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Libertyville dentist takes pride in relieving dental anxiety

An interview with Dr. David P. Potts, owner of Lake County Dental Care in Libertyville.

Q: Describe your business.

A: A gentle and relaxed dental experience! I take great pride in relieving dental anxiety. At Lake County Dental Care, our goal is to provide families with a gentle, relaxed dental experience. We offer comfortable, caring dentistry for the whole family in a state of the art facility. As a member of the community for over 30 years, we have helped our patients maintain or regain their smiles and care for their dental health.

Lake County Dental Care continually strives to be at the forefront of dental innovation. We have offered oral sedation for adults for almost 20 years. Since that time, we have helped thousands of patients with high dental fear find their smiles and dental health. We are experts at the placement and restoration of dental implants, cosmetic, and restorative dentistry. Lake County Dental Care offers innovative teeth straightening services. We excel at nonsurgical laser assisted gum therapy, natural looking crowns, veneers, bridges, and bonded fillings, precision tooth whitening systems, and many other services. We provide our patients with access in our office to specialist periodontics and endodontic services. We have a cone beam CT scan equipment that allows us to perform advanced diagnosis and treatment in our own facility. We offer multiple financing and payment option to aid our patients. Additionally, we offer an internal dental assistance savings plan for our patients who are not covered by dental insurance. This helps our patients manage paying for their care in the most economical way possible.

Q: What made you start your business?

A: I decided that to offer patients the excellent proactive level of service and dental care it would work best if I had my own practice. In that environment I could provide all the aspects of their care in such a way that offered our patients the best chance of having a healthy mouth and beautiful smile for a lifetime. Having my own business provided me with the opportunity to continually stay on top of state of the art technology, advanced techniques and continuing education programs to offer that level of care and service.

Q: What has been the most difficult obstacle in running a small business?

A: I'm not sure I view it as much as an obstacle but as an opportunity, but I feel finding and continually providing the training for excellent team members is the most significant challenge we face in a small business.

Q: What areas do you service?

A: We service a very large geographic area. The majority of our patients come from central Lake County and northern Cook County, however we also have patients who come to see us from Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan and a number from the central and western parts of northern Illinois.

Q: Is this what you pictured yourself doing when you were young?

A: I started off as an economics and business administration major when I was pursuing my undergraduate degree. However, I found that that degree program did not engage or excite me. Like many college students, I did some soul searching. I remembered my interest in dentistry from when I was in orthodontic braces as a child. It occurred to me that I loved science and the idea of helping people as a doctor. I felt dentistry would be a great fit for me because it was interesting and I liked working with my hands. It turns out that I made a great decision back then because I love what I do and have been a lifelong student of the profession.

Q: What did you want to be when you grew up?

A: After World War II, my grandfather was one of the lucky people to be a GE appliance dealer. He and my uncle developed the business into a successful HVAC company when air conditioning was becoming a common luxury in businesses and homes. As I look back, my grandfather was one of my first mentors and one of the most influential people in my life. I always admired my grandfather's business acumen and wanted to be an entrepreneur like him.

Q: If you could give one tip to a rookie business owner, what would it be?

A: Find your passion and follow it. Look to others who are doing or have done what you desire to do who can be your mentors on your journey. Be open to opportunities to grow both personally and professionally and make the choices necessary to take advantage of them. Find and cultivate great team members to help you and continually invest in their training as well as your own.

• An occasional series with suburban small business owners.

Business: Lake County Dental Care

Address: 908 S. Milwaukee Ave., Libertyville, IL 60048

Telephone: 847-362-6540

Owner: David P. Potts, DDS

When business started: April 1974

Web address: www.libertyvilledentist.com

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