Dr. Josh Parry’s newest office blends clean, inviting modern design with his forward-looking vision for a “dental health care network.”

By Edward Kobesky
Photography By Nick Bukofski and Melissa Diltz 

FOR MANY PRACTICE OWNERS, a new build is simply a strategy to achieve specific goals. Some want a distinctive environment that sets them apart and appeals to both patients and staff. Others aim more for an office that checks off all the business boxes: plenty of room to accommodate current patients, total production efficiency and space to expand. For Dr. Josh Parry, those objectives mattered—but his vision goes beyond them, in ways both grand and granular.

Warm welcome:
“Dr. Parry wanted a bright space with whites and gray/beige tones with exposed brick and open ceiling, mid to dark wood tones, concrete, glass door and Midcentury Modern furniture,” says designer Amy Hnat.

Dr. Parry’s suburban Pittsburgh office is certainly beautiful. Walk through the front doors of Modern Dental Associates in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and you’re greeted by a bold logo wall perfectly centered on the entry axis, an expansive, light-filled reception area with a charging bar and mirrored beverage station, and an industrial-modern palette with exposed brick, glass, concrete and rich woods that feels more like boutique hospitality than clinical health care.

But he’s not really a “brand” guy—not foremost, at least. Buzzwords such as scaling don’t excite him, and marketing is a minuscule part of his overall expenses. His vision is to slowly evolve Modern Dental Associates into a dental health care network (DHN): a locally minded, patient-centric, coordinated mix of general and specialty practices sharing clinical planning, education and a common patient‑experience ethos—for which this new office could serve as the hub.

Trickle down: Rather than moving older equipment to the new office, Dr. Parry decided to start fresh with all new equipment and transfer the best legacy models to satellite offices.

“There really is an opportunity to reestablish dentistry as a pillar of the community,” he says. “In medicine, physicians and specialists often sit down and talk about cases; in dentistry we rarely do. If we can improve outcomes, patient experience and doctor and team experience by working together, that’s a brighter future than most people imagine.” For now, his new office is the largest of three locations and already a hub built as the model for future offices, as well as a nerve center for team collaboration and CE.

Community
Versus Competition
“I don’t really see other dentists as com­petition,” Dr. Parry says. “There are a lot of great dentists out there, and from my front door I can see the signs of five others.” Rather, his attention is focused inward. “I have the trifecta here: a great team, great environment and great care. I don’t know that one is necessarily more important than the other. When you have cohesiveness and continuity, it’s a recipe for delivering care in a way that matters to patients.”

Comfort meets cool: In keeping with its premium feel, Dr. Parry’s practice has Lesro and Herman Miller furnishings throughout.

While the entrepreneurial aspects of the profession come second for him, Dr. Parry is also an astute businessman who’s always looking to apply successful concepts in service of his larger future vision. “I used to be really anti-DSO,” he says. “But there are aspects of ‘corporatization,’ like systems and efficiency, that are beneficial for everyone. If we can operate similarly where it makes sense and still maintain a great culture and small town–type sense of community, we can do something really good for dentistry here.”

Consolidation and Reinvention
When Dr. Parry bought the former Kraisinger Family Dentistry about four years ago, it had four locations, including a flagship office that was still beautiful but beginning to show its age. “Unfortunately, we were maxed out,” he says. “When every room is full, if you get behind in one room, it throws off the entire day.” Adding even a single operatory would have meant sacrificing offices, storage, team space and parking—and the remodel would have taken at least a year of partial shutdown. “Building new in an open shell cost about the same but gave us exactly what we wanted without downtime. There’s almost nothing I’d change about this office.”

That was 2023. Since then, Dr. Parry has closed one far-flung location, lightly renovated the others to align their environments more closely with the Greensburg hub and attracted many more new patients there. With 16 operatories—three still await full outfitting—there’s plenty of room for expansion. Dr. Parry hopes to add at least one hygiene room this year as well as another doctor. As you’d expect given his philosophy, it’s less about business-minded expansion than serving a growing patient base. “You think bigger is going to be better, but it’s never the case,” he says. “Be careful what you wish for. Growth has to fit your culture.”

