Later this month, the Community Dental Care of Green Bank clinic will open in the former dental office of Dr. Eric Snyder.

Fresh out of college, Drs. Josh and Laura Abbott, of Parkersburg and Charleston, respectively, found themselves in the right place at the right time and became members of Community Care of West Virginia, which owns the dental clinic.

“That’s really the crazy thing, it all just worked out,” Laura said. “We actually thought about moving to Colorado just for a change in scenery and we went out, checked it out, and it wasn’t for us. Then we started getting pretty serious about this and it was just perfect.”

Although the Abbotts are from West Virginia, neither had any previous knowledge of Pocahontas County.

“I’ve been to Snowshoe, but that’s it,” Josh said.

The couple met in dental school at West Virginia University and married before they graduated this May. The couple relocated to Marlinton in June when they joined the Community Care family.

The dental office has five rooms, with one for the dental hygienist, Christina Liptrap, and two exam rooms for each of the Abbotts.

Josh said they will offer all dental treatments except orthodontia.

“That’s the one thing we’re probably not going to do much in,” he said. “All the other treatments, we’ll be doing regular fillings, crowns, bridges, dentures and root canals.”

“We won’t do root canals that a specialist will have to tend to, but we’ll do enough to get a patient out of pain and then refer them to someone,” Laura added.

The dentists also plan to reach out to the communities and offer clinics for people of all ages.

“We are wanting to go into schools and do some school-based work and in the nursing homes,” Laura said. “That hasn’t been set up yet, but it’s something we are passionate about.”

Both agree that dental care should start early in life and hope to make dental visits less scary and more fun for children.

“Ideally, the best time to start dental visits is before they’re one year old,” Josh said. “It’s not to do much, it’s just to get them used to a dental office. If you wait until they start having problems, then they’ll start to associate, ‘okay I have pain, I have to go to a dentist,’ then it’s scary.”

“We want them to have a positive experience and get them used to a stranger looking in their mouth,” Laura said. “We’ll have prizes and stickers to give them afterward to make it more fun.”

The Abbotts plan to accept all kinds of dental insurance and are in the process of being approved.

“The idea is not to turn anyone away,” Laura said.

Office hours will be Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Suzanne Stewart may be contacted at sastewart@pocahontastimes.com