When Mark David Anderson walked into the dentist as a little boy, he felt something most new young patients don’t – a sense of peace.
“I remember just liking the way the offices were set up, the feel of it all,” he says. “I know that sounds strange, but it’s true.”
Years later as a student at Louisiana State University, Anderson felt certain he wanted to be in the healthcare field, but not sure in what capacity.
“Sometime in my second year of undergrad at LSU I saw this flyer for the pre-dental club and something just clicked,” he says. “With dentistry I knew I could have the kind of small business that I wanted, the kind I experienced back then with that sort of old school, small neighborhood feel.”
After practicing in the Central Business District for nine years, Anderson finally opened the business he had envisioned: MidCity Smiles Family Dentistry on Canal Street.
“It’s actually so perfect because my family has such a strong tie to the Mid-City area,” Anderson says. “When my grandfather moved here from Cuba he opened his first business, a laundromat, right around the corner from where I now run my practice. My dad was born and raised here in Mid-City and it still means so much to him, and to me.”
It is the combination of being able to develop “old school” close relationships with his patients, while also providing them with a sense of instant gratification that Anderson says has been driving him since those first days out of school.
In fact, even when he remembers back to one of his most difficult cases, Anderson is quick to note the up side.
“It was during my first year out of dental school,” he says. “I was working down in the CBD and this guy came in who was having extensive radiation treatment for head and neck cancer. One of the big downfalls of this treatment is dry mouth and the tooth decay, what we call “radiation caries,” that it causes.”
Anderson says that every two to three weeks this man would come to see him to help him rebuild his smile, one or two teeth at a time, through extensive bonding and filling.
“I saw him every few weeks for at least a year as we rebuilt almost every tooth. I really got to know him as a person, and every time he would look in the mirror before he left it was just so rewarding to see his face light up. Those are the kind of cases that, while hard, make it all worthwhile.”
MidCity Smiles Family Dentistry
3625 Canal St.
485-6575
MidCitySmiles.com
14 years practicing as a dentist
B.S. from Louisiana State University – Baton Rouge
DDS from Louisiana State University School of Dentistry
Native of New Orleans
