Mt. Hope Dental - by Dr. Myriam Raber
When my husband, Philip, and I moved to Ohio after six years as mission optometrist and dentist in my native country of Haiti, we lived in Mt. Hope for the first year. We rented a house from Paul Yoder right on State Route 241 at the entrance to Wayne Dalton. Paul would half-jokingly say that Mt. Hope needed its own dentist and that we should start a clinic in the same house he was renting to us. At the time, our four children were very young (ages two to eight), and opening my own dental office was only a dream.
Good family memories from Mt. Hope:
– Being able to walk to a wonderful breakfast (or any meal) at Mrs. Yoder’s, or a quick soft-serve cone at the Health store.
– Not having to force our two younger children to wear shoes around town. Where we lived near Leogane, Haiti, the children rarely wore shoes.
– Walking to the various interesting sales at the auction barn.
– Our four-year-old son hopping in Paul’s buggy and asking him which of the buttons/switches made the buggy go… I guess he thought the horse was just an ornament.
Opening a practice in Kidron
Fast forward six years, and the children were all attending Central Christian School in Kidron. Phil had started an optometry practice in Kidron. It made sense that when the time came for me to start my own office in 2007, we would join our resources by working out of the same building right across from the children’s school.
Back to Mt. Hope
Since living in Mt. Hope, that little bug planted in my ear by Paul Yoder about a clinic in Mt. Hope never went away. As time went by, I needed a succession plan for my patients. Small towns are a wonderful place to practice, but the tendency is for new dentists to stay in the big city. I want to see the dental service we provide in Kidron continue beyond my time, so I figured that one day I would need to have two dentists replace me. With two offices and the fact that Raber Dental has also served the Holmes County Training Center since 2007, we could even accommodate three dentists.
Two years ago, I started inquiries about potential locations that could be converted/built into a dental office. Then Paul Yoder came through again and alerted me that Al and Edna Yoder were putting their place up for sale! I hated to see the beautiful yard and the old barn vanish, but we needed a parking lot.
Today, we are excited to open an office in my original Ohio community, where people are so friendly and supportive. Of course, Mt. Hope has grown and changed, and it is almost the big city. This is why we have added a covered bicycle/E-bicycle parking station in addition to buggy and car parking.
Dr. Tae Hwang joins the practice
During our second child’s junior year in high school, a Korean exchange student named Tae Hwang started attending Central Christian School. I got to know Tae through my daughter and the school. At one point I was asked, along with others, to participate in a “Careers in Health Care” symposium at the school. Tae approached me and said he wanted to become a dentist. I mentored him along the way, and today I am so proud of him and his achievements! Having been a foreign student myself, I know that a very high bar is set for foreign students to be admitted to Dental or Medical school.
“Dr. Tae” graduated from Central Christian School, class of 2012; Goshen College, Class of 2016; and University of Michigan School of Dentistry, Class of 2020. Dr. Tae has moved to Mt. Hope to live for at least the first year out of Dental school. Both Dr. Tae and I will work at both offices. The plan for the first year is for the Mt. Hope office to be open Tuesday through Friday and the Kidron office to be open Monday through Thursday.
How are we addressing COVID-19?
It is a bit daunting to be opening an office in a time of uncertainty. However, Dr. Tae and I both believe that God is in charge and has a plan no matter what is going on in the world.
At both Mt. Hope Dental and Raber Dental, we always like to go the extra mile. After much research, we took additional steps to protect everyone from both infections and unnecessary chemicals. We installed ultraviolet light disinfection units inside our heating and air-conditioning ducts. We have Novaerus non-chemical ultra-low-energy plasma technology filters—imported from Ireland—in our waiting room and treatment room areas. We also use the Eco One technology to make electrolyzed water (using only water and salt) to sanitize the entire office, including the waiting room and bathrooms.
Dentistry is no stranger to infectious illness. Outside of a hospital or outpatient surgical room, dentists are leaders in infection control. We make protecting our clients and our workers a top priority. The primary reason governor DeWine immediately shut down dental offices for all but urgent care was to reassign our masks to front line health care delivery during the crisis. In outpatient health care settings, dentists were the biggest consumers of masks.
Dentists were already doing everything that was needed to prevent infection inside their office. With this pandemic, we have added some extras as required of ALL businesses by Ohio law.
Schedule your appointment today!
We are excited to be back in the Mt. Hope community. We are a full-service dental office at both the Mt. Hope and Kidron offices. Call to schedule your appointment today. We look forward to seeing you!