About

A practice built on the work that mattered to us.

Riverstone exists because two dentists wanted to practice the way they were trained to practice, not the way the corporate model required them to practice.

◦ OneThe practice

Riverstone Dental opened in 2022 in a converted bungalow on 12th Avenue South. Two general dentists with advanced training in restorative and cosmetic work, no associates, no rotating providers, and a deliberately limited new-patient roster.

The decision to keep the practice small is a decision about how the work gets done. A crown takes the time a crown takes. A new-patient comprehensive exam runs ninety minutes because that is how long it takes to actually look at someone’s mouth, listen to what they have noticed, and give them an honest answer about what the next several years probably look like. None of that fits in the twenty-minute window most corporate practices allot.

We are fee-for-service. Insurance is welcome, and we provide everything you need to file for reimbursement — but we do not contract with networks, and we do not adjust treatment to fit what a network will or will not pay for. The fee schedule is published.

A quiet consultation corner with an arched window, soft natural light, and a reading chair.

◦ TwoThe dentists

Two providers. Both general dentists, with advanced restorative and cosmetic training.

◦ One

Dr. Nora Vance, DDS

Co-founder. Restorative and cosmetic dentistry.

Dr. Vance graduated from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio School of Dentistry and has practiced for fourteen years. Before co-founding Riverstone, she spent six years at a multi-provider practice in Green Hills, where she handled most of the practice’s complex restorative cases — full-mouth rehabilitation, crown-and-bridge over implants, occlusal reconstruction.

Her continuing-education work is concentrated in restorative dentistry and dental occlusion. She holds membership in the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry and the Academy of General Dentistry. The work she takes most seriously is the work nobody sees — margin preparation, occlusal adjustment, the second impression when the first one is questionable.

Focus areas

Full-mouth rehabilitation
Crown-and-bridge restoration
Implant restoration
Cosmetic case design

◦ Two

Dr. Samuel Whitford, DMD

Co-founder. Cosmetic dentistry, Invisalign, CEREC.

Dr. Whitford graduated from the University of Louisville School of Dentistry and has practiced for eleven years, the first six of those at a cosmetic-focused practice in Atlanta. He moved to Nashville in 2021 and partnered with Dr. Vance to open Riverstone the following year.

His clinical interest is the visible side of restorative care — porcelain veneers, smile design, same-day CEREC restorations, and clear-aligner orthodontics. He is a Diamond+ Invisalign provider with several hundred completed cases. Most of the cosmetic photography in this practice goes through his hands.

Focus areas

Porcelain veneers and smile design
CEREC same-day restorations
Invisalign clear-aligner therapy
Cosmetic bonding and whitening

◦ ThreeHow we practice

Slower than most. On purpose.

Most general dental practices in Tennessee see twenty to thirty patients a day. We see eight to twelve. The math is straightforward: a thirty-minute hygiene appointment is not enough time to do hygiene well, and a forty-minute crown appointment is not enough time to do a crown well. We schedule the time the work asks for and we charge accordingly.

This means we cannot be everyone’s dentist. We are not the cheapest practice in Nashville and we are not trying to be. The patients who do best at Riverstone are people who have decided their teeth are something they want to invest in carefully, and who would rather pay more for fewer, better appointments than less for a steady stream of forgettable ones.

See what we do