I Married a Dentist

First comes love. Then comes marriage. Then comes *babies* in the baby carriage. Yes- babies…Vivienne (the real baby) and Corridor Dental (the business baby).

When I met Cody, I didn’t expect I would ever understand so much about teeth. But then you fall in love and spend every waking minute together and gradually you learn to love what the other loves (Cody never expected to learn so much about 4th graders either). For the first six months I’ll admit, I was totally lost. Say any dental term and it flew over my head like a fighter jet. But then I started to catch on. Somewhere between the nightly conversations and the phone calls he made to his friends (who naturally range from oral surgeons to orthodontists),  I actually began to acquire a basic understanding of dentistry.

And then…Cody asked me to go to Cambodia with him on a dental mission trip. “It will be fun!” he said. “You can play with the little kids and teach them English words while I work on their teeth!” Which, as you can probably guess, is not what actually happened. Instead it was baptism by fire. I was thrown into a dental assisting position, right next to my future husband. I’ll save the gory details for another post, but it was there that I gained a true respect for what kind of work Cody does day in and day out.  I also learned how important it is to teach oral healthcare to others and to take care of your teeth. It is just like that saying, “You only want to brush the teeth you want to keep!”

A few years later and here we are. In the midst of opening Corridor Dental I can honestly say that I really never thought I would know THIS much about dentistry.

For example:

Did you know that the dental chair you sit in at our office was manufactured by a company called A-dec? A-dec chairs are designed with the comfort of the patient and the doctor in mind. The company is incredibly impressive, inside and out. In November, we had the opportunity to visit the factory in Newburg, Oregon. We saw first hand the amount of work and skill that goes into their products and how A-dec has become the company it is today.  We even tested out multiple chairs from every position, flipped through multiple design guides, and practiced with various equipment that would help our office become efficient for both Cody and his patients. To give you an idea…it took us 4 hours just to tour the entire campus before we dove into design. I have a new found appreciation for dental chairs, cabinets, lights, and delivery systems. If you’re interested, I suggest you take a second to read about them here.

Did you know that there are about a million and one supplies to choose from when it comes to dentistry? There is the big equipment of course, but you also have to choose instruments, handpieces, filling materials (I counted 118 different composites…aka white filling material… in one catalogue sitting at our dinner table), cements, burs, fluorides, sealants, and on and on and on.  **In all honestly though, I’m only concerned with which color toothbrushes we are going to hand out to patients!

Do you know what a cone beam is? Yeah, I didn’t either (except the fact that it is as much as a nice new car). A cone beam, aka cone beam computed tomography (I’ll be honest that one I just googled), is in simple terms a high tech x-ray machine that produces detailed 3D images of your mouth. When a dentist takes a cone beam image he can see everything…teeth, jaws, nerves, sinuses, blood vessels, and soft tissue.  You name it, it can see it…within reason of course. Obviously the more you know…the more you know, making procedures (implants for example) a lot more predictable and safer for both dentist and patient. Plus, patients receive much better outcomes with less invasive treatment.  Cody tells me he can perform the implant surgery as many times as he wants on his computer before he ever touches you, the patient.  I don’t understand that one, but I’ll go with it for his sake. Cone beam- I’ve heard the term enough to know that this will be a standard of care in the very near future if it isn’t already.

It takes an entire team to open a dental practice, and Cody and I have been lucky enough to draft a bunch of all-stars. When we first started putting things together, it was really daunting. A business plan, profit predictions, legal documents…Cody knows a lot about dentistry, but they don’t teach you how to open a practice in dental school. We were told that once we get the initial items taken care of everything else falls into place, especially if you are willing to delegate. It’s thanks to guys like Ryan and Justin from Goetze Dental, Bill from A-dec, Bryan from Medix, the whole Wonderist crew, our money gurus Kevin and Ron.  And I won’t forget Joe, Alex, Mark, and the Michelles, from Downing Construction…(the list goes on). It is crazy but we are less than two months away from opening our doors!

For Cody this was a dream that may or may not have come true. The thing is… he married a risk taker and at three months pregnant I said, “JUST DO IT ALREADY!”

And we’re doing it…

We are excited to continue this adventure! We want to be the most friendly, most comfortable, and coolest dental office around (wait…can there even be such a thing? Is dentistry cool? Can it be cool? We think so!!!). Whether you want the latest technology and care or you just want to watch your favorite show while you’re getting that cavity filled, Corridor Dental wants to be the one who takes care of you!

Visit our website to learn more, and follow us on Facebook or Instagram to check out our progress! If you want to become a patient, then that’s AWESOME and your obviously making a great choice! We will be taking appointments soon. Call us at 359-6700 and we will get you scheduled!