40 Years in Plano: What Halloween 1986 Started

Smile Maker of Texas · 6201 Dallas Pkwy, Suite 220, Plano, TX 75024 · Serving Plano, Dallas, Frisco, Richardson and the wider DFW metroplex since 1986.

Opening a dental office on Halloween is either a very good joke or a very bad one. Forty years later, I still haven’t decided which.

What I do know is that the practice I opened in Plano in 1986 is still here, and some of the people sitting in our chairs this year first sat in them decades ago. In dentistry, that’s the only review that really counts: whether your work is still there, and still looks right, years after you did it.

So for our fortieth, I wanted to write down what I’ve learned, and what we’re doing next.

Before dentistry, a paintbrush

I was a portrait artist before I was a dentist, and an award-winning one. (There’s more on my background here.) That background never left. When I look at a patient, I don’t see a row of teeth. I see a face, and I ask whether the smile belongs to it. Length, shape, color and the way the lips rest over the teeth are composition problems before they’re dental ones.

My dental career started with a residency in the US Navy. Later I completed the Master’s Program at the Las Vegas Institute for Advanced Dental Studies and went on to teach cosmetic dentistry to other dentists at the Rosenthal Institute in New York and Aesthetic Advantage in Palm Beach.

How the SmileLift™ came out of portraits

Over the years I kept seeing the same thing: people who came in asking for whiter teeth were really bothered by something else. Their smile looked older than they felt. Teeth wear shorter with age, the lips lose their support, and lines form around the mouth.

The SmileLift™ is my answer to that. It uses porcelain veneers, but the design starts with the face and works back to the teeth. Restore the length and the lip support, and patients can look up to ten years younger. The work is often completed in one day, after the patient has worn and approved a Trial Smile.

The cases that answer the question

Every cosmetic patient eventually asks how long it will last. After forty years, I can answer with patients instead of brochures. Hundreds of our SmileLift™ cases are now more than 25 years old. Some individual patients are at 30 and even 36 years with their smiles. You can see cases in our Smile Gallery.

The people who travel

I never expected a practice in Plano to draw patients from overseas. But over the years, people have come from 13 countries and more than 23 states for a SmileLift™. Patients who have priced high-end practices in Miami, Los Angeles and New York tell us our fees are about half. I think the bigger reason is simpler: they’ve seen someone’s smile years later and it still looks good.

What’s new at forty

A practice that stops learning doesn’t last forty years. Here is what has changed most recently:

• Dr. Young Kyu Kim joined us. An implant dentist who spent eighteen years as a dental ceramist before he became a surgeon. Meet Dr. Kim.
• An Implant Treatment Center. Implants, All-on-X full-arch treatment and implant-supported dentures, from extraction to final teeth, in one Plano office.
• 3D imaging. Our R2 Studio Q scans teeth, bone and face in 3D, so cases are planned before treatment starts.
• Laser dentistry. The BIOLASE Epic X diode laser for gum contouring and soft-tissue care.
• Virtual Trial Smile. Patients can see a preview of their new smile from a single photo before they ever come in.

Thank you

To every patient who trusted us with their smile since 1986: thank you. Some of you have been with us for most of those forty years. A practice is the people who keep coming back, and you’re the reason we’re still here.

Dr. Ritchie Beougher, DDS

Founder of Smile Maker of Texas and creator of the SmileLift™. An award-winning portrait artist before he became a dentist, he completed his residency in the US Navy and the Master’s Program at the Las Vegas Institute for Advanced Dental Studies, and has taught cosmetic dentistry at the Rosenthal Institute in New York and Aesthetic Advantage in Palm Beach. More than 3,000 cosmetic cases.

This article is for general information and is not a substitute for an in-person examination or individual dental advice. Treatment outcomes and longevity vary between individuals and can only be assessed at a clinical consultation.