By Thomas Sellers Jr.
Open wide…the doors to Aspen Dental in Millington and to the Shop of Millington Farms.
The grand opening of Aspen Dental Millington last Thursday marked the business’ arrival to the Memphis area. Aspen Dental will open in Cordova this week. Meanwhile Aspen Dental in Millington has been joined by Buffalo Wild Wings in the Shops of Millington Farms.
Millington Aspen Dental office manager Caleb Watkins said being the first business to officially open in the new Flag City landmark is special.
“We’re loving it,” he said. “We did kind of a soft opening yesterday. We let a few patients walk in and just tried to get things ready. But today is the grand opening. We’ve been getting a lot of good patient feedback.
“We’re super excited to be in the area,” Watkins added. “A lot of us are new to the area. I myself, I am from Bartlett. We’ve had a lot of people move here from Jackson or Mississippi to be here.”
The practice was brought to Millington by Dr. Elliott Dudley. Not only the owner, Dudley is a Marine Crops veteran. Fellow dentist Dr. Carlos Alexander is a veteran serving in the U.S. Army. While Alexander is the managing clinical director, he is serving in the Army Reserve as a dentist.
Also a part of the dental staff are Dr. Larry Anthony and Dr. Jessica Mepham.
“Dr. Dudley actually owns a couple of practices,” Watkins said. “He just wanted to revamp the area and bring some of his expertise out here. Dr. Alexander is our primary MD here in the office. Then we’ve got two associates that come in here on different days.”
There is a full team waiting to assist any patient from the front office staff to a hygienists. The new Millington office is led by Alexander, who received his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree at Meharry Medical College. Dr. Cynthia Brown, also received her DDS from Meharry Medical College, will lead the Cordova practice.
The two new offices, located in Shelby County, are two of the 27 Aspen Dental practices in Tennessee, a state where 93 of 95 counties, including Shelby, have dental health professional shortage areas as designated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The two new Shelby County locations add to the more than 570 locations across 34 states. In 2015, Aspen Dental-branded practices recorded more than 3.7 million patient visits and welcomed nearly 785,000 new patients.
“Two of our biggest mottos are, ‘Everybody deserves a healthy mouth,’ and ‘Treat every patient like our own Mother,’” Watkins said. “You come in here and have a bad experience, I want to know about it so I can talk to my staff because we’re not doing something right. I want everybody who comes in here to have the best experience possible. Whether we’re the right facility for you or not, we want to do the best we can for you.”
To learn more about Aspen Dental practices and services, preview the Aspen Dental patient experience, get answers to general treatment questions, find a location, and schedule appointments, visit www.aspendental.com. To learn more about careers at ADMI and Aspen Dental practices, visit www.aspendentaljobs.com.
To make an appointment, patients can call (901) 407-2051 (Millington), (901) 410-3090 (Cordova) or 800-ASPEN DENTAL (800-277-3633), or visit www.aspendental.com.
The Millington hours are Monday through Wednesday from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Fridays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. There will be future Saturday hours.
Aspen Dental Millington is located at 8544 Highway 51 North Suite 103.