Article by Stephanie Hobby | Photos by Nathan Satran

In 1983, a young Laighton Jones walked through the doors of Willow Ridge Dental Care for the first time as a patient. In 2009, after college, a two-year mission to Japan, dental school, residency, and a deployment to Iraq, he bought that same practice. Today, over four decades since that first visit, he jokes that he has spent more hours in this building than any other in his life, but it is time for a change. The team of two dentists, Dr. Jones and Dr. Sam Schreiner, and nine staff members outgrew the 1900 square-foot space, and in September, the team moved into a spacious, modern, light-filled building, where they can spread out over 7000 square feet.

“We got to the point where we were tripping over each other to take care of people,” Jones said. “We thrive on relationships and seek to offer stellar care, but our former building didn’t necessarily represent that, so now the care that we give can be matched by our new building.”

Providing exemplary oral healthcare is just one part of the mission at Willow Ridge Dental Care. While the new space offers plenty of room for new technology and treatment facilities for their already cutting-edge care, people are still at the heart of everything they do, so any growth will be measured. “As far as dentists go, we want to stay the same, just the two of us, to be able to care for people so we can maintain those relationships. We don’t want to outgrow our relationships.”

The emphasis on relationships is woven into the DNA of Willow Ridge Dental. In his first year of college, Jones was studying to be an engineer, but a two-year mission to Japan made him reconsider his life’s goals. He realized during that mission that he loved interacting with people, so he started looking into other career options, and his father asked if he had considered the medical field. It was a lightbulb moment. He started talking to people in the field, including his dentist, and realized it would be a good fit. “This gave me the opportunity to interact with people, but to also help them smile,” he said.

Interestingly, he says, there is a causal relationship between smiling and the feeling of happiness. “Physically, when we smile, it releases endorphins in the brain, which makes us happy. So, if we can’t smile, we’re shutting down some of those happiness centers in the brain,” Jones said. “If someone is self-conscious about their smile, and we can help fix that for them, they can leave happy because they can smile again.”

Of course, dentistry is much more than cosmetics; dental care is healthcare. The bacteria associated with periodontal disease have been shown to have a strong connection with heart disease, diabetes, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, and other disorders. By staying on top of regular dental care, patients have a much greater chance to combat overall health concerns down the line.

But if you’re like many Americans and have been putting off that trip to the dentist’s chair, it’s important to realize that getting started is an important step, and it’s never too late. “A lot of people come in and say, ‘Oh, I haven’t been in for 20 years,’ and our response is always, ‘Well, you’re here now.’ We can’t change the past, but we can start to work forward from here and take care of these issues. Half the fear is the unknown, so if we can give them clarity on where they are now and help point them in the right direction, that makes it all worth it,” Jones said.

The new building should also help people to feel more comfortable. The previous space had seven rooms; today, they have six hygienist rooms and six for doctor operations. There is a lab on-site where patients can watch their crowns being made the same day, and for the staff, there is a spacious break room, workout room, locker rooms, laundry facilities for scrubs, and a conference room.

For Jones, the primary goal is to serve his community in all aspects of his life. When the Iraqi war broke out in 2003, his first instinct, despite being in dental school at Case School of Dental Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio, was to join the military and help serve his country. When an Air Force recruiter contacted him about becoming an enlisted dentist to provide care for the military overseas, he and his wife, Katie, jumped at the opportunity. In 2008, after residency, he was stationed at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida when he got the call to become one of seven dentists deployed to Iraq, where he was not only providing dental care but filling in in the operating room, suturing trauma wounds and seeing some of the ugliest sides of war.

After deployment, the opportunity opened for him and his family to return to Billings and buy the practice where he grew up. In 2009, he and Katie came home, where they have raised six children. Katie founded the Heights Basketball Club, which is geared toward providing positive opportunities for youth. “We wanted to come back to be near family and friends and help build the community that we’re in,” Jones said. “It’s nice that it happens to be where our family is.”

Originally printed in the November 2024 issue of Simply Local Magazine

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