The Dental Bar entices patients with a speakeasy bar

By Mary Jeneverre Schultz

While routine dental visits are important for us to stay healthy, going to the dentist causes feelings of dread, fear, and anxiety for many Americans.

That is why The Dental Bar is offering relaxation with a contemporary twist through its experiential and immersive dental office—the highlight is a speakeasy bar that patients can enjoy a drinkbefore or after their appointment.

Husband and wife Dr. Kha Nguyen and Dr. Lynn Doan created a one-of-a-kind experience at The Dental Bar, which is located in the Southlands in East Aurora.

“The Dental Bar came to life because we wanted to create a dental experience like no other!,” said Nguyen.

“Going to the dentist can be a drag for a lot of people, so we thought, why not make it enjoyable? We’re big foodies and cocktail lovers, so we drew inspiration from trendy lounges and restaurants to design a modern, sleek dental office that’s super comfy for our patients.”

Their mission is to change the way people see dentists and that’s where the speakeasy and dry bar concept comes in.

Hidden behind a bookcase, patients can step into the speakeasy environment after checking in. Open during their regular business hours, the selfserve dry bar offers a range of boozefree beverages: coffee, seltzers, sodas, non-alcoholic champagne, wine, and even non-alcoholic spirits and beers. The alcohol bottles displayed on the top shelves are purely for decorationnot for drinking.

Husband-wife business partners

Doan, who was raised in Aurora, feels excited to be building her practice in the town she grew up in.

The two met when they were in high school and were friends for more than ten years before their relationship be - mode with a wealth of amenities:

Visually, there is a widescreen television set up in the ceiling for patients to watch their favorite series or movies during the scheduled appointment.

Auditory: the office provides stateof-the-art technology in their headphones, so patients won’t hear the disconcerting sounds of drilling or other unpleasant noises;

Scents: sweet and aromatic smells replicate the scents of high-end hotel lobbies; and

Touch: a neck pillow or soft blanket are available for extra comfort.

The Dental Bar’s comfort menu is completely complimentary for all patients. Patients get to enjoy perks like Netflix on ceiling TVs, neck pillows, warm blankets, and refreshing face towels after the appointment - all without any extra cost!

State of the art equipment

came romantic. Similar interests, such as career goals, built their friendship and laid out the foundation to establish a business together.

“Our story goes way back! We met in high school at a summer camp in Kansas. We both knew from the age of 13 that we wanted to be dentists and have our own practice someday,” said Doan.

“So, we bonded over our passion for dentistry and shared interests. We were friends for years, then started dating, got married, and now we’re not just life partners but also business partners!”

Lately, preparing for the grand opening of The Dental Bar has kept them busy with no time for leisure activities, but when the two aren’t working, they enjoy frequenting their favorite Asian restaurants, family time, and traveling.

A dentist visit that engages all senses

During a scheduled appointment, the patient can dive deeper into relaxation

The Dental Bar offers a full range of dental services from cleanings, fillings, and crowns to more specialized treatments like implants and cosmetic smile makeovers.

Educating their patients is important to them, which is why the co-owners invested thousands of dollars into their equipment to teach their patients the importance of brushing teeth through visual aids.

Instead of using traditional x-rays, the imaging technology allows the dentists to show visual colors that indicate to patients any areas of concern. For example, they can show how bone density loss around a tooth can lead to long-term care and issues.

Grand opening in Southlands Mall

After conducting market research, Nguyen and Doan determined that southeast Aurora was the community they hoped to serve. They also acknowledge there are not enough Asian American doctors in the surrounding areas to better serve the Asian/Asian American population.

Since March, The Dental Bar owners have documented the renovation on Instagram @thedentalbarco. By July, their potential patient list shot up to 60 people. The office is currently open three days a week — Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

“We’re incredibly passionate about what we do here at The Dental Bar,” said Doan.

“We hope to make dentistry enjoyable and to create happy, confident smiles. So, whether you’re a regular patient or just curious, come on over! We’d love to welcome you and show you how we’re changing the way people think about dental visits. Cheers!”

Contact The Dental Bar to experience a tour of the dental office and speakeasy. Visit their website at thedentalbar.com.

On Saturday, August 12, Colorado Asian Pacific United (CAPU) will host a public block party where they will officially unveil the completion of two major projects for their ‘Reimagining Denver’s Chinatown’ initiative: a mural and the installation of three historic markers. Funded by Andrew Mellon Foundation and Denver Arts & Venues, both projects revolve around CAPU’s efforts to recontextualize and reimagine Denver’s historic Chinatown that all but disappeared over the years due to discriminatory legislation, a xenophobic society, and outright racist riots.

