The Texas Center for Cosmetic & Implant Dentistry keeps it in the family for 30 years

THE WOODLANDS, Texas – It was inevitable that Dr. Guy Lewis would place a strong emphasis on creating a family business, since it was a family member that first introduced him to the business of dentistry. When he was only twelve years old, his aunt, who was a dental hygienist, encouraged him to pursue his dreams of becoming a dentist. She appealed to his youthful aspirations by telling him he could help people and be able to set his own work hours. “I bought in to the idea and never looked back,” Lewis said.

In dental school, Dr. Lewis was deeply impacted by his classes in orthodontics. “I saw how orthodontics helped people’s self-esteem by giving them a prettier smile, and I wanted to be able to give them that same result.” Around this time, cosmetic dentistry – the practice of improving the appearance of the teeth without traditional orthodontics – was in its early stages, and he decided to make it his particular specialty.

In 1984, he started his first family dental practice in Tomball, and his thirty years in the business commenced. “It was an exciting and fulfilling time, starting my own practice,” Lewis said. To make ends meet, Dr. Lewis’ wife, Holly, was heavily involved in the practice. She did all of the accounting and administrative work for the practice in the early years until the practice could afford to hire extra help. It was around this time that Holly’s mother, Leslie, also came on board and worked with Dr. Lewis until her passing in 2013.

Shortly after founding the practice, Dr. Lewis became one of the founders of the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry, a group of dentists considered to be the pioneers of the emerging cosmetic dental industry. Now the AACD is respected as the foremost authority in the field of cosmetic dentistry. Dr. Lewis sees this as a turning point in his career. “I was able to learn from some of the best dentists in the world,” Lewis said. “We were really getting to innovate new things and sort of develop this industry.”

As word of Dr. Lewis’ expertise and exceptional results spread, the practice grew quickly – so much, in fact, that in 2001 Lewis built his own state-of-the-art building and founded the Texas Center for Cosmetic Dentistry in the Woodlands, Texas. While he and his staff continued to provide family dental services to patients, Dr. Lewis’ time was more and more in demand for cosmetic services. “People were coming from all over the world to experience the highest level of dental care, and I found that I needed the same level of excellence in my management team.”

Luckily for Lewis, he didn’t have to look very far. Lewis’ strong sense of family prompted him to invite his own children to join his practice. “Because I spend most of my day with patients, I needed people that I could trust to run the business side of things and who I knew had the best interests of the practice at heart. It was a perfect fit.” His confidence in their particular sets of skills – combined with the sense of service and dedication they inherited from him – made them the ideal candidates for positions at the practice.

Dr. Lewis’ son Tyler literally grew up in the business. He has fond memories of being a young boy playing in the dental chairs, working his way into filing and bookkeeping as he got older. Tyler graduated from Abilene Christian University – the alma mater of the whole Lewis family – with a degree in business administration and financial management, and he went on to work in the hedge fund and private equity world for a few years. In February of 2014, Tyler was approached by his father to assume the duties of chief operating officer of the practice. “I never thought that I would work in the dental field, but it just made sense. It gave my wife and me an opportunity to be back close to family, and it gave me the chance to run a business that I cared about.”

The very next month, Tyler’s big sister Lauryn joined the practice as director of marketing. Though a Dallas resident, her considerable experience in marketing – in tandem with her history of also helping around her father’s office when she was in high school – made her an ideal fit for the family business. “I thoroughly enjoy the challenges of coordinating all of the marketing strategies remotely,” Lauryn said. “I attribute the closeness of our family – and business – to how we address these challenges.”

Last summer the third child of the family, Travis, joined his siblings to manage the different properties that make up the business. Youngest daughter Leslie has utilized her advanced photography skills to add professional-quality photos to the practice’s website and assist her older sister Lauryn in bringing the center’s marketing strategies to visual life. Finally, Dr. Lewis’ dream of having another dentist in the family came true when youngest son Teddy announced last winter that he wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a dentist.

“It’s really a dream come true, and it’s amazing how it’s come full-circle,” Lewis said. “It’s not just the joy of being able to work with my family every day; it’s also the sense that the practice is growing right along with them, and together they’ll keep the family tradition going for years – if not generations – to come.”

Some dental practices define themselves as “family practices,” but the Texas Center for Cosmetic and Implant Dentistry truly is that: a family practice. “We are serious when we say that we treat our patients like family, because we are family.” Dr. Lewis’ office is a one-stop shop that can take care of your whole family’s dental needs for their entire lifetime, from professional teeth cleanings all the way to full Smile Makeovers. They have multiple specialists on board, so they never have to refer services out, which better enables them to keep patients “in the family.”

The Texas Center for Cosmetic & Implant Dentistry is located at 4800 W Panther Creek Drive in The Woodlands. For more information, or to schedule an appointment, call 281-201-5721 or visit www.lovethatsmile.com.