New pediatric dentistry office opens in Southold
Dr. Mindy Homer, a pediatric dentist with offices in Manhasset and Brooklyn, saw the need for her specialty on the North Fork. A resident of Southold since 2016, Dr. Homer was visiting her child’s pediatrician last winter, when they discussed the lack of pediatric dentistry in the area.
Dr. Homer had been thinking about opening a practice in the area and soon after began pursuing a new location for Happy KiDDs Pediatric Dentistry.
After months of planning, Dr. Homer opened a Southold location at 44655 Route 48 on Oct. 10.
“The feedback has been amazing,” Dr. Homer said. “The phone calls coming in, [people are] just so excited that there was a pediatric dentist locally and that they don’t have to go to Wading River to go see somebody. So I’ve been very happy with the response thus far.”
Dr. Homer has been in private practice since 2004. She closed on the purchase of the facility in June and broke ground to start on renovations that same month.
“I had to renovate the inside and give it a fresh feeling — nothing structurally, just aesthetics,” she said.
The office is geared toward making young patients comfortable. A Pac-Man arcade game in the waiting room is open for patients to keep them entertained. The building has three operatories for treating patients and for consultations. Every room is a different bright color, with stickers monkeys, toucans, giraffes and more. Each room also has a TV on the ceiling to entertain patients as Dr. Homer performs procedures.
She also has state-of-the-art equipment such as a panoramic X-ray machine and also offers digital radiographies for their patients to reduce exposure to radiation.
Dr. Homer said she would be splitting her time in Southold with the two other locations, with appointments Mondays, Wednesdays and select Saturdays. She has a dental assistant who works in the Southold office with her and a medical receptionist on the front desk, along with a support staff of eight or nine people who help remotely with phone calls and insurance verification.
Dr. Homer said she’s already approaching seeing about 40 new patients. She said she wants to continue expanding by bringing in additional doctors, such as an oral surgeon and an ear, nose and throat doctor.
“I want to turn this into a pediatric wellness area,” she said. “I want the best of the best where we all work together and collaborate.”
Dr. Homer spoke about the difference between the way general dentistry and pediatric dentistry are practiced and wanted to offer the best experience and care to her patients.
“That’s what really prompted me to open on the North Fork is knowing that the majority of the kids were being seen by general dentists,” Dr. Homer said. “I wanted them to have the experience of a pediatric dentist and make sure that their growth is being followed the way it’s supposed to be with an X-ray like a panoramic, taken at the appropriate time.”
Dr. Homer said she wants to show kids and families on the North Fork that visiting the dentist can be a fun experience.
“That’s my goal is, I want the kids to have fun,” she said. “When they have a cavity, it doesn’t have to be this awful experience and actually, it’s quite fun, and when the children leave, they want to come back and they ask when they can do that again, so that’s just wonderful to set them up for a lifetime of loving the dentist … so that’s what I really wanted to bring to the North Fork, because I have that in both of my other offices.”
