About Steven M. Kolnes, DDS

I am a San Francisco native and currently live in San Carlos with my wife Donna and our twin children, Scott and Stephanie. Our household is rounded out by a black lab named Mollie and a long-haired Chihuahua named Audrey. During my time away from the office, if I’m not attending our children’s various activities, you will often find me camping, hunting, fishing, hiking, and motorcycle riding. I love to travel and family time is essential to me. I’m a member of the California Waterfowl Association and have been involved in the Wood Duck Program for a decade and a half. Through that program, volunteers provide and monitor wood duck boxes that serve as nesting sites for the waterfowl in the Sacramento Valley. Most of my family lives in Norway. I learned to speak Norwegian at UC Berkeley and was able to converse with my grandmother. It was really cool. I believe I owe it to my patients to provide them with proven, leading-edge treatment options and procedures, along with the latest technologies, that lead to better outcomes in a shorter amount of time. As a result of that commitment, I regularly attend oral healthcare-related conferences, meetings, lectures, and seminars. I continue to study developments in sedation dentistry because I know that is of benefit to so many people we treat. I love helping people. It gives me great satisfaction to make a difference in someone’s life — someone who has become part of my extended family. I feel especially honored when I work with a fearful and reticent patient, one who comes in for his or her first procedure and requests sedation, and then learns that I practice only painless dentistry. The person begins to trust me, and then tells me sedation is no longer necessary. That level of trust only comes as a result of a connection between the patient and me. I love that we are all individuals. From the initial consultation with someone new to our practice, I strive to get to know my patients, to seek common ground and shared interests. Then I talk with the person throughout their appointment, and encourage them to engage and converse with me. I want them to open up and know that I am here to serve them with oral healthcare treatments that will improve their overall body health and increase their self-confidence.