driving down valley for routine specialty work.
If you already know what you need, jump straight to the focused lists: La Quinta’s dental implant providers, its cosmetic dentists, and its orthodontists each collect the offices that handle that work in one place. Because several general practices appear across multiple specialty lists, a single office may be able to combine, say, a whitening consult with an Invisalign evaluation — worth asking about when you call.
Reading ratings when the whole field scores high
La Quinta presents a pleasant problem: with no rated office below 4.0 and eight of 13 above 4.8, the star number stops doing the sorting for you. Here is how to choose well anyway. First, weight review volume. A 4.9 built on 200-plus reviews is a more settled result than a 5.0 built on a few dozen, simply because it averages over more ratings. Second, match the practice to the work — a five-star orthodontics office is the right pick for aligners, not necessarily for a same-week filling. Third, confirm the logistics that ratings never capture: whether the office is in-network for your plan, its emergency policy, and its availability for the appointment type you need.
The Dental.me Score exists to compress exactly this reasoning. It weighs a practice’s rating, the volume of reviews behind it, and whether the office’s details have been confirmed, so you are not manually trading off a high score against a thin sample. It is earned from those signals and never sold; only a Featured placement can be paid for, and paying for it cannot change a practice’s Score or its rank on rating. When two La Quinta offices score within a tenth of a point of each other, let the review count and the specialty fit break the tie.
Looking just beyond La Quinta
La Quinta sits in the heart of the Coachella Valley, so if your top local pick has no near-term opening, capable options are only minutes away. Neighboring Indio dental practices sit directly east and carry the valley’s largest population base, while Palm Desert dentists to the northwest add another dense cluster of offices. For patients closer to the resort corridor, Indian Wells providers round out the immediate area. Widening your search by a few miles rarely costs more than a slightly longer drive, and it adds more rated practices to the list you can call.
Whichever direction you look, the method holds: start from the ranked list, read the reviews column as your confidence dial, confirm insurance and emergency policy by phone or on a listed website, and match the office to the specific care you need. For the full local field — all 30 practices, updated as ratings change — the La Quinta dentist directory is your home base. Thirteen rated offices at a 4.68 average is a strong starting field for any city; the work left to you is matching the right one to your own mouth, your plan, and your calendar.
Frequently asked questions
How many dentists are there in La Quinta, CA?
Dental.me lists 30 dental practices in La Quinta. Of those, 13 currently carry a star rating, holding a 4.68 average across 1,675 total reviews. The remaining practices appear in the directory but do not yet have a rating on file.
Which La Quinta dental practice has the strongest rating?
Jamie Carstairs holds a perfect 5.0 across 50 reviews. Right behind on a much deeper base of feedback is Apex Dental Group of Dr. Kristina Fernandez at 4.9 across 324 reviews.
Are there any poorly rated dentists in La Quinta?
No rated practice in La Quinta scores below 4.0. Eight of the 13 rated offices sit at 4.8 or higher and the other five fall between 4.0 and 4.49, so review volume and specialty fit — not the star number alone — are the best ways to choose.
Can I get specialty dental care in La Quinta?
Yes. Eight practices are associated with dental implants, seven each cover cosmetic dentistry, orthodontics, and periodontics (the Invisalign page covers the same orthodontic group), and five offer teeth whitening. Most residents can stay local for implant, aligner, or gum treatment rather than traveling elsewhere in the valley.
Do La Quinta dental offices have websites I can check first?
Twelve of the 30 listed practices have a website URL on file with Dental.me. For those, start online to confirm insurance and services, then call. For the 18 without a URL on file, phone the office directly to ask the same questions.
What if no La Quinta dentist has an opening soon?
Nearby Coachella Valley cities expand your options within a short drive. Indio sits directly east with the largest local practice base, Palm Desert adds a dense cluster to the northwest, and Indian Wells covers the resort corridor between them.
Dental.me organizes dental directory data so patients can compare offices with confidence. Use each practice profile and its available website, map, and phone details for current appointment, payment, and care decisions.