PDS Health’s annual Smile Generation Serve Day on Aug. 15 at Chastain Park Dentistry in Sandy Springs saw seven of its underserved patients come in for thousands of dollars of free care.
Dr. Shivani Mallishery, one of a few practicing dentists at the south Sandy Springs location, just had her first anniversary at Chastain Park Dentistry after working at a nearby PDS location.
“We say the mouth is the gateway to the rest of the body,” Mallishery said. “Whatever is going on in your mouth is going to affect the rest of your body in some way or form … A lot of people don’t know this, but the abscesses that you have in your mouth have the same bacteria that cause heart blockages.”
Smile Generation Serve Day
At about 1,400 PDS Health-supported offices across the country, Georgia Regional Partner Olu Majekobaje said millions in free dental care will be provided on Serve Day through the California-based company’s nationwide footprint.
“We’re a partnership organization,” Majekobaje said. “I’m a [corporate] partner with PDS, just like all the dentists who own each office. My charge is to increase market share in Georgia by identifying owners for these offices that can serve the community.”
The private company gives dentists an ownership stake, and the equity is attractive to many professionals. Majekobaje said there are no external influences, like private and public investors, pushing for volume and “burn and turn.”
PDS Health helped popularize the hybrid business model with its publicly facing Smile Generation brand. Costs are lower than in private practice, with better care than corporate dentistry.
Temika Sanders, a South Fulton mother of four, recently became a patient at Chastain Park Dentistry this summer and was quickly invited to receive free care.
“I’m getting a couple of extractions done today, and they’re going to replace them with some new teeth,” Sanders said. “I’m excited to get my smile back and to feel confident and to be healthy.”
She said she hasn’t been in any pain, but has a couple of cracked teeth.
“You pay for insurance, and you still have to come out of pocket with so much money,” Sanders said. “Stuff just started happening with my teeth over the years because everything is expensive, and the last thing I was trying to do was add another bill.”
The Chastain practice
Charon Bratcher, office manager of Chastain Park Dentistry for two years, said she enjoyed working at the office, leaving retail, and getting back in front of people.
Whether it’s helping an anxious elderly patient understand the treatment they need or getting care for someone in pain, Bratcher said her job gives her “the small things that make a difference.”
“What I find in Georgia is that there’s a huge disconnect in terms of the need for dentistry,” she said. “They either completely understand dentistry and are coming to keep themselves and their families on track, or it’s the polar opposite. If they haven’t been for a long time … number one is convincing them that they actually need anything.”
She said she wants Chastain Park Dentistry to be the provider of choice in the area. With many middle-class salaries slashed by this decade’s inflation, many people are not sacrificing bills and groceries for dental care.
“We want to provide an atmosphere for our patients that makes them feel like extended family … ‘we’re supporting you,'” Bratcher said. “Today is an opportunity for us to provide care for people who wouldn’t be able to get it done otherwise.”
Bratcher grew up with Sanders and her family in Augusta.
Sanders said she was lucky to have a friend working at the office because it’s difficult to find dentists in the area who will perform free community service.
“Dr. M was amazing,” she said. “I like the way she talks to her patients to let them know what’s going on as she’s doing what she’s doing … I look forward to coming back.”
The federal government reports thousands of distinct dental shortage zones nationwide. Georgia ranks near the bottom nationally for dentists per capita.
Living and working in Sandy Springs
Dr. M, short for Mallishery, has a globe-trotting story. She was born in India, raised in Bahrain, and finished dental school in Colorado. She said she moved to central Sandy Springs a couple of years ago to be close to her fiancé.
Mallishery has been working to turn around the Chastain Park location, which she said hasn’t had a consistent provider for years. She said her team is committed and wants to stay on with her.
“I have a schedule that’s full,” Mallishery said. “I have patients who want to come in and get dentistry done with me, so it’s been a journey. After a year, it’s in an amazing place. We have good turnover. Production-wise, we’re making good money and getting more patients.”
Mallishery, who said she fell in love with America as an 8-year-old on a family vacation, is on an O-1 visa for nonimmigrants with advanced degrees and exceptional ability.
“I had the rank for a proper M.D. doctor in India, but I chose to do dentistry because of work-life balance, which, by the way, is not true now,” she said. “But it gives you instant results. Every time I do an extraction or give a patient a denture, it’s instant satisfaction. I fixed their smile or took them out of pain, those things help me”
Her home is on the Sandy Springs-Dunwoody border in Central Perimeter. Mallishery said she loves the walkable commercial area and prefers it to the west side of Atlanta, where she used to live.
“We think we’re not just dental; we want to be a part of your holistic health,” she said. “In the books, at some point, we’re putting another office in the Perimeter area.”
