Dr Deric Ikuta

Dr. Deric Ikuta was raised in Reedley and graduated from Reedley High School. He went to UC Davis and received his bachelor’s degree in biology. From there, he attended the University of the Pacific Dugoni School of Dentistry, where he proudly earned his dental license in 2005. After graduation, he returned to his hometown and has been practicing ever since at Ikuta Dental Health Center. Dr. Deric has attended over 1,000 hours of continuing education. It is both a passion and a source of pride for him to keep learning new advances in the dental field. He was the youngest dentist to achieve his LVI Fellow in 2009. His passion-filled purpose evolved in 2015 when he became a father. His daughter had severe feeding issues, which nearly led to a failure-to-thrive diagnosis. Her feeding issues were mostly due to having an undiagnosed and untreated tongue- and lip-tie. This sent him down an unplanned path. After attending several classes on tongue- and lip-ties, Dr. Deric became the first doctor in the Central Valley to perform laser surgery on tongue- and lip-ties. When his daughter started suffering from night terrors and was diagnosed with sleep apnea, Dr. Deric got educated on both sleep apnea and airway-centric orthodontics as his next area of focus. Pursuing the type of dentistry that is personal to Dr. Deric is what sets him apart from the herd. He has empathy for his patients and what they have gone through. His kindness and passion really shine when he is working with patients who have issues similar to the ones that he was able to solve for his family.