The Business: Kemp Dental Group
This can’t possibly be a dentist’s office!
Headphones. Internet access. TVs. Playstations. Blankets. Comfortable chairs. Specialty coffee. It feels more like your living room than a waiting room, but that, after all, is the point.
With a home away from home feel, Kemp Dental Group is forging new and very much welcome territory in the dentistry world.
The stereotype is unraveling. For years, patients have been prone to believe that all dental offices are of the sterile variety. Any trip to a doctor must include long waits, stark white walls and an unpleasant amount of white gloves and needles. Many have been known to conveniently “lose” their friendly “It’s-time-for-your-checkup” reminders in the mail, postponing, yet again, the obligatory trip.
But once you think about it, the fear and dread of the dental process is a bit silly. After all, making our smiles brighter and mouths healthier isn’t something that should be considered a chore – it’s something that should excite us. And that’s exactly the philosophy Kemp Dental Group has tapped into.
“Our facility was created with the patient in mind,” says Ginger Hart, an employee at Kemp. “We put a lot of effort into making sure our patients feel relaxed and comfortable at our office. Not only do we make sure we have the best equipment and technology available, but we also go to great lengths to be sure that an entire experience is provided to the patient.”
Kemp Dental Group has been around since 1999 but only in its new offices for the past four years. They have a state-of-the-art sterilization center that ensures the health and safety of each patient, along with several diagnostic tools including intra-oral cameras, digital x-rays and digital photography.
“Ever piece of equipment that we use has been carefully selected to ensure that we are delivering the best, most efficient, most comfortable and least invasive dental procedure possible,” Hart says.
And while the technology of Kemp Dental no doubt comforts anyone who might be squeamish in the chair, the success of the group is largely due to its people. Dr. Kemp, founder of the group, established his practice after working for 10 years in Hermitage. He is a faculty member at the University of Tennessee College of Dentistry, where he teaches restorative dentistry. He has served on a number of boards including the Nashville Dental Society and the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry where he is a trustee overseeing the Give Back a Smile Program, which provides cosmetic dentistry for women who are victims of domestic violence. He’s also the founder of PriQuest Institute, where he teaches cosmetic dentistry to young dentists and students. And he continues to benefit the community through a nonprofit organization he founded called Project Smile, which provides free dental services for people who can’t afford it.
If his resume doesn’t make it abundantly clear, Dr. Kemp treats his work as a service and uses his skills to help better the lives of others. While he is accomplished in all areas, Dr. Kemp’s expertise is no doubt in the growing field of cosmetic dentistry, an aspect of his work he likes to refer to as artistic.
“Cosmetic dentistry is doing dentistry that looks as natural as the real thing, making it undetectable by the human eye that a remarkable change has been made,” he says. “I call it invisible dentistry. It’s much more rewarding than the drill and fill side. It allows us to do work our patients want that, many times, can make a dramatic difference in someone’s self-esteem. It can sometimes be a life-changing event.”
Dr. Kemp has seen this plenty of times before through his work in the Give Back a Smile Program. He recalls a particular time where a woman from Nebraska was flown to his office by the AACD to receive major work as a result of damage from domestic violence. With the help of his students from UT, they were able to rebuild her entire mouth.
“To see the transformation in her from someone that was very scared and timid into a very thankful and outgoing person was amazing,” Dr. Kemp says. “It was obvious that she was so self-conscious about her smile. Once we finished, you could see a transformation in her self-esteem.”
With skilled and caring employees, along with a new, more relaxing environment, it seems those days of dentist dread can now be over. Kemp Dental has reinvented the previously necessary, but barely tolerable, chore of dental hygiene.
Who knows? Maybe the next time the reminder postcard will actually make it onto the fridge, rather than the bottom of the trash can.
For more information about Kemp Dental Group or to book an appointment, visit
www.kempdental.com.
