Keeping it in the family

MILTON — Milton's Webster Family Dentistry has made dental care a family affair for three generations.

Douglas Webster runs the 40-year dental practice with his two sons, Jay and Adam Webster. Douglas said he started the practice in 1978 while still on active duty with the Navy. He joined, in part, because the Navy had a scholarship program for dentistry, he said. He took appointments in the evening and on the weekends until he completed his tour of service in 1979. 

Douglas said the Navy asked where he would like to be stationed; he requested to be stationed in Florida.

 “After two years you usually get rotated but they left me here,” Douglas said.

Douglas said he went into dentistry to make something of himself but didn’t want to go into medical doctoring. He said his mother encouraged him to pursue dentistry.

Douglas’s eldest son Jay, who joined the practice in 2007, said his first interest was computer science.

“That really only lasted the first semester,” Jay said. “After that, I really liked life sciences better than I did mathematics. I always had dentistry in the back of my mind.”   

Jay said he didn’t get into dentistry his first year out of college. Two things would influence his decision, though: He worked in various dental office roles while preparing for the Prep Dental test. He also joined his father on two mission trips, one to Africa, as a dental assistant.

Douglas’s youngest son, Andy, who joined the practice in June, was imagining himself a dentist even as a child.

"Dad always had a bag of dental tools…Growing up, [with] my best friends, we would always play dentist," Andy said.

Like his brother, Andy worked in the office but considered other career fields.

“My first year of undergrad in college," he said, "I really kind of looked at being a doctor…[but] the thought of being in school into my thirties was not something I wanted."

The Webster family members say they have never advertised and never worry about money. Their philosophy is to put the patients first.

According to the Websters, the practice has patients that have moved from Milton but still drive back for their dental work. Douglas said they also have patients who have been seeing them since childhood and some that are bringing their own children to him now.  

This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Keeping it in the family