Thriving Smiles Pediatric Dentistry
North Ridgeville, Ohio

Dr. George Boukas achieved his ambitious first-time practice ownership goals with this precocious design, trading tired kid-friendly clichés for sophistication that speaks to his young patients’ potential.

By Edward Kobesky
Photography by Tony Hughes: TONYRHUGHES.COM

Grown-up tastes: Rather than plaster the office with wallpaper or stuffed animals, Dr. Boukas chose a more sophisticated gallery-like presentation of kid-friendly art.

IS IT CRUEL and unusual to schedule an interview with a hard-working dentist late on a Friday afternoon at the tail end of a long week? If so, Dr. George Boukas isn’t showing any signs of fatigue. He’s energized and enthusiastic even though our talk is running understandably long. After all, it’s not every day that someone so fresh out of dental school launches a practice as thoughtfully designed and aesthetically refined as his. “No way,” he reassures us with a smile, regarding potential weariness. “I could talk about this stuff all day.”
He really could—he has clearly found his calling.

Once upon a time, he was an accounting major, but a few internships sent him fleeing in a different direction. “Sitting in front of a spreadsheet in a cubicle—I was like,
‘I don’t think I want to do this.’ ” A Toronto-born sports fan and kids’ hockey coach, he briefly considered pursuing physical therapy, but conversations with his sister, a dental student at the University of North Carolina, opened another door. After shadowing both professions, he made his choice. “I fell in love with how dentists can own their own practice and shape it however they want. So I said, ‘Yeah, I want to go to dental school.’ And my parents laughed in my face, because I wasn’t always the best student.”

Purple reign: “Based on the existing brand colors, we chose an ice cream shop motif for the environmental graphics,” says Benco Dental’s Allison Simenkiewicz.

All the Right Moves

Dr. Boukas’s self-deprecating humor belies the canny choices he has consistently made. The first was finishing his original degree but switching from accounting to business management—more relevant for future practice owners—before completing his science prerequisites and earning admission to Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine in Ohio. There, a unique program introduced him to pediatric patients early on. “We were doing exams and sealants in Cleveland elementary schools as first-year students,” he says. “That planted the seed. I said, ‘Yeah, working with kids is fun.’ ”

Instead of an associateship, he chose residency at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia. “I knew I wanted to specialize in pediatrics, and I knew I wanted to start my own practice,” he says. “There’s a lot that dental school doesn’t prepare you for. But after a pediatric residency, I felt I’d be ready.”

He began planning, researching locations and studying demographics in his second year. He targeted North Ridgeville, a fast-growing suburb of Cleveland in the shadow of his dental school alma mater. Since greater Cleveland was already home for his wife, Alyssa, and her family, it made practical sense—especially as the couple would soon be expecting their first child. “There wasn’t a pediatric dentist here. I said, ‘If not me, who?’ So we went for it.”

Next came the name. After playing with some ideas, he settled on Thriving Smiles Pediatric Dentistry because “it isn’t strictly referring to dentistry. It alludes to children’s growth and development and confidence building, and our treatment philosophy reflects that.”

Boomtown Bidding Wars

While North Ridgeville’s seemingly unstoppable population growth—up 65 percent since 2000—has undeniable benefits for business owners, the downside is that commercial development, along with public services, have struggled to keep up. “I was looking at a building to purchase, but an investor group beat me to it,” says Dr. Boukas, 34.

Undaunted, he went for the next best thing: a just-vacated dental office in one of the only rental buildings with availability. “The dentist moved to a bigger space, so it was already mostly plumbed and laid out. My original plan was not to do as much to it, but I had to make it more pediatric-friendly.” Given the option of taking all 3,500 square feet or cutting it by half, Dr. Boukas chose to grow into the larger space. “From everything I’ve heard, moving is a colossal pain down the road if you outgrow it.”

Sweet integration:
“I wanted the prize machines to be a statement, not an afterthought,”
Dr. Boukas says. The wall was designed accordingly.

Just Like Starting Over

If Dr. Boukas’s interior appears scratch-built, it mostly was. He was locked into certain immovable constraints, like windows and structural supports, but his plan was to reimagine everything else for two important reasons.

Number one: “The other pediatric dentists around me have been in practice for 20 or 30 years, so I wanted to offer something fresher. In general, there’s not a lot of new stuff around here. It’s not like a Charlotte or Nashville. So I didn’t want to bring something people have seen before.”

Check-in charmer:
“My favorite part of the office is the custom desk. We get compliments all the time,” Dr. Boukas says.

Number two: The design also had to be replicable should he decide to open more locations. “This is the blueprint,” he says, and though expansion isn’t a yet a front-burner concern, it always pays to think ahead.

