Good Neighbor Podcast North Atlanta
Bringing Together Local Businesses & Neighbors of North Atlanta
Good Neighbor Podcast North Atlanta
EP #123: Dunwoody Dental Care with Dr. Ben Taylor
Veteran and Dr. Ben Taylor of Dunwoody Dental Care shares his journey from military dentist to community practitioner serving the Dunwoody area for over 30 years.
Dunwoody Dental Care is owned by Dr. Taylor with a team that places the patient first. In an industry becoming corporate, this office remains a practice where quality care, strong patient/doctor relationships and personal attention remain foundational. Being a third-generation dentist this ethical approach stems from Dr. Taylor’s 12 years of experience and service in the U.S. Army. This produces clinical expertise in a friendly environment the whole family can call home.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, north Atlanta, where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, stacey Risley. Hello friends and neighbors, welcome to North Atlanta's Good Neighbor Podcast. Today I'm here with Dr Ben Taylor of Dunwoody Dental Care here in Dunwoody. So welcome, dr Taylor. How are you?
Speaker 2:I'm great, Stacey. Thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 1:I'm thrilled to have you on. As a local Dunwoodyan and as a fellow Dunwoodyan, rather, I love introducing Dunwoody businesses, so I'm really excited to have you on today.
Speaker 2:Oh, happy to be here. Yeah, I work and live in Dunwoody. I have the pleasure of having a 1.5 mile commute, so I stay in the Dunwoody bubble commute, so I stay in the.
Speaker 1:Dunwoody bubble. It's a nice bubble to be in right.
Speaker 2:I agree, I agree.
Speaker 1:Well, let's get started by just telling our listeners a little bit about your business.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thanks. So Dunwoody Dental Care is the name of our office. We're a general dental office offer nearly all dental services that you may need. The office is obviously located in Dunwoody, up near Chick-fil-A on Jet Ferry, and it's been there for a little over 30 years. I am the third dentist and owner there and purchased the practice from a retiring dentist about three years ago. I'm the only dentist there and the sole owner, so that's us.
Speaker 1:Nice, 30 years. That's quite a legacy that you're following here.
Speaker 2:Big shoes to fill. That's right.
Speaker 1:That's right. Well, tell listeners about your journey into this, what led you down this path, and tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I grew up in McDonough. All my family is actually still down there. My uncle and grandfather are dentists and that is probably where my attraction started. Went to college at Mercer and Macon and then dental school in Augusta, so hung around Georgia for a while and felt like it was time to get out for a little bit. So I joined the Army, I got a scholarship through them and so went out to Fort Lewis, Washington for a year where I did a one-year residency and then did some payback time in Washington DC. And now I moved back, me and my wife. We bounced around a little bit trying to figure out where we fit in, but ultimately settled in Dunwoody and bought our house, got the practice. So we've established roots and not going anywhere.
Speaker 1:That's awesome and I love that. So you were originally you said from McDonough. My first teaching job was at McDonough Elementary School. So we share that in common now that we're fellow Dunwoodians and also from McDonough Elementary School. So we share that in common now that we're fellow Dunwoodyans and also from.
Speaker 2:McDonough. Mcdonough is home. It's a great place.
Speaker 1:It is. It is Well. So when you're not working, we're going to steer away from your profession for a minute. And when you're not working, what are you doing for fun? I?
Speaker 2:love exercising, being active, getting out. One thing that attracted us to Dunwoody is all the sidewalks everywhere, and so I love exercising, being active, getting out. One thing that attracted us to Dunwoody is all the sidewalks everywhere, and so I love getting out and going for a run, and the hills here will definitely keep you healthy. So on the weekends, me and my wife you know it kills two birds with one stone get out and have some fun, but also do something active. So kayaking, mountain biking, things like that, but more on the relaxing side of things. We're big foodies and so we love getting out and trying the restaurants, and it's been exciting to see what Dunwoody's doing and Shambly real. You know close by as well. So finding the fun spots to get out and hang out, that's where you'll find us.
Speaker 1:This is a really good place to be a foodie, isn't it? Absolutely, and it's seemingly getting better and better. Right, I could not agree more. I feel the same way, and it is um every restaurant it seems like I try lately it has just I love it yeah, yeah, you don't have to go far no, you really don't.
Speaker 1:we can stay inside our Dunwoody bubble. It's very easy to do here Well, so we're going to shift gears again and get into something a little more serious than fun. But can you describe a life challenge or a hardship that you've been through that you can say now, for having come out on the other side of that, you're better or stronger for that today? Sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So after my active duty time in the military, I stayed in and I'm in the National Guard, which I drill one weekend a month out in Marietta, and been doing that for about seven years. But 2020 was a really big year for us. I got deployed to Iraq for four months and doing dentistry in a combat zone was something that I would never want to sign up to do ever again. And, um, but, but I'll tell you um, you know you can either. Um, you can go at it two ways, and a lot of guys get deployed and you know they check that box and that's fine.
