Family-owned dentistry thrives despite corporate growth
COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – It has been a trend for years, with individual and family-owned businesses getting put out of business or bought out by chains or corporate competitors.
One place you might be surprised to see the trend is your family dentist, but it’s becoming more common.
Pediatric Dentistry of Columbus has helped a couple of generations of kids have healthier smiles.
Now, the practice itself is moving into a second generation.
Dr. David Curtis, owner of Pediatric Dentistry of Columbus, has been a dentist for more than 30 years, and in some cases, patients who grew up under his care come back to have him treat *their* children.
It’s not the only generational shift in the practice. His daughter, Dr. Katie Curtis Windham joined him and has even helped expand the practice.
“It’s an unbelievable blessing is what it is,” Curtis said. “She was a little girl running around this clinic when she just was a little toddler and spent afternoons here and after school most of her life. To have her go off and get her training and come back and join me is pretty special.”
Dentistry has seen a rise in franchise and corporate practices moving into towns and sometimes buying out or pushing out hometown providers.
These larger operations have some advantages, like larger staffs and multiple locations.
But Dr. Curtis said private practices like his are important for the dental industry.
“They get used to the personal touch, the personal relationship that they develop with the owners and the operators over the years,” Curtis said. “I mean I have families where I’m seeing their third-generation now, been seeing them their whole lives from the times they were babies until they were grown and having their own children. Being able to establish those kinds of personal relationships is really special.”
Just because they’re smaller doesn’t mean they can’t expand.
Pediatric Dentistry also operates offices in Corinth and in Madison, Alabama, providing that same level of personalized service.
“It’s really quite a simple model to tell you the truth and that is when you provide a good service that people appreciate and can depend on you going to get more business, you can hardly handle,” Curtis said. “I don’t think there’s anything, there’s no special mustard sauce there. I think it’s just openly providing quality service.”
Dr. Curtis opened the Pediatric Dentistry of Columbus in 1988.
