With admirable drive and meticulous care, Dr. Steve Mark Gan has brought Philippine dentistry to unparalleled heights through the groundbreaking services of Gan Advanced Osseointegration Center (GAOC).
There is a quiet intensity to Dr. Steve Mark Gan that is palpable even on the first encounter with him. Throughout the ALPHA cover shoot, he carries himself with the self-assuredness of a man who has nothing left to prove. Having indeed achieved an unprecedented level of success through his world-class clinic — Gan Advanced Osseointegration Center (GAOC) — this idiom rings true.
The doctor chooses his words with precision, speaking in a careful yet confident manner that is indicative of his meticulous nature. “I’m very strict, though I think you can tell that, right?” he says with a lighthearted chuckle. “I demand 100 percent from my people. And if they don’t deliver, then I make them better.”
Though perhaps the best word to describe Gan’s ethos as both a person and medical professional is exacting: he has raised the bar in Philippine dentistry through exceptional work, and in turn, he expects those around him to deliver that very same level of attention, care, and effort. But that’s only part of who he is: digging deeper, this fastidiousness (or perfectionism, as he describes it), stems from his desire to be the best—not for fame or fortune, but rather, for his country, patients, employees, and loved ones.
Established in 2001, GAOC has grown into the country’s biggest and most well-respected name in dentistry, with branches across Metro Manila (and one in Cebu). Through its state-of-the-art facilities, innovative technology, and roster of expert staff and doctors, one can see why. As with any great success story, Gan’s journey to the top was several years in the making, and not without its fair share of challenges. However, it is the triumphs over these obstacles that make his story all the more meaningful.
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The Boy With An Entrepreneurial Spirit
Before there was Dr. Gan, there was just a boy named Steve Mark Gan, born into a family of medical professionals. His father is a doctor of internal medicine; his mother an anesthesiologist; his paternal aunt and uncle both dentists; and his grandparents medical doctors, too. So it was only natural that Gan would find himself drawn to the field of medicine.
“I always wanted to be a medical doctor, a surgeon, of course,” he explains. “But as we were growing up, I had a tendency to be a little bit unfocused.” The doctor suspects that he has obsessive-compulsive tendencies, which is why he had difficulty focusing on schoolwork until his high school years.
At a young age, Gan found that he possessed an entrepreneurial spirit and decided to hone it, setting up small businesses alongside his brother Michael. “We started selling lemonades, then in fourth grade we were selling pencils and comic books,” he shares. “Then it went on, and in high school we were still selling and trading comic books, and also selling jeans. I was a DJ too, and in college I had a mobile disco, so I was making money.”
When college came, Gan decided to pursue business for a year at the University of Santo Tomas (UST), yet eventually came to realize it was not quite the path for him. “Of course, any freshman would be lost, right? They’re not really sure what they want. One day, my dad said to me, ‘Do you want to study dentistry?’ And I said, ‘Sure, why not?’ not knowing that, 30 years later, I would be where I am now.”
A Medical Odyssey
Dental school was not quite a walk in the park, especially when Gan was surrounded by the children of big time dentists and still finding his footing. “I didn’t know what to do,” he shares. “But one thing I always had was the focus on becoming number one.” The doctor did just that, graduating on time with advanced requirements. Afterwards, he continued his business endeavors, going into t-shirt printing and even the stock market, until his parents asked if he wanted to become a surgeon.
“So I said, ‘Sure. Why not?’ again,” he explains, and at this point it is clear that Gan possesses the admirable ability to be whatever he sets his mind on becoming, no longer the uncertain and unfocused boy he once was. This would mark the beginning of his one-year Oral Surgery Externship program at the Philippine General Hospital—one of the largest and most esteemed sanatoriums in the country. Afterwards, Gan headed to the United States, pursuing a one-year residency in prosthodontics at the University of Southern California (USC) and Prosthodontic Implant Training at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA).
As he tells his story, the doctor takes a pause, making sure to credit the three mentors who have significantly impacted the trajectory of his life. These include his parents, and two doctors he met in his educational journey: Dr. Lucia Valderama (who helped him get into university abroad) and Dr. Peter K. Moy of UCLA, who taught Gan invaluable lessons about the field and life.
