Trust Your Smile to a Community-Minded Dentist in San Antonio

Well, we do a lot of things for the community. It's kind of fun to give back. I mean, this community has given so much to us. We have ... I have a wall, our little wall of fame kind of thing in the office here where we've got all these plaques and awards we've gotten from all kinds of animal rights activist type groups. We’re Defenders of Wildlife, the Humane Society, saving farm animals, sanctuaries, and Save the Wolves and Save the Dolphins and Save the Whales. We got all of these things. It was funny, in that same time when that dentist went and shot that lion, we actually had people fly in from Washington, D.C. to present us with the Defenders of Wildlife award, where we were able to kind of maybe balance the good with the bad and bring some goodness to our community.

We do all kinds of things too, like we've done juvenile diabetes run and breast cancer awareness marathons and save the dogs marathons. We bring the group out, the staff all running these things. They're fun.

This practice has been open here a little over 30 years. We started in 1986, so I guess that would make it 30 years. Here at this very location, this center had just opened up. It was brand spanking new at the time. We were the first tenant in this area. We opened the practice up with the idea of creating the first cosmetic dental office in San Antonio.

As a young dentist, I was first starting off. I had no patients. I've got this new practice I'm opening, I've got all this equipment, I've got bills out the wazoo, trying to figure out how I'm going to survive, and I don't have anyone to work on. I mean, I have three patients, and all three are done by the end of the week. It's like, okay, I got to find someone else.

I was offered a job to teach over at the dental school here in San Antonio. That was supplementing my income very much so, so I could work, actually make enough to survive, and then begin building my practice on the side. I kind of went 50-50, so I never really left the area. I actually befriended a number of the faculty over at the health science center and thought it was just like the perfect opportunity to continue my education and to supplement my income while I'm trying to build this practice. That went on for about 10 years. Boy, I have to say, some of the departments I worked in, too, taught me a tremendous amount of dentistry, well beyond what I learned in my first four years at a school, you know.