Photo courtesy of Todd Lester.
Dr. Bradley Kirkpatrick and Dr. Paige Lester with Healthy Smiles of Birmingham Family and Cosmetic Dentistry.
Ever since Paige Lester first started her career as a dentist in 2007, Bradley Kirkpatrick was in her chair every six months, along with the rest of his family.
“I’ve seen him grow up,” Lester said.
When Kirkpatrick decided to go to dental school, Lester wrote him a letter of recommendation. They bumped into each other while he was volunteering at The Foundry Dental Center in Bessemer and she was taking a course there on implant surgeries.
Later, when Kirkpatrick asked Lester if she knew of anyone looking for an associate, it turns out she did: herself.
“We decided it would be a good fit for us to join forces, for us to work together for a couple of years, and that could potentially develop into a partnership,” she said.
Now Lester and Kirkpatrick have teamed up at Healthy Smiles, located at 100 Heatherbrooke Park Drive, Suite A.
Kirkpatrick said he’s surprised to have ended up there, even though when he decided on dentistry as a career, “I knew I wanted to be a practice like Dr. Lester’s.”
“She has an incredibly good bedside manner; that’s probably why we were her patients for so long,” he said.
Lester said she learned from her mentor, Jim Clark, whom she bought the practice from in 2011.
“He taught me how to treat patients well and team members well and really took the time to make sure I was succeeding,” she said. “I want to pass that along to Bradley.”
She said she feels like they make a good team. Both do general dentistry, but her focus is cosmetics and treating sleep apnea, and his is advanced surgical techniques like bone and tissue grafting.
Kirkpatrick said he’s excited to learn more from Lester about her specialties and get to be a part of a place focused on family dentistry.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity to join a private practice,” he said. “I worked one year in a corporate office, and that was a different pace with different priorities. It’s been a good change of pace to get into a good family practice where things seem a lot less rushed.”
His wife, Allison, is a dentist also, and they hope one day she can also join Healthy Smiles.
Lester said she’s determined for it to stay a family practice.
“Sometimes, patients don’t get the individual care they deserve,” she said. “We want our practice to have a personal touch. We’ve got patients who have been there as long as I have been there, just like with Bradley.”
Lester said community is also very important to her. Her children go to Oak Mountain schools — just as Kirkpatrick did — and are involved in sports.
Kirkpatrick said he’s also excited to be back home after his time in dental school in St. Louis and for his family to start putting down roots in the place where he grew up.
“It’s a great place to be,” he said.
For more information, call 205-875-4650, visit healthysmilesofbirmingham.com or follow them on Facebook @HealthySmilesBirmingham or Instagram @healthysmilesofbirmingham.
