Dr. James Ho

Dr. Ho’s interest in dentistry has been a lifelong one. As a high school student at Lowell High School (LHS '88), he spent his summers as a volunteer at the UCSF School of Dentistry in order to explore the profession. During college, he was a member of the Pre-Dental Club at Cal and continued his volunteering activities at UCSF. After he graduated from U.C. Berkeley with a degree in Biology in 1992, Dr. Ho’s aspirations in dentistry became a reality when he was accepted to the 5 year doctorate program at Harvard School of Dental Medicine. In 1998, he received his D.M.D. (Dentariae Medicinae Doctoris).

While at Harvard, Dr. Ho participated in a joint scientific research project with Genentech, the South San Francisco-based biotech company. After several summers of research, this project eventually became the basis of Dr. Ho’s final Thesis. Dr. Ho was also very active with extracurricular activities. He was Co-chairman of EARTH (Environmental Awareness and Recycling To improve Harvard), a "green" student organization at Harvard Medical School. He also served as Co-chairman of Harvard Medical School’s Asian Health Association, where he organized a healthcare reform summit for Asian-American involvement in President Bill Clinton’s healthcare reform initiative.

After earning his DMD from Harvard, Dr. Ho returned to California and completed a General Practice Residency in Hospital Dentistry at the VA Medical Center in Palo Alto. There, he treated medically compromised patients, managed head and neck cancer patients, and performed oral surgeries and dental care. It was a tremendous experience that guides him in his patient care, even to this day.

After his hospital residency, Dr. Ho was accepted into the highly regarded Endodontic Program at UCLA School of Dentistry. During his two-year residency, he received extensive training performing advanced endodontic procedures with the aid of the operating microscope (OM). He developed his techniques and skills in advanced microscopic and microsurgical endodontics and received his Specialty Certification in Endodontics in 2001.

Since the completion of his training, Dr. Ho has been in private practice limited exclusively to microscopic and microsurgical endodontics. In 2004, he built (from scratch), Endodontic Care Center, the product of a personal endeavor to create his ideal healthcare delivery setting and actualize his vision of excellent endodontic care.

He is proud of the fact that he is the first Korean American endodontist to practice in Northern California (and the second one in the entire state of California).

He is also proud to be one of the first endodontists in the US and the 3rd endodontist in California to employ Cone Beam CT (CBCT), three-dimensional CT technology, into his patient care. He and his dental partners helped introduce CBCT technology to Northern California. Unfortunately, as one of the first-adopters of CBCT technology in 2008, their prescience was too early; many people just didn't know what it was all about. Today, it's ubiquitous.

Dr. Ho serves as one of the Team Dentists for his alma mater, U.C. Berkeley, as part of Cal's Sports Medicine Team. In addition to providing emergency treatment from dental trauma, Dr. Ho and his team provide custom mouthguards for the athletes in various contact sports (ie., football, basketball, rugby, women's and men's lacrosse).

Dr. Ho grew up in San Francisco but currently lives in the East Bay (“where it is much warmer and sunnier”) with his family. He enjoys doing yoga, pilates, and old-school hip-hop (b-boying and popping), being a foodie, and being a huge fan of Cal and the NFL. But most importantly, he loves spending time with family, friends, and colleagues.