Anthony retires from dentistry

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SIDNEY — Although Dr. Robert Anthony, of Sidney, handed his door keys and dental drill to Matthew Evers on July 1, he hasn’t yet realized that he’s now retired.

Evers, of Sidney, purchased the practice and has been seeing patients for the last three weeks. Anthony and his wife spent that time in Canada.

“It felt like a vacation,” Anthony said. “When you get back, you know that every day’s going to be a Saturday.” He’s been a dentist for 41 years. The new doctor in the building at 325 Second Ave. is just starting out. Evers earned a Bachelor of Science from Limestone College in Gaffney, South Carolina, a Master of Arts from Ball State in Muncie, Indiana, and a Doctor of Medical Dentistry from the Medical University of South Carolina.

“My wife’s from Coldwater,” he said. “We met at Ball State. She wanted to come back closer to her folks.” So, when a supply saleswoman learned that Evers was looking for a practice to buy in west central Ohio and knew that Anthony had one for sale, she got the two of them together.

“If we hadn’t had Matthew come along, we’d close down by the end of the year,” Anthony said.

Dentistry has changed a lot since Anthony opened his own practice in 1979 after working as an associate of Dr. Stephen Corthell.

“When I started, we had to cast our own metal cores for a tooth that had to be crowned,” Anthony said. If a tooth is broken so much that there’s nothing for a crown to adhere to, a core is put into the tooth’s root system and the crown is attached to that core.

“They’re prefabricated now,” Anthony said. “We have computer-controlled anesthesia now. Laser dentistry. So many crowns today are made out of zirconia. They’re so hard, it takes two diamonds to cut them to take them off. Now, a laser can do it in two minutes.”

Evers was trained on all the latest equipment, so he’s right at home with digital dentistry, lasers and computer aids.

“We had to cast one crown,” he said of his university’s nod to old-school methods. “It’s not something I would ever do again. You can scan a tooth and CAD/CAM crown machines (can make the crown). Digital impressions are another thing that’s popular. Instead of taking those yucky impressions, you put a camera in there, scan it, email it to the lab. Maybe in the future, that will be something (I get).”

He already has plans to redecorate the office and update its appearance. He’s looking forward to “going digital” and to growing the business. The general dentistry practice will accept new patients for cleanings, exams, fillings, oral cancer screenings, root canals, crowns and bridges, and dentures and partial plates.

“I’m looking at people being 4 or 5 when they come here and (then) they’re 40. Hopefully I’ll stick with them and they’ll stick with me,” Evers said. “Overall there are really good patients here. They’ve shown me a lot of faith because they’ve gone from Dr. Anthony to me.”

The retiring doctor knows all about watching patients get older.

“It’s not only seeing them as a mouth, it’s seeing them as a person,” Anthony said. “It becomes a sad part of the practice, losing patients. We had some kids we lost. That’s the hardest thing. It take it to heart. It just hurts.”

He has seven orthodontics patients he will continue to see until they’re finished but he has no real plans for retirement.

“I’m not in a hurry to make a decision. I’ll let the Lord lead me,” he said. In the meantime, he has 10 years of back issues of Sports Illustrated to catch up on, he’ll continue to attend Ohio State University games (he’s an alumnus) and he volunteers at the hospital two half-days each month.

“I may increase that,” he said. “The older I get, the less I worry about the future and the more involved (I get) in the now.”

To make an appointment with Evers, call 492-1790 or visit www.eversdentalcenter.com.

Dr. Robert Anthony, right, of Sidney, looks over a patient’s file with Dr. Matthew Evers in Evers’s office recently. Anthony has retired and Evers has purchased his dental practice.
http://aimmedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/47/2015/07/web1_Retiring-dentist.jpgDr. Robert Anthony, right, of Sidney, looks over a patient’s file with Dr. Matthew Evers in Evers’s office recently. Anthony has retired and Evers has purchased his dental practice.

By Patricia Ann Speelman

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Reach the writer at 937-538-4814. Follow her on Twitter @PASpeelmanSDN.

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