He originally planned to tackle interior design himself with help from his wife, but the number of choices seemed overwhelming, so the couple turned to Benco Dental’s Amy Hnat, an interior designer, with help from brand design specialist Allison Simenkiewicz for environmental graphics.

Tasty treatment:
Colors and shapes evocative of candy were chosen “to be a little retro, a little familiar, but not obviously ’80s- or ’90s-themed.”

The Boukases visited Benco Dental’s CenterPoint design and equipment showroom in Pennsylvania. During one visit, in addition to test driving equipment options, Hnat says they “discussed [Dr. Boukas’s] design style, reviewed his existing logo and branding and selected almost all the materials for the project.” They kept the space light and bright, with lots of white finishes, plus accents incorporating his three branding colors with paint, wall graphics, laminate panels and carpet tiles. “He had a very clear vision of what he wanted for his design, and the finished product reflects that vision perfectly.”

Paint by numbers: “I don’t think there’s any such thing as a perfect floor plan. I knew what I wanted but was working with what we have.”

All the while, Dr. Boukas was flying back and forth from his Philadelphia residency to his future home in North Ridgeville. “I was hoping construction would be done and we’d be ready to open as soon as I graduated, but I knew
I might need to build in a buffer. In the end, I graduated in June, and we opened in September.”

Sprinkled with Smartness

The design speaks for itself. “I wanted it to be pediatric-friendly, but not in the typical way,” he explains. “No zoo themes. No rainbow walls.” Light-filled and airy, the office is devoid of darkness and the sort of claustrophobic confinement that can trigger anxiety in younger kids (or in anyone, really). It’s the design equivalent of a PG-rated animated movie that’s equally fun for parents and their children alike. Not surprisingly, it’s growing. He’s seeing about 30 patients a day, so it won’t be long before he’s using all 3,500 square feet—or adding more locations, thanks in part to branding and interior design that’s distinctive, friendly and scalable.

Dr. Boukas may claim he didn’t thrive in the classroom as a younger man, but he has more than made up for it in the real world. He studied business and opportunity, leveraging both to connect the magical trifecta of right practice, right place, right time. He mastered collaboration, knowing when to go with his gut and when to defer to experts. Most of all, he’s a student of people—especially kids—radiating that special kind of empathy and caring that the finest top-notch pediatric specialists all seem to possess. If he wants to play it humble, that’s fine by us. But we’re giving his practice a solid A-plus.

The Design Team

Photography: Tony Hughes, tonyrhughes.com
Interior and Dental Design: Amy Hnat, Benco Dental
Brand Design: Allison Simenkiewicz, Benco Dental
Equipment Specialist: Brett Silvius, Benco Dental
Sales Rep: Justin Lind, Benco Dental
Online: pediatricdentistnorthridgeville.com

Dr. George Boukas’s

Project Tips

• On designing a floor plan “Everyone’s so connected now online that it can be paralyzing. On startup forums, I’ve seen members pick apart every kind of floor plan. I’ve also seen established offices that did not have functional floor plans at all, and they made it work. The truth is, with good advice, you can’t get too far off track.”
• On choosing a location “You can always find pockets that are rich with opportunity. For example, I could have gone to rural Indiana, bought a practice and done very well right away. But for me, you should always start with where you want to live. I have more of an abundance mindset, that there are enough patients to go around.”
• On pulling the trigger “Success depends on being able to recognize opportunity. It’s easy to overthink it or say, ‘Oh, I’m not ready, I’m a young dentist.’ You have to take the opportunities when they come and figure things out later.”
• On selecting equipment “Planning a startup while in residency was daunting. My [Benco Dental] equipment rep, Brett Silvius, took care to listen to my needs and keep me on track within my budget. I never felt pushed to make extra purchases or design decisions. On the contrary, Benco got creative and found ways to keep costs as low as possible. This is how we got started with our partnership: through trust and open communication.”
• On collaborating with interior designers “Today’s unlimited materials, colors and combinations can lead to ‘paralysis by analysis.’ A professional designer can take your vision and give you a handful of options to choose from that still accomplish the vibe you’re going for. We started with inspiration photos, floor plan/layout and brand colors, then moved on to mood boards to show how everything would work together.”
• On keeping the project moving “The design process was easy and actually fun. Benco responded to any design or equipment changes quickly, which is crucial during a practice buildout where time is money. They efficiently communicated with my contractor to bring the ideas to life. With any change orders or additions to the design during the construction phase—and I had many—the Benco design team was quick to come up with a quality design and relay the information to the contractors.”