Four chairs, nine people, one building.

Opened Northline in 2016 after eight years in a large group practice, mostly because appointments there had been cut to twenty minutes and twenty minutes is not long enough to explain anything properly.

Trained at the OHSU School of Dentistry in Portland. Takes most of the crown, bridge and implant work here, and still runs a full day of hygiene checks every week — a habit kept from a first job at a two-chair clinic in Prineville. Outside the practice: a stubborn vegetable garden and one very slow half marathon every spring.

Joined in 2021 from a community health clinic in Redmond, where most of the day was first-time patients and unhappy ones. That is still the favourite part of the job.

Trained at the University of the Pacific. Sees most of the children, and most of the adults who describe themselves on the phone as terrible about the dentist. The two groups need the same thing, which is being told exactly what is about to happen before it happens.

Fifteen years in hygiene, nine of them here. Runs the recall system, which is why you get a text three weeks before you are due rather than a postcard after you were.

Will tell you honestly if the flossing is going badly, and will not make a speech about it. Teaches the sealant clinic we run with two elementary schools each September.

Handles insurance, estimates, and anything with a number attached. Will run your benefits before the first visit and put what you owe in writing.

That last part is the single most requested thing patients ask for and the thing dental offices most often get wrong, so it is the one job here that never gets squeezed when the day runs late.