Here’s a condensed history lesson: As the transcontinental railroad finished construction, large numbers of Chinese immigrant laborers were suddenly in need of work. A scant but steady number slowly migrated away from the West Coast towards such metropolitan areas as Denver. Denver’s Chinatown was a vibrant section in now-LoDo, whose businesses served the immigrant community.

By the time the year 1880 rolled around, anti-Chinese sentiment had started to slowly build across the country, with brazen outbursts of racial violence becoming more and more frequent. “Yellow Peril” as it was known, was set ablaze by fear that the influx of Chinese immigrants would threaten “American” jobs, and the many Chinatowns across the country become the symbol of such supposed economic depreciation.

On October 31, after a fight between a white and Chinese man broke out in a pub, a mob of approximately 3,0005,000 people descended onto Chinatown. The mob first began destroying Chinese-owned businesses, and then brutally beat any Chinese residents that they could. By the time the violence had ended, a 28-year old Chinese-American named Look Young had been tortured and lynched in the street.

Colorado State Historian and was one of the founders of CAPU. CAPU first formed in 2020 in an effort to lobby for the removal of a singular and outdated plaque. “I considered it to be, in some respects, a misrepresentation of the Denver Chinese community,” Dr. Wei said, referring to the plaque’s description of the “Hop Alley/Chinese Riot of 1880”.

CAPU successfully removed the plaque in 2022, as well as received a formal apology from the City of Denver. Since then, CAPU has expanded to work on numerous projects, representing the diversity of the Asian American Pacific Islander community in Colorado.

Dr. William Wei is a professor of modern Chinese history at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who has served as

CAPU has worked to install three different historical markers around Downtown Denver providing a recontextualization of Chinatown. The first marker, Dr. Wei said, describes Denver’s Chinatown, “less as a den of iniquity which is what the old plaque implied when it called it Hop Alley and describe it as a thriving working class community that provided ser vices and goods to the Chinese living in Denver and in Colorado.” The second marker will tell the destruction of the 1880 Anti-Chinese Race Riot in Denver, while the third marker is situated where the lynching of Look Young occurred and tells the story of Young’s life. The hope is that the markers will offer the public a much more complete telling of what happened to Denver’s Chinatown. Plus, that’s not the only thing CAPU is ready to celebrate.

Nayle Lor is a Hmong-American artist based in Denver. In August 2022, Colorado Asian Pacific United (CAPU) commissioned Lor to create a mural on Denver’s Fire Station 4 to commemorate the historic Chinatown. For the past year, Lor has worked to make an abstract piece of artwork into a reality. The mural’s name will be decided on August 12, during the official celebration. As Lor explained, the mural (finished in June 2023) was created to send a different message than the antiquated plaque:

“This art piece in particular is intended to speak primarily to the Chinese community, but it’s not limited only to the Chinese community in Denver. I wanted to show their progression through time in a fun, colorful way, particularly due to their negative misrepresentation with the plaque that was taken down and their buried history here.”

In creating the mural, Lor drew inspiration from her identity, where she has felt split between her Hmong and American sides. “My American life was where I would be asked what Hmong was, which is a typical story you’ll hear from a Hmong American I’m sure, and have faced racism,” Lor said. “But, it’s that experience that helped me to relate to the historic Chinatown, of being unknown and unseen.”

The message is marked by the characters on the left side of the mural: “不怕慢, 就怕停“ a proverb that roughly translates to “Be not afraid of growing slowly, Be afraid of stopping.” This is the theme of Lor’s mural. According to her, “that is the story I want to tell with my image, to show the past, that of a people who persevered in the face of adversity; to show the present, with the child representing new beginnings; and to show the bright, unknown future, where people may grow to be whatever they want to be through the course of time, represented by a long life noodle. I hope that this artwork and this history inspires people to learn from it, so that history doesn’t repeat itself, and to keep moving forward even when life is tough.”

It’s a theme that Dr. Wei touched on as well: “We have movies and books that bear the title of “True Grit”. Well, the Chinese had true grit. They had the ability to attain their goals. And that’s the sort of thing that has characterized people in the American West…In fact, they’d be heroes, if not for the fact that they were Chinese.”

Meanwhile, Colo rado Asian Pacific United has much grander plans for the future. Another cultural mural is being planned on the Auraria campus, and CAPU is working on establishing a K-12 curricu lum on Colorado Asian American Pacific Islander history that will be disseminat ed throughout schools. In the longterm, CAPU is hoping to build an Asian American Pacific Islander history and culture museum that will serve to educate future generations.

CAPU is hosting its mural unveiling block party – Reimagining Denver’s Chinatown – event on Saturday, August 12 from 3:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at 1890 Lawrence St, Denver. We love to see you there!

For more information or to get involved, visit coloradoasianpacificunited.org.