Speaker 2:But I felt like for me, I wanted to see how good of a person it could make me, and there are no amount of self-help books that you can read, that the lessons you'll learn from being stripped away from your family and everything you love for four months, and so I learned a lot about myself. I felt like I became a better person, a better man, but really just gained a perspective on what's really important in life. And you know, when you, when you don't have your family and you're by yourself, it, it really makes you focus on what's important, and so nowadays it's a good perspective to have to, even if you know the day is challenging. You know being an owner and taking care of patients there is constantly something coming at you. But you know, if you can make it through something like that and you can hold on to what you've been through, then you know that seems easy.
Speaker 1:So like I said, it challenged me in a lot of ways, nothing I'd ever want to do again, but but happy to have made it back. Well, and it's so important that you were able to take those lessons from that experience. You know, and and it does make you value family more value, your loved ones more value being able to practice dentistry not in a combat zone, you know. You know and, and, like you said, that be able to view the challenges of owning your own business and running a dental practice and just the normal stressors that go along with those things, compared to what you've been through, you know those are the best life lessons when you can apply it and come out stronger. You know, like you said, a better man, a better person and, I would imagine, also a better provider for that.
Speaker 2:I learned how to MacGyver some teeth back together whenever you don't have any supply.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I imagine so. Oh, my goodness, I can't imagine um practicing any any sort of medicine in the combat zone. So that had to be terrifying. Um, but also very rewarding, and um, that had to be terrifying but also very rewarding and you learned from that so well. If there was anything else that you would like our listeners to know about your business, now's the time Is there about Dunwoody Dental Care.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think the biggest thing for us and the goal that I have is, you know, we dentistry has changed a lot in the past couple of years, whether patients are aware or not, and it definitely is becoming a little bit more corporate in a lot of ways.
Speaker 2:And one of my goals and there's a lot of ways to be a dentist, you know, could have stayed in the military, could be an associate, but I felt like ownership was my way to provide the best care to my patients in the way that I see best fit.
Speaker 2:And the one big benefit of being an owner is I can do what's best for the patient without having something behind me in my ear or on my back or an investor saying this or that. And that's becoming harder and harder to do, because being an owner and also being the provider is a huge challenge and not every dentist can keep that work-life balance. So a lot of these private corporations see that and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, but for me I just felt like that was my best avenue to fulfill that goal and that's what I want patients to know is that you know at Done what you Don't Care, I'm the owner, you know, there is no other. It's me and the patient coming up with treatment plans and what's best for them, and there's no other motive or anything else other than that, and there's no red tape.
Speaker 1:You know that you're having to jump through to give them the best care possible, and I just realized that I skipped a question that I ask everyone and that's about myths and misconceptions of your industry or your practice, and I apologize for that. So we're going to circle back to that right now. Are there any myths or misconceptions? And you may have just kind of covered a little bit of that, but about your industry or about your, you know your specific practice and you know, in particular, Well, not really so much related to that, but just more as dentistry in a whole is one of the biggest.
Speaker 2:I think challenges with discussing treatment with patients is. The most common thing I'll hear is well, doc, it doesn't bother me, or it doesn't hurt, or I don't even notice it. You know, and that's that is definitely a something that comes up daily. That requires some discussion, and so that is just one thing I want patients to know is that just because something's not bothering you doesn't always mean there's not a problem. And the analogy I always use is high blood pressure. You know you can have high blood pressure and not even know it, and yet we treat high blood pressure before it becomes a problem of a heart attack.
Speaker 2:And a lot of two things are like that, and we as dentists try and be preventative as we can. That way we can be as conservative in our treatment. So sometimes if you're getting recommendations of this or that that you don't really notice, that may be a good thing. And if you trust your dentist, then you know that is them got to be a two-way trust back and forth. You know the patient has to trust you, you have to trust the patient, and so that's where that relationship is really important and that is where I feel like going back to my whole goal of Dunwoody Dental Care is if I have that trust and have a relationship, then I can keep patients healthier with that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love the analogy that you use that you don't you know you have high blood pressure. Just because you don't feel it or notice that doesn't mean you don't treat it. You know that's your, it's your health, and so that was. I think people can relate to that. That was a really good, good example. Well so, dr Taylor, if people want to get in touch, if they want to learn more or get in touch with Dunwoody Dental Care, what is the best way for them to do that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, our website's probably easiest has all our contact info. All our social media is on there. Dunwoodydentalcarecom.
Speaker 1:Well, that's easy. They're going to be able to remember that one. Dunwoodydentalcarecom. Love it when people keep it simple.
Speaker 2:That's right carecom.
Speaker 1:Love it when people keep it simple. That's right. Well, thank you so much for being here. It has been an absolute pleasure getting to know you and a little sneak peek, for we hope to be featuring Dr Taylor and his family in an issue later this year so that you can get to know him in Dunwoody Neighbors Magazine. So thanks so much for being here, Dr Taylor.
Speaker 2:It's been a pleasure. Thank you so much, Stacey. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:Well, that's all for today's episode. Atlanta. I'm Stacey Risley with the Good Neighbor podcast. Thanks for listening and supporting local businesses and nonprofits of our great community. Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor podcast North Atlanta. To nominate your favorite local businesses, visit gnpnorthatlantacom. That's gnpnorthatlantacom.
