Embracing a Change of Venue | Topeka Dentistry

Photos by Emma Highfill, Rose Wheat Photography

The office that Dr. Rutherford would be leaving was the same office in which he’d begun his practice, a building he purchased immediately after graduating dental school. It was also in this office that he hired Dr. Carrie Peterson as an associate dentist in 2009, and then where Dr. Peterson would eventually accept an offer to become a partner and co-owner of the practice in 2017. 

Needless to say, this 1980s-era building will not soon be forgotten. That said, the success and growth of Topeka Dentistry made it clear that a relocation was a critical business necessity.  

“I bought East Topeka Dental Associates in 2008,” Rutherford said, referencing the former name of his practice. “The old location was very nice—over the years we spent a lot of time painting, tearing out wallpaper, and putting in sweat equity to make it as good as we could get, but we made a decision that we needed more space: room to grow, room for technology—and we were just ready to move.”  One of the goals was to find a more modern facility from which to practice. To help achieve this goal, Rutherford and Peterson enlisted the help of a few trusted partners. 

“Our dental supply company was very helpful in the planning process,” Peterson said, detailing a trip the supplier helped organize that allowed Rutherford and herself to visit other dental offices and find design inspiration. “We then interviewed several architect firms and ultimately hired Architect One.”  As far as the move itself, Peterson said “it’s been pretty smooth overall.” To be sure, though, no move is ever completely hiccup-free.   “Well, the Google map has been slightly off,” Peterson quipped. “That’s in the process of being fixed, but it hasn’t been helpful to patients who aren’t as familiar with the area.” 

As it relates to the new Topeka Dentistry office itself, Rutherford and Peterson are both thrilled, each quick to list the myriad of upsides that came with the brand new locale.   “We’ve added four additional operatories, which are bigger than our old ones were to start with. There’s better flow in the office, too,” Rutherford said. “With COVID, we had to spread out and decrease the amount of space we used in our old office because we were too close together. When we moved in here, everything was by nature spread out, which gave us much more space, and our patients can feel more comfortable.”  “And we’ve got big windows,” Peterson added, “so when patients look out, it’s all tree lines instead of having to look at a parking lot.”  Additionally, Peterson pointed out, the team now has room to add a third doctor—something the old space had prohibited. With more office and operating space, however, the team of two can think more seriously about adding that third.  “When we designed the building with the architect, we took into consideration that we’d want to add another doctor or two, so from adding more staff, to more parking spaces, bigger breakrooms, more operatories, and so on, growth was always factored in so that we didn’t ‘under-build’,” Peterson said.