Weary of traditional health care color palettes, Dr. DeMarquis Loyd dreamed up something bolder and more uplifting for his upscale yet accessible neighborhood practice. Standing out never looked so good.

WELCOME TO WYLIE, TEXAS, about 25 miles from downtown Dallas yet still well within the metroplex’s enormous sprawl. In a big city where residents are desensitized to long commutes, and competition is rarely just local, it pays to stand out, if you can do so smartly.

Enter Resilient Dental Lounge, a practice with a personally meaningful philosophy expressed in its name, a distinctive “comfort menu” of patient amenities and a look that’s more mid-mod boutique hotel than doctor’s office. It manages to feel immediately warm, welcoming, friendly and deeply soothing. One look proves that you don’t necessarily need a muted color palette to conjure up strong associations of trust, credibility, cleanliness and professionalism among patients.

“I knew one thing: I did not want blue to be our primary color, because it’s just so prevalent at most offices you see. We wanted it to have a variety of modern colors that coalesce, and I think they do,” says Dr. DeMarquis Loyd, who shared conceptual and planning duties with Dr. Channon Davis, his husband, business partner and Resilient’s VP of Operations. Davis isn’t a doctor of the dental variety, though: He’s a former academic with an MBA and a doctorate in educational leadership from Samford University.

Luxe lounge: Funky seating and an airy, open feel make the reception area at Resilient Dental an easy place to unwind before an appointment.

Drs. Loyd and Davis exemplify the bold, risk-taking ethos and vision of today’s entrepreneurial practice owners, especially in big cities with higher costs of living where being competitive means leveling up in special ways. For example, they’re a two-business household, with Davis also owning Dr. Davis Property Inspections. They split work responsibilities according to their individual strengths, pitching in at both businesses. Luckily enough, they came to a crossroads in their professional lives at roughly the same time. Dr. Loyd was looking to do something different than what he terms “corporate dentistry.” Davis was ready for a change of pace from hardcore academia. Serendipi­tous, yes, but there would also be challenges.

Building a Dream
“I moved to the Dallas–Fort Worth area in January 2020, right at the start of the pandemic,” Dr. Loyd recalls, “and during that time I was working for a DSO, doing more travel, and it got to be really taxing. The idea [for the practice] came about because I wanted something that was closer to home that didn’t require a long commute.” It was a turning point for Davis as well. “We were both new to Texas, and I was leaving behind my career in education,” he says. “We prayed over it: What will life look like, what do we want this to be?”

Finding office space close to home proved difficult, compounded by high real estate prices. The duo found a champion in Steve Roglin, their Benco Dental Equipment Specialist. “I can’t sing his prai­ses enough,” Davis says. “He put us together with some people who really understood the process, and we got in front of a bank that was lending specifically for health care providers. After making that connection, everything started to fall into place: We got financing, chose our equipment with Steve and locked in a location that we wanted.”

Dr. Loyd says their interior designer, Benco Dental’s Taylor Haight, helped flesh out the vision alongside brand design specialist Allison Simenkiewicz. “[Haight] said, ‘Let’s find your mood and your vibe,’ but quite frankly, at that early stage, I didn’t have a firm answer. I’m a visual person. I needed to see ideas. So we relied heavily on her in that regard, and she really helped it come to life.” Adds Davis, “Ultimately, we decided on a design that was a good balance for both of us, one that will grow with time, because I think that was a concern as well.”

Crafting an Identity
But they still hadn’t settled on a name for the practice. A lot of thought and handwringing went into it. “Knowing what it was like on the corporate side, where the practices are essentially big-box dentistry and purposely nondescript to appeal to a wide range of patients, that taught me what I didn’t want,” Dr. Loyd says. “You can’t attract patients seeking comprehensive treatment with that kind of branding, and I want long-term patient relationships.”

Then it hit them. One thing they’d learned though reloca­ting, changing career directions, rethinking their goals, surviving the pandemic and braving the Dallas real estate market: resilience. It’s a name with meaning for them, and also a message to patients about positivity, overcoming their challenges in health care and life, and moving onward. A stylized be resilient sign is mounted on a flower wall in the practice’s welcoming area for all to contemplate.

Even though the practice attracts patients from miles around, the partners were delighted that Dr. Loyd quickly became “the neighborhood dentist” for many locals. “What we discovered is that Wiley is a very personable neighborhood, and the people are very small-business-oriented. They love to support the community in that way,” Dr. Loyd says. “We fit into that because we welcome all patients, regardless of where they are in their dental journey.”

Part of that welcoming vibe is provided by the practice’s “Comfort Menu,” a unique combination of med-spa offerings blended with resort-like amenities and conveyed on an actual menu. It quickly puts patients in a more relaxed frame of mind, allowing them to select the right mix of accoutrements for their visit: maybe a sip of herbal tea while checking in, a few minutes in the massage chair to help leave the outside world behind, a movie on Netflix during the procedure or, heck, a little nitrous if need be. Yep, nitrous is right on the menu, and why shouldn’t it be? It lets patients know, right away, that Dr. Loyd and his team are committed to making their treatment anxiety-free.

If you need dental treatment, you deserve to have that in a nice environment, where people know you and care about you.

—Dr. DeMarquis Loyd

Brand matters: (Lower left and right) “Dr. Loyd’s top priority is making patients feel calm and welcome,” says Benco Dental’s brand design specialist. “We wanted to encourage this, so we went with the sage green and positioned the dental chairs so they’re inviting you to take a seat.”

Staying Resilient
In some ways, the hard part is over for the two partners. In other ways, they’re just getting started. They have a strong interior design, logo and brand in place. The practice’s layout and flow have been optimized based on Dr. Loyd’s previous experience at other practices. In addition to imbuing Resilient Dental Lounge with a confidence-inspiring visual identity that avoids being aloof at all costs, they also co-created it to be scalable and inherently expandable to new locations when the time comes. The stage is set for Resilient Dental Lounge to find its place in the larger market.

Naturally, Dr. Loyd likes patients who are committed to maintaining their dental health on an ongoing basis, rather than calling for an appointment only when problems crop up. Still, they’re discovering what it means to be the friendly neighborhood practice in a big city where the highly affluent and not-as-well-off can be separated by just a couple minutes’ drive, and how to accommodate everyone. “We want to be able to offer high-end dental treatment, but also everyday procedures that are just needed,” Dr. Loyd says. “We take certain insurances, but in addition to that, if you don’t have insurance, we have a membership plan that you can subscribe to, so you’ll at least get your exams, keep up with your hygiene and hopefully avoid some of that more costly treatment.”

Dr. Loyd and Davis are both quick to remind Incisal Edge that while they’re ambitious, they’re not plotting to take over the world, at least not yet. Their primary focus is on patient care as the practice grows. Plus, at the end of the day, Resilient Dental Lounge has a simple mission. “I just believe everybody deserves to be treated well,” Dr. Loyd says, “and if you need dental treatment, you deserve to have that in a nice environment, where people know you and care about you.” We’d say Resilient Dental Lounge is exactly that kind of environment, reflecting the nice people who work there and their endless resilience to do right by every patient.

The Design Team

Photography: Aerophoto America
Interior Design: Taylor Haight, Benco Dental
Brand Design: Allison Simenkiewicz, Benco Dental
Equipment Specialist: Steve Roglin
Friendly Benco Rep: Don Simpson
Online: resilientdentalsolutions.com