Coming off the street in Five Points, you might think you’ve walked into the wrong building as you’re suddenly surrounded by oil paintings under soft gallery lighting. But the whir of a drill and glances through a couple of doorways confirm that there is indeed dentistry going on here.

It’s not your traditional dental office with posters of Garfield tangled in a ball of floss, Dr. Steven Andreaus, DDS, says of his 5 Points Center for Aesthetic Dentistry. Gallery A presents single-artist exhibitions that change every two months, and has hosted artists from Europe in addition to the local artists who make up the majority of its portfolio. Andreaus, himself a potter, sculptor and photographer, says he’s sacrificed clinical space for the gallery. “Art is not mandatory for life,” he says, “but it certainly embellishes it or improves it. It gives us a snapshot of where we are.”

As a cosmetic dentist, Andreaus says his goal is to repair damaged teeth so that the patient’s smile looks natural. While other dentists provide porcelain inserts created by lab technicians, he likes the hands-on work with composite resins necessary to create subtle characteristics in layering and translucency. “I would hope that most if not all dentists are struggling artists in a health care worker’s body,” he says.

Andreaus first established his art gallery when his dental practice was on Hargett Street in downtown Raleigh. There during the 1990s, he and neighboring gallery owners began the city’s First Friday gallery walks.

Gallery A is showing oil-on-canvas still lifes by Annyce Alvarez this month. A show by mixed media artist Lee Gruber Clark opens March 1. Gallery A is open from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursdays, and by appointment Fridays and Saturdays.

Find more information at www.gallerya-nc.com.