Gan’s hardworking nature has a lot to do with the values his parents instilled in him and his brother, which he sums up through the phrase “Hard work will make you lucky.” From a young age, he was made to understand that life isn’t easy, and as such, one had to put in the effort to reach success.
“My parents were doctors. They could have given me the good life, but they chose not to,” he elaborates. “They chose to make sure I understood what life is all about, that it wasn’t spoon-fed.” He and his brother were rewarded for good grades, but never excessively.
“At the time, I wondered, ‘Why do the other kids have it? And why don’t we have it? They had all the latest clothes, video games,” he admits. Now, he understands the significant pay-off of what his parents taught him. “It’s my time. I’ve worked hard, I’ve sacrificed, I’ve earned it.”
This isn’t to say that Gan’s parents deprived their children, as the doctor recalls all the ways in which they made sacrifices to give him a comfortable youth and proper education. One particular anecdote that stuck out was about his mother.
“On the day I was going to be sent off to the United States [for further studies], she saw this Rolex watch in Duty Free,” he intimates. “I said ‘Mommy, go buy it.” But you know what she said? ‘No, I’d rather save it for your tuition. And that’s my mom and dad: they’re very good parents, and taught me everything from scratch.”
Powerful Friendships And The Success Of GAOC
Upon his return from the United States, Gan started a small clinic in Binondo and practiced at St. Luke’s Quezon City. However, he aspired to open a grand office in Makati, especially as his reputation began to grow. His parents were wary of the idea, wondering where he would get the money and how he would sustain the endeavor, but Gan was determined to see it through.
“I ended up borrowing money left and right,” he states. It was not an easy endeavor, especially when others judged him for it. “Some people avoided me like the plague, even when I said I was going to pay them back. I was really at rock bottom.”
Then comes the touching yet unexpected part of his tale. “But you know who came to my rescue?” the doctor begins. “My high school and elementary classmates. They didn’t even have the money. They gave me whatever they had at the time. They asked their parents if they could borrow money to help me.”
Gan started his private practice with around Php 3,000 or 90 USD in 1998, then built the GAOC brand in 2001 and continued raising funds from there. He managed to build an office worth millions of pesos, and paid off all his debts by 2003—the very same year he got married. “The rest, as you can see, is history,” he says with a smile.
Today, GAOC stands as the country’s leading name in dentistry bar none. “There’s no competition,” he says simply, rightfully proud of the foundations he has built. The clinic currently has 10 branches in the Philippines, with a roster of notable celebrities, political figures, and business magnates as clients. Dreading to go to the dentist is an experience of a bygone era, thanks to Gan and his team. While there was a time when dentistry was undervalued in the country, they have managed to change perceptions through top-tier service, techniques, and technology.
“We transformed the landscape of dentistry,” he states. “More and more individuals want to be dentists. Before, there was a fear of going to the dentist: but we’ve turned it into something innovative, cool, and glamorous.”
Giving It His All
All that said, Gan does not rest on his laurels: even with his successes, he refuses to give into complacency, stagnancy, and egotism. “At GAOC, we push ourselves to learn more every year. We innovate our technology and our craft. It’s like what Mahatma Gandhi said: ‘Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.’”
The doctor’s favorite part of the job is not the awards or money, but the fact that he is able to change lives for the better. His professional philosophy is encapsulated with a statement from our interview: “You have to do right by your patients.”
This commitment to constant innovation and improvement has made Gan, and by extension GAOC, the epitome of excellence—with many of his peers referring to him as their generation’s greatest in Philippine dentistry.
Gan continues: “I’m not a cosmetic dentist, though we do all that. I’m more on transforming the lives of patients through quality, corrective dentistry. I’ve done thousands of surgeries, and I’m very proud to say I’ve had a 98 percent success rate, when others would have around 70 to 60 percent.” He also expanded his business to include Novodental—an affordable high-quality dental clinic. “We always believe that every Filipino should have quality dentistry at an affordable rate,” he explains.
“If my associate doctors do a certain job, and it’s not 100 percent when I look at it, I say ‘Let’s redo everything.’ Even though we lose money, we just have to give the patients the best,” he adds. “I always believed that the best referrals are word-of-mouth ones. You can always have celebrities endorsing you, they want to thank you: and that’s fine, right? But, we also have to be more connected to our patients, more empathetic and compassionate, because we like to help people.”