Dr. Josh Parry’s

Project Tips

Design for flexibility.
“All our restorative rooms are exactly the same. We can do anything in any room. If I need to do an endo or surgery, we just wheel in the right cart. That flexibility is huge.”

Think beyond aesthetics.
“Our old office was beautiful, but the layout didn’t work for how dentistry has evolved. Now, sterilization and operatories are set up for better flow.”

Build for the future.
“With 16 ops and room to expand, we can potentially absorb retiring dentists or add providers without buying another building.”

Invest in team spaces.
“We do monthly doctor meetings and study clubs here. It’s about camaraderie and training, not just patient care.”

Expect the timeline to stretch.
“Things can take longer and be harder than you expect.”

Design and Details
The new layout isn’t just beautiful—it’s engineered for speed and simplicity. The main treatment corridor houses a row of identical treatment rooms. “I get significantly fewer steps here in than in our old office,” he says. Centralized sterilization and storage cut down even more on back and forth, while mobile carts add flexibility. The uniformity means no wasted motion: Every drawer, every handpiece is exactly where the team expects it. “We can pivot instantly—endo, surgery, restorative—without moving patients or shuffling rooms,” he says.

When you have cohesiveness and continuity, it’s a recipe for delivering care in a way that matters to patients.”
—Dr. Josh Parry

One of the biggest spaces in the shell became a design challenge: The original footprint for reception was so broad, it felt cavernous and disconnected to Dr. Parry. “It was short but really wide, and I didn’t want patients to feel like they were sitting in an airport terminal.” The solution: shrink the waiting area by carving out additional storage behind one wall, creating a more proportionate, welcoming zone. While the final design remains relaxingly roomy, Dr. Parry has no plans to pack it with more seating. “If we’re doing it right, people shouldn’t be waiting long.”

Divide and conquer:
A movable divider can be opened or closed to combine the team and conference rooms into one large space for hosting bigger meetings.

Constantly connected:
The mechanical room features Aeras compressors by Ramvac, with 24/7 monitoring, real-time perfor­mance data, remote diagnostics and predictive maintenance.

When it came to outfitting with equipment, he made another decisive choice to start from scratch. “We kept a few pieces—maybe a laser or an implant motor—but everything else here is brand new,” he says. It made more sense, he reasoned, to transplant equipment from the old Greensburg location downstream to satellite offices while investing in a full suite

of new technology for the flagship. The process was collaborative: Dr. Parry brought several members of his team to Benco Dental’s CenterPoint interior design and equipment showroom in northeastern Pennsylvania to evaluate options and weigh in on a variety of workflow considerations. “They didn’t pick everything, but I didn’t go against their suggestions much, either,” he says.

Space for Ideas
While Dr. Parry is adamant that bigger isn’t always better in terms of scale, the Greensburg office does prove that there’s no substitute for square footage when it makes sense. Aside from the dramatic reception area, Dr. Parry’s comfy conference room is a cornerstone of his vision for collaboration and growth, hosting case reviews, monthly doctor meetings and continuing education sessions. “We host a Spear Study Club here, so we’ll get four to six docs together for dinner and discussion,” he says. “It’s nice to have a space where we can step back from the operatory and focus on learning and connection.”

His community-minded posture is working wonders, both inside and out. “We’ve had temps come in who ask if we’re hiring. That’s a nice signal,” he says. Still, he wants to accomplish even more outside his walls. Those five doctors whose practices he can see from his front door? “I don’t know any of them. That’s insane to me.” His advice for younger doctors considering an ownership path like his is an outgrowth of that mindset. “Why do it alone? Why not work together? Lean on others’ clinical and business experience and realize upside faster.”

Purposeful design, streamlined operations and a deeply human culture elevate Dr. Parry’s new office beyond mere bricks and mortar. Looking ahead, he’s leaning on two constants to guide his professional growth: community and common sense. His parting words are a refreshingly simple mantra for like-minded practice owners: “Just take care of people. Do what’s right. This isn’t rocket science.”

The Design Team

Photography: Nick Bukofski, Melissa Diltz
Interior Design: Amy Hnat, Benco Dental
Equipment Specialist: Brett Silvius, Benco Dental
Friendly Benco Rep: Angie Hines, Benco Dental
Online: moderndentalpa.com