Merry Christmas, Season’s Greetings, and Happy Holidays from all of us at Davidson Family Dentistry. For a second year I have been recruited to write a holiday, year-end message to you. After last year, I wondered why I hadn’t done this in the years previously. Here is our news of the year.
Davidson Family Dentistry, LLC
As of the first of April, the practice converted from a sole proprietorship to a limited liability company in which Dr. Michael Davidson has an ownership interest. It means little to you has a patient other than to offer to you the assurance that Davidson Family Dentistry will continue to be here for you for many years to come.
New Employees
Swapna joined us on March 26 as an administrative assistant. Swapna is a dentist and has recently immigrated to America with her husband, daughter and son from India. Only American trained dentists are allowed to receive a dental license in Iowa so we are very fortunate to have her knowledge of dentistry. We hired Swapna shortly after returning from India on vacation. Isn’t life ironic sometimes? Swapna is the third foreign trained dentist to work for us. Olga from Russia and Sulochana from Nepal have gone on to receive American based dental training and are practicing dentistry. Olga is in Chicago and Sulochana is in New York.
Kristin joined us on June 4 as an administrative assistant and insurance specialist. Kristin is a graduate of Des Moines Lincoln High School and comes to us with considerable and competent experience working for my dental friends, Drs. Kris and Kevin Shay in Urbandale until they retired. Kristin loves following her favorite baseball team, the Chicago Cubs.
Jessie, RDA joined us on June 25 as an expanded function dental assistant. Jessie is originally from Mount Ayr but eventually found her way to Oklahoma. Her last employment in Tulsa was as the structure and program coordinator for the dental assisting program at Platt College. She is very creative making decorative home items. We’re very thankful to have her back home in Iowa. Jessie will also be helping me with my expanded function dental assistant class in 2019.
Rachel, RDH joined us July 9 as a dental hygienist. Rachel is originally from Paulina in Northwest Iowa. She attended Northwestern College in Orange City for a year where she played basketball before transferring to the University of South Dakota graduating this year with a BS in dental hygiene. Her abilities far exceed her time in dentistry reminding me of someone with 5 or 6 years of experience.
Aubrey, RDA joined us August 14 as an expanded functions dental assistant. Aubrey has lived in various areas of Iowa with her family before settling in Des Moines and graduating from Des Moines Roosevelt. Aubrey has great skills as a dental assistant and we are very fortunate to have her. One of her hobbies is singing karaoke. You might just find her singing to you when you are in the dental chair.
Mandy joined us as an administrative assistant on August 20. Mandy comes to us from the world of banking with experience as a personal banker. She has jumped right in learning a new language – dentistry. Mandy graduated from Dallas Center – Grimes and attended UNI. One of her hobbies is bow hunting. You can be sure I’ll be on my best behavior when her quiver is full. :-)
Ashley joined us as a dental assistant October 8. Ashley is a graduate of Dunbar High School and Marshalltown Community College. We love Ashley’s bright smile and we are very happy she is part of our team. Ashley is a competitive body builder.
Our team continues to grow to serve you. There are 42 of us now. We’ve come a long way from our Beaverdale days.
Babies
Three of our doctors added to their families this year. Dr. John Biegert and his wife, Erin, had a baby girl in January. Her name is Rose. Rose is their first child.
Dr. Amanda Vonnahme and her husband, Shane, had a baby boy in February. Ryan joins brother, Jack, and sister, Sarah.
Dr. Justine Stemper and her husband, Matt, had a baby girl in July. Her name is Eliza and she is their first child.
New Equipment
We made a couple of new additions to our technology and a few replacements as newer models were deemed a better option than repairing their predecessors.
We are very pleased to add the latest and greatest x-ray technology currently available in dentistry, a Cone-Beam CT 3-D X-Ray. This machine will be used for 2D panoramic images along with three dimensional radiography. It will be especially useful in surgery. We are now able to do more complicated implant placements with the Cone-Beam CT. We are especially pleased that the radiation emission is especially low. Frequent airline travelers receive more radiation than this type of x-ray.
We are equally pleased to add a digital impression scanner to our restorative arsenal. It has the benefit of replacing the gooey impression pastes we have used historically.
New Training
Dr. Michael Davidson completed his extensive training in Implant dentistry through the Implant Maxicourse at the University of Nevada Las Vegas Dental School. He is now eligible to pursue a Fellowship in the American Academy of Implant Dentistry.
Dr. John Biegert is also pursuing advanced training in dental implantology. We are very pleased that both he and Dr. Michael are pursuing this cutting edge education.
Drs. Vonnahme, Stemper, Baier, and I didn’t venture as far from home this year for our continuing education. We took advantage of educational opportunities through the Des Moines District Dental Society, the Iowa Dental Association, and the University of Iowa, College of Dentistry.
All of our clinical staff and doctors further their dental education every year to improve our knowledge and clinical skills. In addition, our non-clinical staff are trained annually in areas of infection control, OSHA safety, and general dental knowledge.
Welcome patients from Dr. Jon Allison, DDS
One of our Urbandale dental colleagues, Dr. Jon Allison, retired this year in August. We are pleased that he ask us to help him transition into retirement by “adopting” his patients. With the addition of some additional staff, we were able to open time for his patients and add more new patients to our dental family. Thank you Dr. Allison. You have earned your chance to take it easy after a life of service to your patients.
Shoulder Surgery Cancelled
As many of you know, in 2016 I had rotator cuff repair of my right shoulder and my left shoulder needs the same type of surgery. I was already to have the surgery after the first of the year until I re-injured my right shoulder after very little exertion. The right shoulder is non-repairable surgically except with a replacement and the surgeon won’t do the replacement until I’m 70. Oh well. Not everything goes as we expect. I continue to be blessed beyond measure.
Request
Last year I made these requests and again I am making my petition to you. Our practice continues to grow because of the many wonderful patients who join our practice through your referrals but with the America’s mobile society, some of our patients move away and we want to replace them.
Two of the most common sources of new patients in our practice come from direct referrals of your friends, family, and coworkers and indirect referrals through Google reviews.
If you have written a Google review for us, thank you. If you haven’t and are so inclined, would you be willing to write a review so your experiences can be reflected to those who you don’t even know? We would be so appreciative!
As always, if we ever miss the mark in your expectations, please tell us so we can improve for you and be the best dental office you have ever experienced.
Holiday Wishes
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Season’s Greetings to you all. We are so grateful you have chosen to place your dental health with us. We wish for you a blessed season and a healthy and prosperous 2019.
Dr. David Davidson
Posted December 20th, 2018
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