Why oral surgeons aren’t “just dentists” and how CVOS raises the bar for patient care

Think oral surgeons are just dentists with a few extra tools? Gavin from CVOS Oral Surgery pulls back the curtain on what genuine specialty care looks like and why training, volume, and culture can transform a stressful procedure into a confident, well-supported experience. We trace CVOS from its Credit Valley roots to a network serving Halton, Peel, Hamilton, and Niagara, then dive into the clinical and human factors that set outcomes apart: multi‑year hospital residencies, evidence‑based techniques, and a team built to greet anxiety with empathy.

We walk through the services patients ask about most, wisdom teeth removal, complex extractions, and dental implants and unpack how advanced imaging, minimally invasive approaches, and clear pre‑ and post‑op guidance reduce pain and recovery time. Gavin explains the nuanced world of referral-based care, where marketing must inspire patient trust without sidelining the vital role of family dentists and orthodontists. He also shares how strict regulatory and privacy standards shape what healthcare teams can say publicly, and why CVOS favours educational content and measured claims over hype.

What stands out is the end-to-end patient journey: fast first contact after referral, compassionate front-desk support, surgeons who translate complexity into plain language, and follow‑ups that make recovery feel supported rather than solitary. Along the way, we meet the person behind the process a leader who channels stress into exercise and martial arts with his kids, and who believes that a thriving team is the fastest route to excellent care. If you’re considering implants, facing wisdom teeth removal, or guiding a patient toward specialty care, this conversation offers a clear checklist: look for deep training, high surgical volume, respectful referral relationships, and a culture that treats kindness as clinical practice.

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Gavin Rouble

CVOS Oral Surgery

[phone]

cvosoralsurgery.com

"Since 1979, CVOS Oral Surgery has consistently provided expert oral and maxillofacial treatment to patients throughout the Halton, Peel, Hamilton, and Niagara regions.

CVOS works in partnership with thousands of area dentists, orthodontists, and other healthcare professionals to improve the quality of life of patients by performing both simple and complex oral surgeries - including tooth/wisdom tooth extractions, dental implants, and both corrective and restorative surgery - carried out by extensively trained and experienced oral surgeons using the latest and most effective techniques and technologies available." 

Episode Transcript

Intro (00:00):
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local
businesses and neighbors cometogether.
Here's your host, AlanjaSimmons.

ALanja Simmons (00:10):
Welcome to Good Neighbor Podcast, where we
share the stories of localbusinesses and professionals
making a positive impact in ourcommunity.
Today I have the pleasure ofintroducing your good neighbor,
Gavin Rouble of CVOS OralSurgery.
Gavin, how's it going?

Gavin Rouble (00:27):
I'm doing well, Alanja.
How are you today?

ALanja Simmons (00:30):
I'm good.
Hopefully the coffee doesn'tget cold before I get to the
coffee shop.
We're excited to learn moreabout you and your work.
Tell us about CVOS Oral Surgeryand what services do you
provide?

Gavin Rouble (00:41):
Okay, well, CVOS Oral Surgery first started in
1979.
It had one location, which wasin actually the Credit Valley
area of Mississauga, hence theCV of CVOS standing for Credit
Valley.
Since then, we have branchedfurther west into the GTA as far
as Burlington now.
So we have fit in terms ofphysical locations, we have, of

(01:02):
course, Mississauga, right onthe same property as Credit
Valley Hospital, but we alsohave clinics in Oakville,
Milton, and two in Burlington.
This really allows us to treatpatients and accept patients all
through Halton, Peel, Hamilton,and Niagara regions.
We have eight different oralsurgeons within our practice and

(01:24):
two specialists who are oralpathologists.
And amongst them, they are ableto provide patients with quite
a variety or scope of oral andmaxillofacial care, ranging from
standard wisdom toothextractions for patients, single

(01:45):
tooth or multiple toothextractions, if it's a little
more complicated, to what we'reseeing now, actually is a lot
more dental implant placement.
Of course, as we have an agingpopulation, people are getting
older, but they're not gettingquieter.
And by that I mean they want tomaintain their active lifestyle
and they realize that dentalimplants are a great way to go.

