Father, daughter team serve up smiles

Dr. Bradley Hoppens and his daughter, Dr. Mary Beth Meier, are joining forces in their quest to help people attain beautiful smiles.

Meier recently joined her father's orthodontics practice and they intend to be together for the long haul.

Hoppens began his practice in 1985, and has offices in Ogallala, McCook and North Platte, which Hoppens and Meier visit every week.

The team comes to Sidney and works out of the LifeSmiles office on Old Post Road every three or four weeks. They visit Kearney every three weeks, and a number of other offices in the surrounding states about every six weeks.

Hoppens Orthodontics incorporates the latest technological advances in the industry, including invisible ceramic braces, Invisalign and the latest computer technology.

With Meier joining the practice, the two will be able to help more people more of the time.

"It's kind of a work in progress, because we have several locations, so it's hard to know exactly how it's going to work best with two people working several locations," Meier said. "Right now we're going everywhere together."

After the first of the year, the two will start to split up in order to have a little more availability for their other offices.

Hoppens and Meier are excited about how the practice will evolve now that they work together.

"Two heads are better than one," Hoppens said. "So we're just going to combine everything that we both know and proceed on into the future, and it will be really cool. It will be great for the patients."

With orthodontics, Meier said, there's not just one way to do something, there are a lot of different avenues to get to a final product. She is ready to learn from her father, and to share her own knowledge with him.

"He's been out here for almost 30 years and has just had that much more experience," Meier said. "So he has a lot of little tricks and things that he can teach me and I can learn from.

"He does a pretty good job of keeping up with new things that come out, but there are a couple of things that maybe I have a little more experience with."

Hoppens feels that their practice is only getting better.

"We are incorporating things in our practice and always trying to stay on the cutting edge," he said. "That's what it's all about, and we will always be doing that."

Hoppens and Meier both attended the same orthodontics program at University of Iowa, and both have earned their master's degrees.

Meier is confident that she received a good base of experience from the university.

"And I can tell she did," Hoppens said.

Meier knew early on that she wanted to pursue a career in the dental field.

When she was growing up, she would visit her father's offices to see what they were like.

"I think in the back of my mind I kind of always thought I'd like to go into orthodontics, but I also wanted to keep an open mind," Meier said. "There are just so many different branches in dentistry, so maybe I would like everything and want to be a general practitioner and do it all, or maybe I'd like doing root canals or something."

However, after researching, and observing one of the orthodontic faculty, she made her choice.

"After going through the other rotations, I kind of knew that I just really liked orthodontics and wanted to go into that field," she said.

Becoming an orthodontist requires more schooling and research than becoming a dentist. According to Hoppens' website, all orthodontists are dentists, but only about six percent of dentists are orthodontists.

"Typically an orthodontist has been through a two- or three-year residency, which is a lot of schooling that's beyond being a dentist. So you have to be a dentist first," Hoppens said.

While dentists work to keep patients' teeth and gums healthy, orthodontists focus more on getting teeth straightened and jaws aligned, which often aids in keeping teeth healthy.

"If there are rotated teeth or the teeth are crowded, it's hard for the toothbrush to reach those spots," Meier explained. "If it's harder to clean, then you have an increased chance of tooth decay.

"There's an aesthetic aspect to it, having straight teeth, but there's also a functional aspect to it too," she added. "We strive to make it the best we can."

The team encourages people to come in for a free exam to find out if they can benefit from their services.

"You can always come in for an opinion and the exams are free," Meier said. "We just let people know what we're thinking."

One is never too old to wear braces, Hoppens said. The youngest age they recommend is about 7 years old, since that is when permanent teeth begin to come in.

He said that he's had 2-year-olds brought in, and has followed them year after year, at no charge, until they actually see that something is needed.

"If people come in for an exam, then they know what's coming," he said. "And they can kind of understand the timing and parents can plan."

Meier has no plans of branching off into her own practice. She enjoys working with her father.

"He'll be around for a long time – which is good, because we really like working together. I'm not trying to kick him out of here," she said, laughing. "I want him to be here."

"Since my wife and I still have four in the nest, I'm not quitting for quite awhile," Hoppens said. "But something will be structured that eventually I'm slowing down some more and then she's taking over the reins even more.

"If one thinks they know it all, then they're ready to throw in the towel. And I'm not. There's always something going on. There's always a way to get better at what you're doing."

Meier is happy to be joining her father's practice, and looks forward to the future.

"I'm excited to be out here," she said. "I didn't really look anywhere else, because my family is out here. It just seemed like the ideal thing to do. I know my dad has a lot to teach me."

"She's here to stay," Hoppens said. "The patients are going to like her a lot."