Spreading Smiles And Championing Education
Gan also makes it a point to champion education, both through his work as a teacher and the initiatives of his CSR arm, the GAOC Foundation. “I’m a visiting professor in the University of Genoa in Italy, and I give lectures all around the world about implants and dental economics,” he shares. Gan is also the founder of the GAOC Dental Academy in Makati; eager to hone more young minds in the dental industry, the doctor recently acquired a significant stake in the largest dental academy in Southeast Asia, The Dental Academy Malaysia.
As GAOC was growing, Gan noticed that the people in his rank and file—such as custodians or dental assistants—had growing families. He wanted to inspire them to not only finish high school, but also pursue college. “Realistically, only some of them can afford it,” he states. “So we made this program: if you work hard with us, stay with us, then you can apply for a scholarship in our foundation. Since then, we’ve sponsored different kinds of scholarship programs for our employees, particularly underprivileged staff.”
The GAOC Foundation has also evolved to help more people through its partnership with Operation Smile Philippines, which offers free cleft lip and cleft palate surgeries to over 200 people annually. “Every year, there’s more than 2,000 children that are born with this kind of disorder. I feel like it’s our duty to solve, if not minimize, that problem,” Gan shares. “I hope this message inspires other dentists to create different programs to help our nation, because I believe no child should undergo that kind of tragedy; in my eyes, that can be fixed.”
The Ties That Bind
Though Gan is a busy man who remains committed to his vocation, he still makes time for his family, speaking with great warmth and fondness when asked about his life outside the clinic.
“I have a beautiful wife, and I have two beautiful children too—a 21-year-old son and an 18-year-old daughter. My parents are still around, so I’m very grateful for that,” he shares. “My brother Michael is also a medical doctor, and I love him very dearly. I have a beautiful sister-in-law and a very beautiful niece. That’s all nine of us in the immediate family.”
His eldest is currently a double major in human biology and psychology at the prestigious University of Toronto in Canada, and intends to enter the medical field like other members of his family. Gan makes sure to instill his kids with the values he has learned throughout his life, but also gives them the freedom to explore their passions and callings.
“There’s no pressure. I mean I tell my kids, ‘Whatever makes you happy,’” the doctor expounds. “We saved enough. One thing I learned about life is that money isn’t everything. It’s very important, but it isn’t everything. We just need enough. We only need so much.” During their free time, the family enjoys biking, going to malls, and traveling abroad.
The dentist also believes that family transcends blood, mentioning his GAOC employees and colleagues as well. “I spend almost all my life with them. We started with five staff, and now we’ve grown close to 700. We are a family and we have to help each other; I always try to instill these values in them.”
Cycling Through Life, Strengthening Faith
In February 2023, Gan got into a serious biking accident in Alabang. “I was a cyclist back in high school and college. […] When the pandemic happened, I decided it was time to go back to the hobby. Even my wife and kids were so amazed when they found out I could do all that stuff,” he shares. “But as they say, age has a way of catching up.”
The doctor would cycle almost every day until he found himself rushed to the hospital after falling flat on his face. “I could have died. I broke my neck in pieces and could have been paralyzed for life.”
Fortunately, he made an almost full recovery from the accident. “I would say I’m 99.9 percent back. I still look forward to the day that I can get back that 0.1 percent of my life, but I just focus on work; whatever I lost in cycling, I make up for it in business,” Gan states.
He then pulls out a polished, wooden cross from his pants pocket, his gaze reflective. “The experience changed me. I’m very grateful for the gift of life. Every morning, when I wake up, I thank God. I always do, but ever since then, I’ve had a more personal relationship with Him. I’m not perfect, of course, not perfect at all; but I feel that I have a mission. I still have a mission here.”
The accident’s aftermath is a microcosm of what Gan always does when life throws challenges and opportunities his way: get up, face them head on, and emerge stronger than ever before.
Words by PILAR GONZALEZ
Photography by KIM SANTOS OF KLIQ, INC.
Sittings Editor CANDY DIZON
Creative Direction by PAOLO TORIO
Styling by SIYA DARYANI
Grooming by KAYE MISAJON, assisted by CRISTAL SARMIENTO
Sr. Associate Producer MAE TALAID
Shot on location at The Peak, Grand Hyatt Manila
