MIDGETTE FAMILY DENTISTRY

Long-term relationships with mentors, patients and his team form the foundation of Dr. Brian Midgette’s practice

by Judi Tull

Dr. Brian Midgette

There is a theme that plays over and over as Dr. Brian Midgette talks about his 20-year-old dental practice. That theme is relationships.

As a  youngster growing up in Western Branch, not far from where his practice is located,  he was always attracted to medicine. His grandfather had been a physician, his mother a med tech.   His neighbor was Dr. Harold Heafner Jr., who would ultimately play an even greater role in his life, and his orthodontist was the late Dr. Bill  Debnam, whose kindness and skill attracted this teenager’s admiration.

By the time Dr. Midgette was a sophomore in high school, he was working in Dr. Debnam’s orthodontic lab and the course of his professional life was set.

He graduated from Old Dominion University in just  three years, with a bachelor’s degree in biology, and headed for the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond.

Dr. James W. Baker, Dr. Brian P. Midgette and Dr. Kelly M. Bernath are surrounded by the dedicated team at Midgette Family Dentistry.

He met Lisa, a Richmond native who would become his wife, in an anatomy class, and the couple married in 1986. Lisa, a dental hygienist, supported the couple as Dr. Midgette finished up his final year of dental school.

When he graduated in 1987, Dr. Heafner created a position for him in his practice in downtown Portsmouth, while Lisa worked at the Coast Guard base there.

“We are a traditional family
dental practice. I want people to feel comfortable here.
We listen, we talk, we help educate our patients, many
of whom have been with us a very long time.”

— Dr. Brian P. Midgette

“Dr. Heafner taught me an awful lot about people, about practice management, about dentistry,” Dr. Midgette recalls. “I owe him a great debt for all he taught me.”

One of Dr. Midgette’s intentions when he set out to be a dentist was to be independent, and after two years he was ready to strike out on his own. He acquired an existing practice from Dr. Danny Turner and in 1989 opened his own office in a storefront in a small shopping center. He can still see the location from his much larger, current space. He had two employees: receptionist and scheduling coordinator Patricia Barnes and dental hygienist Harriett Albritton. Both are still with him.

Dr. Midgette had a singular focus from the very beginning and it is this that has helped him grow his practice to include now two other dentists and a staff of 18: to provide premier customer service and high-quality dentistry to everyone who came through his doors.

“We are a traditional family dental practice,” he says with great pride. “I want people to feel comfortable here. We listen, we talk, we help educate our patients, many of whom have been with us a very long time.”

Skip Michaud is one of those patients. He’s been seeing Dr. Midgette for 15 years and swears he wouldn’t go anywhere else.

“He’s a great guy and an excellent dentist,” he says. “My mouth was a train wreck when I first went to him, and there’s been a lot of work to do over the years. He made suggestions, and there was never any pressure. Everything we did was always my choice. He came up with a course of action, sent me to an orthodontist, and between the two of them they gave me a wonderful smile. My self-esteem totally went right through the roof.

“I stayed with Dr. Midgette for a lot of reasons, but especially because he’s so approachable. Everyone on his staff is wonderful, and we’re all on a first-name basis. When I walk in, it’s like on Cheers, where everyone says ‘Hi Skip!’ I live in Suffolk, and I don’t mind the extra drive to see him. My wife, Peggy, goes there, too. We wouldn’t think of going anywhere else.”

By 1996, Dr. Midgette’s practice had outgrown that small storefront and he built his current office, with plenty of room for continued growth. Six years later,  Churchland native Dr. James Baker joined the team and, in 2006, Dr. Midgette brought in Dr. Kelly Bernath, a recent dental school graduate.

“We’re very particular about who we hire,” Dr. Midgette says. “Everyone here is tuned in to customer service and the quality dentistry we practice.”

Dr. Midgette’s practice is well known for introducing high-tech advances in the dental field, such as digital radiography, dental lasers and computer-assisted technology that allows porcelain crowns to be made in just one visit.

He’s also involved in numerous dental associations and societies through which he receives continuing education and stays up to date on the latest information in his field. He’s also a member of several area “study groups” where dentists gather over dinner to hear a speaker and to share their knowledge.

As his practice has grown, so has his family. He and Lisa have two daughters — Chelsea, who’s in her third year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Channing, a senior at Nansemond-Suffolk Academy. Lisa became a stay-at-home mom in 1989, but, Dr. Midgette points out, “She worked harder than anyone.”

The girls have always been involved in sports and extracurricular activities, including the Hurrah Players, which Dr. Midgette describes as “a great family organization.”

It was so terrific, in fact, that he even joined in as a singer and dancer in several productions including The Sound of Music, Hello Dolly and the traditional Christmas Show.

The family has a house at the Outer Banks, where Lisa and their daughters spend most of the summer, with Dr. Midgette driving down on weekends.

“As soon as the weather turns, we’re down to the beach,” he says.

Most recently their time is taken up with UNC football and basketball games, and weekends spent looking at colleges for Channing, who’s hoping for a career in fashion design. They’ve also got two schnauzers who keep them busy, Porkchop and Chili.

Family, for Dr. Midgette, doesn’t just mean the ladies he shares his life with. He and his staff feel that way about his patients, too.

“We treat every patient as if they were a member of our family,” he says. “We’re always here when they need us.”