Friday, June 8, 2018

Our History

Did you know the Hyde Park neighborhood is celebrating 150 this years? We have been around for almost 40 of those years! We started reminiscing and want to share a little of our history with you...

Dr. Rick Bankhead and Dr. Paul Groipen met in dental school at The Ohio State University. Dr. Rick is from Ohio and decided to move to the East Coast after graduation and open a practice with Dr. G (who grew up here).

In 1979 they bought the practice at 1259 Hyde Park Avenue - where we still practice today - from Dr. Melnick. Incidentally, Dr. Melnick had bought the practice four years earlier from Dr. Lasker, who had been practicing since 1924. So 1259 Hyde Park Avenue has been home to a dentist for almost 100 years!

When Dr. Rick and Dr. G first started out, they had a very small staff. They shared a dental assistant who pulled double duty and covered the front desk! We've come a long way since those humble beginnings!

Fast forward to 1985, and Dr. Rick's brother, Dr. Kirk Bankhead, graduated from dental school (another OSU grad) and was welcomed into the B&G family. The Docs took a road trip to Cape Cod to celebrate Dr. Kirk's graduation and stumbled across a neon pink flamingo in one of the shops. They bought it and hung in the window looking over Hyde Park Avenue, and the rest is history...our mascot was born.

It was around this same time that Dr. Warren Childs started practicing with us. Dr. Childs is a periodontist (gum specialist) who works with us on a part-time basis. This way our patients can have easy access to gum care services without having to worry about going to a different location or filling out new paperwork.

In 1991, B&G expanded to a second location. Dr. Rick and Dr. G. purchased a practice on Centre Street in West Roxbury from Dr. Peters. Dr. Peters stayed with us on a part-time basis for a few years before easing into retirement, and many of his patients still visit us today.

The offices were a little small and the practice was steadily growing, so it had become hard for everyone to have office hours at the same time. Dr. Rick and Dr. G began to look for a larger space. They found it five years later in our current location of 399 Belgrade Avenue - right around the corner from our Centre Street location. The building originally housed a dental office downstairs with residences upstairs; it had been left vacant when Dr. O'Neil expanded his own practice and relocated to Centre Street. (Before Dr. O'Neil, it was Dr. Scavotto's dental office. So the Belgrade Avenue location has been a dental office for about 40 years!)

The B&G family kept growing. In 2002 Dr. Stuart MacDonald started practicing dentistry with us, and in 2012 Dr. Derek Martin joined the team. We've also grown to include thirteen full- and part-time hygienists. This allows us to offer evening and Saturday appointments; we try to make it easy for our patients to schedule their dental visits around their busy lives. We've also embraced the new technology available. We're a completely digital office (no paper charts) and we use digital x-rays, do same-day crowns, in-office whitening, and short-term orthodontics...as well as all sorts of cool dental tech to make your appointment easier and less painful.

We can't wait to celebrate Hyde Park's 150th and we're looking forward to the next 150! Below are some throwback pictures from our younger days when we first moved to Belgrade Avenue...Enjoy!