The Dentist Diaries

A deeper look at four of Wichita’s top dentists

Drs. Kreg and Sheri Boynton
Complementary Services

“I chased her for three years, and the week before graduation, I finally asked her out,” Kreg Boynton says of the woman he would marry one year later.

Sheri Boynton finished dental school just ahead of her husband at the University of Missouri–Kansas City and practiced in Kansas City until Kreg received his diploma in 1999. Afterward, the couple moved to Wichita and started their own practice together.

To balance work and family life, the Boyntons have developed a unique plan. They only work together twice a week so they can take turns spending time with their four children, who range in age from 1 to 6 years old. Sheri stays home two days a week, and Kreg has a Daddy day on Tuesdays. With the fourth child came a nanny, allowing Sheri to worry less about day-to-day chores and focus more on the kids.

Even when the Boyntons are working at the same time, they don’t see each other often. “We might high-five each other in the hallways or consult together,” Kreg says, “but we have our own schedules.”

The couple agrees that it’s nice to be able to appreciate what one’s spouse does. “I don’t have to expand on what my day was like,” says Sheri. “Kreg fully understands what a crazy day at home, or at the office, means.”

They’re able to complement each other professionally because the things they enjoy doing are different. Sheri specializes in cosmetic dentistry, implants and Invisalign (braces), while Kreg handles endodontics, root canals and kids. “I get the bloody and giggly things,” Kreg jokes.

Perhaps the best part of this arrangement is the Boyntons share a dream for their practice and a vision of where they want to be. They’ve also had the freedom to create their own work environment. Two years ago, they moved into a new office that Sheri designed with help from two architects. The design and construction won an award of honor from the Associated General Contractors of Kansas .

“I knew what kind of feel I wanted…calm, relaxing, warm, lodgey,” she says. “The atmosphere is very spa-like. You don’t see white surfaces. There’s nothing ‘clinicy’ about it.”

Kreg, who says his only input was a fireplace and big windows, calls it a great place to escape—whether you’re a patient, or the dentist who goes home at the end of the day to four more sets of little teeth. “If we get the kids to bed and miss a floss, they’ll remind [us],” Kreg says. “They do bust [us] on that.”

What do the kids say about their parents’ work? The Boyntons chime in with a shared response: “Mommy and Daddy fix teeth.”

Dr. Jon Hullings
Straightening Things Out

This dentist chose his career after observing his college roommate’s father at work. “I looked over his shoulder and realized the impact orthodontics could have on someone’s attitude and self-esteem.”

Jon Hullings was born in Kansas City, Missouri, but is practically a Wichita native. He’s lived here since the age of 4, attending Blessed Sacrament grade school and Kapaun Mt. Carmel high school.

His wife, Carrie, helps manage his dental practice. “A lot of good things happen here in the office that are the results of her good work,” he says.

The couple has three sons—Matthew, Daniel and Patrick. In his off-hours, Hullings chases the boys around to athletic events. “We like to take fun family vacations, like hiking in Colorado. I also squeeze in a round of golf when time permits.”

Kansas Mission of Mercy inspired this dentist to become more involved with a program called Smiles Change Lives. The organization helps kids who have severe orthodontic problems and otherwise have no access to care. Hullings chairs the organization’s Wichita advisory board. “I believe every orthodontist in Wichita has agreed to participate, and I’m proud of that. It gives kids the self-confidence they wouldn’t have otherwise.”

His biggest challenge is getting patients to understand how essential their participation is in the success of their treatment. “It’s critical,” he says. “In very difficult orthodontic cases, when the patient is very engaged in the treatment and follows directions well, you see the most dramatic changes. That’s the most fulfilling.”

Dr. John Gagnon
Understanding that Patients are More than Jaws and Teeth

When oral surgeon John Gagnon launched out on his own in February, he looked to a book suggested by K-State’s new football coach, Ron Prince, as the business model. The first chapter of Jim Collins’ “Good to Great” discusses how good is the enemy of great.
He often quotes the book so his staff will understand his goal: providing great care over good. “Mostly it’s medical care we’re giving patients, but in cases of traumatic experiences, especially motor vehicle accidents where we’re putting things back together, it’s also emotional,” says Gagnon.

New patients come into his office “anywhere from a little nervous to scared out of their wits,” and that’s why he wants to make everyone as comfortable as possible.

He does this by sweating the small stuff, such as making sure parents can sit with their children in the recovery room. “We want to take care of them as a whole person, not just their jaw and wisdom teeth. We also want every single person to feel like they have a friend here—lots of them, actually.”

At home, Gagnon likes to draw chalk pictures on the driveway with his 3-year-old son, Clay. Dad is exceedingly proud that the little guy could sing the K-State fight song before he turned 2. (“That’s fully expected in our family,” says Gagnon, a self-proclaimed general sports fanatic.)

He and his wife, Monnette, also have another son, Conner, who is 1. “I never really got it, how emotionally involved parents were, until I had these two little kids,” he says. “Now I can’t do enough to help my patients and their families. Hopefully I get better with it every day.”

Drs. Mar and Lennon
Two Decades of Creating Beautiful Smiles Together

When Dr. Karen Lennon and her husband, Dr. Chris Mar, opened their dental practice together twenty years ago, they were part of an elite group. Most of the husband-and-wife dentistry teams they knew of included a dental hygienist in the mix.

Lennon says role models for female dentists weren’t plentiful then. “A few of my instructors in dental school were female, and out of seventy-five or seventy-seven graduates, only ten or eleven women were in my class.”

Times have changed. Now she estimates that as many women graduate as men, drawn to the profession perhaps for the reasons she was. “Becoming a dentist appealed to me because of the flexibility of time, and the technical hands-on type of thing. I also liked the creativity.”

“I was hoping she’d say it was because she wanted to follow me,” jests Mar, who chose his career path around seventh grade and met Karen in dental school at Creighton University in Omaha.

Together the couple has a son, Brenden, 16, and a daughter, Kaitlin, 10. Like most working parents, they constantly balance family with their careers.

The key, Lennon says, is time management. “So when you’re at work, you’re very focused and can give what you have that day, and when you’re at home, you’re focused on family.”

The couple’s great ongoing debate, according to Lennon, is, ‘What are you making for dinner tonight?’”

“We both like to cook,” Mar says, “but she takes longer. That’s because she follows the directions.”

Both volunteer once a month at the Sedgwick County Children’s Dental Health Clinic. The program benefits school-aged children who don’t qualify for government assistance yet have no insurance.

“Shortly after we started practicing, we felt it important to give back to community,” Mar says. He’s a supervising dentist at the WSU dental hygiene clinic, and has devoted a half-day there each week, every spring, since 1992.

Both also share a passion for cosmetic dentistry, which they estimate has been a part of their practice for at least seventeen years. “It’s fun when you can help make changes in a patient’s smile,” says Lennon. “That’s a good feeling.”

Mar agrees. “Some people go from almost being ashamed of their smile to getting very excited about it—it’s almost as if they can’t stop smiling. You don’t get many thanks for root canals, but you do for cosmetic dentistry."