I graduated from Baylor College of Dentistry in 1984. To be honest, I was one of the last students to complete my requirements in dental school. I grew up in a really bad home environment, so I know this contributed to my poor performance at Baylor. My dad (now deceased) was a sergeant in the Marine Corps. He fought on Io Jima in World War II. Out of 54 men in his unit, only 12 of them were not killed or wounded in battle. He was one of the the fortunate 12 who survived. He suffered from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after the war. Back in the 1960’s and 70’s, no one really understood this condition, and psychological counseling back then was considered taboo. So we had a really horrible, dysfunctional home life growing up. I decided though, after high school, that I was going to make something of my life, in spite of my difficult past. I decided to go to dental school, after our family dentist, Dr. Felix Hawkins was always so friendly and encouraging to me. He took the time to talk to me, and always made me feel important. I want to do this for my customers and make them feel important & respected in my office too.

When I got out of dental school in 1984, I was kind of torn between going into dentistry or pursuing some other line of work, since my experience in dentistry wasn’t very good. I worked for a year for a Dallas dentist, Dr. T. Bob Davis, who is a Christian. The group of Christian dental students I hung out with while I was at Baylor Dental School had been were very encouraging to me as he was, so I became a Christian. Today, I go to a church called Gateway Church.

In 1985, I bought a small dental office across the street from my undergraduate college – Texas Wesleyan. Mary Lou Watkins, who owned the restaurant next door to my office, asked me to be president of a little business association they were starting there. It was a good experience for me to learn leadership. One day Mary Lou showed us a video at our meeting, by Tom Peters, called “In Pursuit of Excellence”. When I saw this film about really great companies, like Disney and Whole Foods, using innovation to serve their customers, and pursuing excellence in all aspects of the business, I was hooked. I wanted to have a dental office that was like the top companies I saw on the film.

I moved my practice to a better location on Seminary Drive in 1988, and it did so well that I opened a second dental office on McCart Avenue as an investment. I started taking hundreds of hours of courses in advanced dentistry. I figured that just because I graduated at the bottom of my dental school class, I didn’t have to remain there. I have taken many courses in all aspects of dentistry, including pediatric dentistry, endodontics, operative dentistry, and orthodontics. Today, I still do lots of continuing education and recently completed a course taught by Stephen Olmos in TMJ and Sleep Apnea therapy. He is one of the top lecturers in the country on this subject.

I probably should have stayed in South Fort Worth, and been happy with the two successful practices I had, but I got excited about opening a new office that a salesman was building in Watauga. I could purchase the building after 3 years, instead of having to pay rent for the rest of my life. I am still not sure yet if this was a good decision or not, but I sold my two offices and moved over here. I had to start over again building a customer base, but my business is now doing very well. The people here are nice. We had an open house when we first opened and the mayor and the whole Watauga city council came to it. This would never happen in Fort Worth, unless you opened a big bank building or something. I thought I might write a book to help young dentists starting out some day, so this experience will help me to give them good advice.

I want my customers to feel like I don’t judge them, and I have their best interests at heart. I recently restored a woman’s teeth who was addicted to methamphetamine. She thanked me profusely for being kind and non-judgmental to her and for restoring her smile. She went to a rehab facility in South Texas and now is doing well. You can view her restored smile in our smile gallery.

Thanks for checking us out. We have many positive reviews and they are actual reviews, not made up ones. We try to take good care of our customers. Let me know if we can help you with a better smile.

At the moment, we have three people working in my office: myself, my nephew Michael, who I call by his middle name Clint, and a young lady named Jackie who is studying to go to dental school to become a dentist. I bought some new equipment recently and hope to hire a full time dental hygienist as soon as it gets here. We have been delayed by the shipping crisis in setting up our new hygiene operatory.

I guess the legacy I would like to leave is that you can make something good out of your life in spite of a difficult past. Your history is not your destiny.