Who Is Dr. Gunjan Dhir? From BDS in India to Dental Leadership in Texas

Most patients meet their dentist in a treatment chair. Dr. Gunjan Dhir's work has extended well beyond it. Her career has centered on prosthodontics, dental practice leadership, and expanding access to care in rural and underserved communities across Texas, places where finding a dentist has long meant a long drive, a long wait, or simply going without.

She is a prosthodontist by training, an entrepreneur by necessity, and a mentor by choice. This is the story of how those three roles came together.

About Dr. Gunjan Dhir

Dr. Gunjan Dhir is a prosthodontist and the Founder and Chief Dental Officer of Altius Dental, a Texas based dental group built to serve rural and underserved communities. Prosthodontics is the dental specialty devoted to restoring and replacing teeth, so the work covers crowns, bridges, full and partial dentures, and implant supported restorations. In plain terms, a prosthodontist is the specialist you turn to when a mouth needs to be rebuilt rather than simply repaired.

That specialty shapes how she thinks about care. Rebuilding a smile is not a single procedure. It is a plan that has to hold up over years of daily use, which is why her approach has always leaned toward durability, careful diagnosis, and long term results over quick fixes. You can review her professional background on her Altius Dental leadership profile.

From Himachal Dental College to Prosthodontics in the United States

Dr. Gunjan Dhir graduated from Himachal Dental College in India in 2002 and moved to the United States that same year to begin postgraduate training in prosthodontics. She completed her residency in 2005 and practiced in Spokane, Washington, early in her career.

In 2008 she moved to Texas, where she worked as an associate before opening her first practice in 2009. For many dentists, one well run practice is a career. For Dr. Dhir, it was a starting point. She saw a gap that most of the industry had quietly written off: the towns and rural stretches of Texas where finding a dentist meant a long drive, a long wait, or simply going without.

That observation became the thread running through everything she built next.

Founding Altius Dental

In 2016, Dr. Gunjan Dhir and Dr. Gaurav Puri founded Altius Dental after years of opening practices in rural and underserved parts of Texas. Their experience had exposed a recurring problem: as established providers retired and larger dental organizations overlooked these markets, many smaller communities were left with limited access to care. Altius was built in response to that gap. Rather than open a single flagship clinic, they organized as a dental group so that many offices could share the systems, purchasing power, and clinical standards that individual small town practices usually cannot afford on their own.

The results speak for themselves. Over the course of her career she has been involved in the startup or acquisition of more than 45 dental practices, and Altius Dental now operates a network of offices across Texas. Many of them sit in the exact kind of community that larger dental companies tend to skip, the smaller towns and rural counties where access has always been the hardest problem to solve.

The scale matters, but the intent behind it matters more. Each office is meant to give a local community the same quality of care that a patient in a major city would expect, without asking them to travel for it.

Why Private Ownership Was a Turning Point

In 2025, Altius Dental returned to private ownership under Dr. Gunjan Dhir and Dr. Gaurav Puri.

The change marked another stage in the company’s development while reinforcing the founders’ long term involvement in the organization and its clinical direction. Independent ownership lets Altius invest in its technology and teams and set its own clinical standards, in keeping with its stated focus on accessible care for rural and underserved communities.

Dr. Gunjan Dhir’s Published Dental Research

Before she was known as a dental entrepreneur, Dr. Dhir was a published researcher, and that background still informs how she works.

While affiliated with the Department of Prosthodontics and Operative Dentistry at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine, she was lead author of a 2007 study in the Journal of Prosthodontics that investigated whether denture base resin could be modified to reduce adhesion of Candida albicans, the yeast behind denture stomatitis, while keeping the physical properties a denture needs for daily use. The team evaluated flexural strength and modulus, water sorption, solubility, and color stability against ADA specifications. They reported that the experimental formulation with ten percent of a phosphate containing monomer stayed within those specifications for the properties tested, while noting that properties declined as more of the monomer was added and that further study would be needed. You can read the paper on PubMed.

For patients, the significance is not that one laboratory study guides every clinical decision. It is that her background combines hands on prosthodontics with published, peer reviewed dental materials research, an evidence first perspective she has carried into the practices she has built.

Mentorship and Developing Dental Teams

One of the quieter parts of Dr. Dhir's work is mentorship. New dental graduates often leave school with strong clinical skills and almost no experience running a practice, negotiating the business side of care, or building a stable career.

Altius Dental frames this as part of its mission. The group describes its goals as creating opportunities and advancing the careers of its associate and partner dentists, and providing stable, long term career options for people living in the communities it serves. For a group focused on rural access, that support helps keep offices staffed with experienced dentists who choose to stay.

Dr. Gunjan Dhir’s Career Timeline

• 2002 Graduated from Himachal Dental College and moved to the United States
• 2005 Completed her prosthodontics residency
• 2005 to 2008 Practiced in Spokane, Washington
• 2007 Published peer reviewed denture materials research in the Journal of Prosthodontics
• 2008 Moved to Texas
• 2009 Opened her first Texas practice
• 2016 Founded Altius Dental with Dr. Gaurav Puri
• 2025 Altius Dental returned to private ownership

What Dr. Gunjan Dhir’s Work Means for Patients

You do not need to follow the business story to feel its effect. For a patient, Dr. Dhir's career translates into a few simple things:

• Access close to home. Offices located in communities that larger dental companies have historically overlooked.
• A prosthodontic perspective. A specialty focus on restoring and replacing teeth so results hold up over years of daily use.
• Evidence over shortcuts. A research background that favors proven, durable care over quick fixes.
• Stable, supported dental teams. Mentorship and structure that help keep experienced dentists in the communities they serve.

Her story is a reminder that good dentistry is not only about what happens in the chair. It is also about whether a chair exists nearby at all.

Dr. Gunjan Dhir’s Published Research

Dhir G, Berzins DW, Dhuru VB, Periathamby AR, Dentino A. Physical Properties of Denture Base Resins Potentially Resistant to Candida Adhesion. Journal of Prosthodontics. 2007;16(6):465 to 472. Available on PubMed.