White Smiles opens wide in Presque Isle
By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE — Doctors and staff at White Smiles Family Dentistry are now providing preventive, restorative, and aesthetic dental care for patients of all ages at their new Presque Isle facility, located at 1 North St.
Staff photo/Scott Mitchell Johnson
WHITE SMILES FAMILY DENTISTRY held a grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony Feb. 13 at its new Presque Isle facility, located at 1 North St. White Smiles, which also has an office in Fort Fairfield, provides a number of services including regular exams and cleanings, bonding, bridges, crowns, dentures, extractions, fillings, root canals, sealants, and more. Participating in the ribbon-cutting ceremony were, from left, front row: hygienists Amanda Warren, Debbie Bennett and Amy Cote, Dr. Michael Blandon, DMD; co-owners Chalice White and her husband, Dr. Joseph White, DMD; and Dr. Michael Jones, DMD. Back row: Central Aroostook Chamber of Commerce directors Renée Chalou-Ennis, Shawn Lahey, Floyd Rockholt, Greg Doak, Kim Jones and Karen St. Peter, and Jim Bennett, Presque Isle city manager.
Though a grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Feb. 13, White Smiles officially opened Dec. 22, 2014.
“Things have been going very well,” said owner Dr. Joseph White, DMD. “We’ve had a good response from the community — primarily by word of mouth and internal marketing … patients who have been in our Fort Fairfield office and have talked quite a bit about their experience there.”
White Smiles has been in Fort Fairfield since 2010. White said he decided to expand the practice to help fill a void in the region.
“We identified a need in The County for access to dental care. There’s a lot of people who are going to the hospital to have emergency care … those patients who have abscesses and are in a lot of pain, so they visit the hospital, and for some reason they either didn’t hear about us or don’t want to travel to Fort Fairfield,” he said. “We see a lot of those patients who otherwise wouldn’t be seen by a dentist. We’ve had enough work over in Fort Fairfield and we’ve outgrown that building, so we decided to open a second location.
“Presque Isle is the hub of The County … it’s the Star City. If you look at the parking lot, people are used to coming to Presque Isle for all their other health care needs, and it’s a convenient way for them to come here and go to their dentist, as well,” said White.
Located in the former KeyBank building, White said the site made for the perfect location.
“We had been looking for a location in Presque Isle for over a year, and just hadn’t found anything that we liked or thought would be a good spot. When we saw this — right on the corner of North and Main streets — we realized there was a lot of traffic here and people can’t miss it,” he said. “In addition to that, it’s basically in the TAMC health care parking lot, so it’s a convenient way for people to go to their other appointments and then stop over here.”
Other than the vault door and the brick exterior, everything in the building was redone.
“Where the reception area is used to be the drive-thru for the bank,” said White. “The space was a challenge at first, and we worked really hard to develop a floor plan that would be able to accommodate patient flow and make patients comfortable including handicapped patients in a wheelchair.
“Dentistry can feel a little claustrophobic, so we raised the ceilings to give it that nice, open feel. Patients seem to be really satisfied; we’ve had a good response with it,” he said. “Everything is new. We added new walls, new flooring, and we’re really happy with how it turned out.”
In addition to the spacious waiting room — complete with a children’s play area — White Smiles features numerous operatories to accommodate more patients.
“We have three registered dental hygienists working here right now, and they all have their own operatory. There are three dentist operatories for the doctors, as well,” said White, “and we have a few that we haven’t finished yet, but we’ll be finishing those as we get more patients.”
White Smiles provides a number of services including regular exams and cleanings, bonding, bridges, crowns, dentures, extractions, fillings, root canals, sealants, and more.
“We have a comprehensive, holistic approach to dentistry, and we strive to provide all aspects [of dentistry],” said White. “We do that because otherwise a lot of those patients would be traveling downstate to see a specialist. For example, we do posterior extractions on molars; other dentists in the area are referring out for those types of procedures. The nearest endodontist, which is someone who specializes in root canals, is in Brewer. We provide that service here. Our goal is to keep people here in The County and in one office.
“We’ve worked really hard and we’ve acquired an education and a skill level that permits us and allows us to provide those services,” he said, noting that an anesthetist will be coming in one day a month starting in March to sedate patients who need significant work done. “We realize there are people who wake up one morning and their face is swollen and they don’t know where to go or what to do. We want them to think of White Smiles immediately, and we can get them out of pain almost instantly. We can put them on an antibiotic, we can do the surgical things necessary to alleviate their pain, and get them on their path to healing. It takes a special type of practice and a special type of operation to make that happen, and we’re set up for that. Our ultimate goal is to get these people converted to routine dental patients who consistently have a healthy oral environment.”
White is joined by Drs. Michael Jones, DMD, and Michael Blandon, DMD.
Jones and White both graduated from dental school at the University of Kentucky in 2010.
“After graduating, I was in Japan in the Air Force for three years and then Dr. White said he was thinking about opening a practice in northern Maine,” said Jones, who joined the practice earlier this year. “I enjoy it here in Aroostook County. It’s a little cold, but the people are great. So far my wife and I have had a good time getting to know the area. It’s enjoyable.”
Blandon graduated from Temple University in Philadelphia in 2011. He started working at White Smiles in Fort Fairfield that same year.
“Moving here was completely different from living in Philadelphia. It was a big transition, but as far as our family goes, it’s been a perfect fit for us. We like the outdoors and the community lifestyle where everybody knows each other,” said Blandon. “We like the sense of community and belonging. We felt very accepted, and our kids go to school here, and we’ve made a lot of friends. I’ve even joined a hockey team.”
The dentists work rotating shifts and all work out of both the Presque Isle and Fort Fairfield offices.
White Smiles Family Dentistry is open from 7 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday through Thursday.
“As the practice builds, we’ll be open on Fridays, as well,” said White, noting that White Smiles is currently accepting new patients. “We have the building, we have the equipment, we have the skills, and we have a good history treating patients. Our hope is that the word gets out and we’re able to help people obtain and maintain a healthy mouth.”
For more information, call 472-6088 or log onto www.whitesmilesfamilydentistry.com.