(02:06):
This all has all come togetherto allow us to continue to be
one of the largest independentlyowned and operated oral surgery
groups in the province.
I would say with the size thatwe have and the scope that we
have, of course, there's prosand cons.
But one of the key pros, Iwould say, for patients is that

(02:29):
given the number of patientseach of our practitioners, each
of our surgeons see every singleyear, it really doesn't matter
if you're a 17-year-old gettingyour wisdom teeth out, or if
you're a 70-year-old having adental implant placed, our
surgeons have literallyperformed thousands and
thousands of these surgeries.
And so that experience, thatexpertise really translates

(02:54):
through to the benefit of thepatient, of reassuring the
patient that they're going tohave a very high quality of
outcome and that they're goingto have the latest and best
treatment practices used tominimize how invasive the
surgery is, as well as tominimize any pain that may
result afterward.

ALanja Simmons (03:15):
How did you get started in oral surgery?

Gavin Rouble (03:18):
Well, my background with the practice is
a little time in the making.
About 20 years ago, I joined aconsulting firm that dealt
specifically with dental.
And through that, I learned theinner workings of dental
practices.
And fast forward to 2018, theownership group of CBOS oral

(03:41):
surgery decided that to achievetheir business goals, to achieve
the growth, the consistency ofservice, and also to create a
really great workplace whereemployees like to work, they
needed to bring somebodyin-house with expertise in those
areas.
And so I was fortunate to bethe one selected for the role

(04:02):
because of my businessbackground, my entrepreneurial
background.
I've really been able to go inand make it a great place to
work for staff because I believethat when staff, whether
they're our nurses, ourreception team, our phone team,
when they like to go in to workin the morning, when they like

(04:25):
their coworkers, when they likethe culture of the organization,
that positivity is going tocome through to how they treat
the patient, to the quality ofcare, just to the every
interaction they have with oneanother and with patients.
So we've been very successfulin that area.
And I've been there for sevenyears now, and it's just it's
really an amazing organization.

ALanja Simmons (04:49):
And in this field, what are some of the
myths or misconceptions aboutoral surgery that you've often
come across?

Gavin Rouble (04:58):
Great question.
I would say the largest one isthe fact or the misconception
that oral surgeons are simplyglorified dentists.
The difference is that oralsurgery really bridges the gap
between medicine and dentistry.
So, yes, and of course, itinvolves the jaw, the teeth,

(05:18):
similar to dentistry.
But in addition to dentaltraining, surgeons, oral
surgeons have to have trainingand understanding of anatomy, of
pathology, oral, pardon me, aswell as similar surgical
principles to plastic surgeryand even neurosurgery, due to
the fact that the oral, when Isay oral and maxillofacial area,

(05:41):
really where I mean is prettymuch from, let's say, the eyes
down to the neck.
That area is so close to thenerve center of the body to the
base of the skull, thatinformation is actually
critical.
And that's something that's nottaught in dental school.
So, while yes, our surgeons dogo through dental school, they

(06:04):
then, unlike family dentists,will go on and do a lot of extra
training.
They'll join a specialty oralsurgery program.
And like any program forsurgeons, a huge part of that
extra training involves aresidency program, a multi-year
residency program in a hospital.
So they are working alongsidemedical students who are

(06:27):
training to becomecardiovascular surgeons or
plastic surgeons, any form ofspecialty within a hospital.
So the analogy I like to use tosort of very simply describe
the difference is we all have afamily doctor, and that family
doctor has a huge knowledge ofmany different possible things

(06:50):
that could be wrong.
And they know a lot about theheart and they can tell you how
to keep your heart nice andhealthy.
But I don't want my familydoctor cutting into my chest if
I'm having a heart attack.
I want someone who isspecifically trained and has
extensive training in the heart.
And that's the same idea.
Yes, there's a dental aspect tooral surgery, but it goes

(07:14):
vastly beyond that.

ALanja Simmons (07:18):
And we know marketing is at the heart of
every business, as you may know.
Who are your target customersand how do you attract them?

