WILMINGTON — The Wilmington dental practice of Gary Blumberg, DDS, has merged with the Wilmington dental practice of Brooke Hamilton, DDS and Levi Hamilton, DDS.
On Monday, June 5 the staffs of both practices will be under one roof at Dr. Blumberg’s current facility located at 293 N. South St. across the street from the library.
Dr. Blumberg, 60, is not retiring, and everyone on both staffs will continue at the newly combined practice to be named Wilmington Dental Arts.
The Hamiltons are a married couple with two young children.
“With two Dr. Hamiltons, we go by Dr. Levi and Dr. Brooke because it gets too confusing pretty quick,” explained Dr. Levi.
Their practice has been located on the 800 block of West Main Street since August 2014. They bought the practice located there back in 2013 while they were in the midst of doing two years with the National Health Service Corps where participants work in under-served areas.
Dr. Levi, 34, is originally from Leesburg in Highland County, and a grandfather of his was a Clinton County farmer.
As an undergraduate, he attended Ohio Northern University and received a degree in chemistry, and then went to The Ohio State University for dental school.
Dr. Brooke went to Youngstown State University for undergraduate studies, before also going on to dental school at Ohio State.
In addition, Dr. Brooke received extra training in a dental residency with Dayton Veterans Affairs, which she enjoyed.
As for the time with the National Health Service Corps, Dr. Levi said, “We wanted to get the experience of doing that, and there is some loan payback on that which is beneficial.”
For now, Dr. Brooke will work “very part-time,” said Dr. Levi.
“She wants to stay home with our kids while they’re little, teeny-tiny and growing up,” Dr. Levi remarked. Daughter Daphne is 2½ years old and son Hirsh is 2½ months old.
To accommodate the merger from a facility and space standpoint, all that was required was a little bit of remodeling, said Dr. Levi.
“It’s not a big remodel, just some small changes to make things more functional and easy-flowing,” he added.
“Sometimes with a merger there is duplication of staff, but we don’t really have that. We’ve got a really nice array of people and we were able to keep everyone,” said Dr. Levi.
One of the main reasons for the dentists to want to make the change, he said, is to serve patients better.
“A bigger staff has lots of benefits in that we can be more centered in on our patients, each and every one that’s here,” said Dr. Levi.
Patients of both practices will have the same hygienist as before.
If a patient has dental work that needs to be done and they want a particular dentist to perform the work, their preference can be met.
With more dentists in one building, they are in a better position to cover emergencies, they said.
Currently, each practice is open four days a week. Come June 5, the practice will be open five days a week.
Dr. Blumberg has been in Wilmington since 1985 when he joined Dr. Willard Lane’s dental practice which dated back to the late 1940s, said Dr. Blumberg.
Regarding retirement plans, Dr. Blumberg said, “I’m going to hang around for a while.”
The phone numbers of both practices will remain active: Gary Blumberg’s 937-382-2042 and the Hamiltons’ 937-383-1913, though Dr. Levi said the 382 prefix number will be the main one.
The website is wilmingtondentalarts.com .
Reach Gary Huffenberger at 937-556-5768.
