Tucked into a quiet office at 313 Park Avenue in the heart of Falls Church, Drs. Christopher & Favagehi have spent more than two decades quietly building one of Northern Virginia’s most respected periodontal practices — one root, one graft, and one implant at a time.
A Partnership, In Practice and In Life
Drs. Christopher and Favagehi met while they were residents at The Ohio State University, and have been married for more than 25 years. Both are board-certified Diplomates of the American Board of Periodontology, and they’ve been practicing together in Falls Church since 1999. In 2010, they expanded their footprint by purchasing the practice of Dr. John F. Armstrong, who had served Falls Church patients for over 33 years, and later merged with the practice of Dr. John Deutsch, who continued treating patients at their office until his retirement in 2012 after four decades in periodontics.
Dr. Favagehi, originally from Iran, grew up between Tehran, Lausanne, and Cupertino, California before earning his undergraduate degree at George Mason University. He completed dental school at the Medical College of Virginia (VCU) in 1994, then trained in periodontics and dental implant surgery at The Ohio State University, where he also earned a Master of Science in Oral Biology and a research award for his work on surgical wound healing. He has served as an adjunct faculty member at VCU’s Department of Periodontics since 1998, and in 2011 received a Teaching Award from the American Academy of Periodontology. He also serves as a Director of the Osseointegration Foundation and sits on the American Dental Association’s committee on recognition of dental specialties.
Dr. Christopher, a third-generation dental specialist from Chicago, studied at Wellesley College before attending the University of Illinois-Chicago School of Dentistry, then served as a General Dentist with the U.S. Public Health Service caring for Native American communities in New Mexico. She later earned her periodontics certificate and a Master of Science in Oral Biology from Ohio State, focusing her research on DNA fingerprinting of bacteria and peri-implantitis. She taught at the University of Maryland Dental School, where she was voted Faculty of the Year and chosen by the 1999 graduating class as one of three professors to confer their degrees at commencement. Colleagues describe her as a true “guru” of gum grafting — she developed her own modification of the tunneling technique for gum tissue grafting and has presented it at meetings across the country and internationally.
Recognition That Speaks for Itself
A Practice Built on Technology and Trust
Patients walking into the Falls Church office find a clinic that pairs old-fashioned attentiveness with cutting-edge equipment. The practice uses 3D scanners, 3D printers, piezosurgery units, L-PRF regenerative technology, and advanced cone beam CT scanning that reduces X-ray radiation by up to 90% compared to traditional imaging. The office has been fully digital since day one, has never used mercury amalgam, and maintains rigorous sterilization protocols verified by third-party quality testing.
Services Offered
The practice’s scope goes well beyond gum disease treatment, covering the full spectrum of periodontal and general dental care:
- Dental implants and full-arch implant restoration
- Gum grafting and periodontal plastic surgery
- Periodontal (gum) disease therapy and maintenance
- Wisdom teeth removal and tooth extractions
- Sedation dentistry for anxious patients
- Crowns, bridgework, and porcelain veneers
- Root canal treatment
- Oral cancer screenings
- Professional teeth cleanings and sealants
- TMJ/TMD treatment for chronic jaw pain
- Teeth whitening and cosmetic bonding
- Removable dentures
What Patients Are Saying
The reviews echo a consistent theme: technical skill matched with genuine warmth. One longtime implant patient called Dr. Favagehi a detail-oriented implant expert who lays out every possible scenario in plain, understandable terms, while another described how he saved teeth that other doctors had said needed to be extracted. Patients of Dr. Christopher have called her simply one of the best doctors they’ve ever seen, dental or otherwise, and reviewers regularly single out the front-office staff for the same warmth the doctors bring to the treatment chair.
A Family Affair
The Christopher-Favagehi partnership extends to their home life too — the couple lives near their office with their two children, Dana and Zachary. That same sense of family shows up in how they talk about their patients: they’ve built their reputation not just on advanced technique, but on treating every person who walks through their door like one of their own…