Gavin Rouble (07:30):
We're we it's a little different for us with
respect to identifying customersbecause we have two distinct
groups.
Of course, we have the patientswho come in and pay for our
services, but at the same time,being a specialty like many
medical specialties in Ontario,we're referral-based.
So people don't just walk inthe street and come into our

(07:51):
office and say, hey, I want youto remove my tooth.
They'll come in from anotherpractitioner.
It could be a family dentist,it could be an orthodontist, it
could be their family doctor.
So the people who send uspatients, who refer their
patients to us, are also asegment of customers.
So we have to be very carefulhow we market because we have to

(08:14):
market in a way that, yes, itattracts patients, it instills
in them confidence in theservices they'll receive from
us, but we have to do it in away that in no way detracts the
value or the importance of theservices they received already
from their family dentist,because we don't want to
alienate those individualsbecause they're a critical part
of the care continuum forpatients.

(08:36):
So the marketing itself is hasto be very balanced.
It also has to be verycarefully done because we are
also regulated by the RCDSO orthe Royal College of Dental
Surgeons of Ontario, who havevery strict guidelines into how
and what we're allowed to saywithin our marketing message.

ALanja Simmons (09:00):
And have you ever thought about doing your
own podcasts?

Gavin Rouble (09:04):
I have not.
Partially because I don't thinkpeople really want to hear
about the horror stories of oralsurgery.
A big part of it too is we haveto be careful.
Being anything in healthcare,you have to be very careful with
the information you provide, A,to ensure it's always accurate,
but B, because so much of itinvolves people.

(09:26):
And there's a huge privacycomponent there that we never
ever want to breach.

ALanja Simmons (09:32):
And outside of work, what do you do for fun or
relaxation?

Gavin Rouble (09:39):
Oral surgery within this industry can be
very, very stressful.
And so I tend to exercise alot, both for enjoyment and for
stress relief.
I'm also very fortunate to havetwo amazing teenagers who
they've been in the martial artsever since they were we little

(09:59):
children.
They've recently, a few yearsago, graduated to the adult
class, and I was just sittingthere being their ride, and
they're like, Dad, come trainwith us.
So I've started doing that aswell.

ALanja Simmons (10:11):
Amazing.
How can a listener learn moreabout their practice?

Gavin Rouble (10:17):
To learn more about the practice, the best way
to do that is simply go tocvosoralsurgery.com.
That's our .
most of the information anyonewould ever need about us is
there, including locations.
But we also have a lot ofinformation, a lot of articles
on the website that go into abit deeper into the things,

(10:38):
whether it be a referringdentist or a patient who's
coming in for surgery for thefirst time and want to know what
to expect.
We believe that providing thesepeople with more information to
know what to expect from us iscritical and instills confidence
in them.
So a lot of their answers canbe answered there, but on the
off chance that they do have aquestion that's not answered

(11:01):
there, they can certainly callour office.
We have a team of individualswho are focused on answering
questions, answering phones, andthey can probably answer any
question about CVOS.

ALanja Simmons (11:17):
Gavin, what's one thing you like a listener to
remember about CVOS oralsurgery?

Gavin Rouble (11:24):
I think the biggest thing to remember about
CVOS is the fact that we focusso heavily on the entire patient
journey.
From the moment that they havetheir first phone call, which
should be within two weeks ofbeing referred to us, through to

(11:48):
their first appointment whenthey walk through the door,
where they're met with someonewho's friendly, who is
comforting, compassionate,because no one goes to an oral
surgery clinic because it's fun.
It's a stressful situation.
So we want to put our patientsat ease.
We want to make sure all theirquestions are answered.
We want to make sure that everystep of the way they feel

(12:10):
supported and that they're ingood hands.
And of course, the quality ofthe surgery.
We want to make sure that thequality of the surgery is such
that we can minimizepost-surgical pain.
We can minimize the amount oftime it takes to recover from a
surgery.
And we do that by using some ofthe latest technology and

(12:31):
certainly some of the bestsurgical techniques.
And then, of course, all theway through, they'll go home and
they'll get follow-up callsfrom us, from our nursing team
to see how they're recovering.
Do they have any questions?
So every step of the waythrough that patient's journey,
they are taken care of.
Great.

(13:05):
Thank you very much.

Ontro (13:10):
Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on
the show, go tognpmississauga.com.
That's gnpmississauga.com orcall 365 363 9780.