27 May 2020 Rolling in the years: DJM Orthodontics celebrates 25th anniversary
by Dwain Hebda
As one look at Dr. David Myers’ orthodontics clinic in Conway tells you, he’s not your run-of-the-mill dental professional. The practice, located at 1050 Morningside Drive in Conway, looks more like a sock hop than a sterile place to get your teeth straightened. Decorated as it is with vintage gas pumps and furnishings, DJM Orthodontics is a one-of-a-kind environment that hints at Myers’ passion for collecting.
But ask him what’s the most valuable thing he’s accumulated over 25 years in business and he’ll tell you it’s the relationships he holds with his clientele.
“Orthodontics is a little bit different than dentistry from the standpoint that a large majority of our patients are kids, and we see them for an extended period of time on a regular basis,” he said. “I’ve got a lot of kids that I started seeing when they were 8 or 9 years old and observe for three, four, five years to grow their teeth in and be ready to start braces. Then we see them for two years to straighten their teeth, and then we see them for two more years to follow their retainers.
“By the time I dismiss a kid and graduate them, they’ve gone from an 8-year-old little kid to a 15-, 16-, 17-year-old young adult. To watch that transformation and play a small part of it, that’s the best part of the whole job right there.”
Myers, who also maintains on office in Greenbrier, always wanted a career in teeth.
“As a kid, I loved going to the dentist and spitting into the little baby toilet bowl, back when they still had such a thing,” he said with a laugh. “I always liked messing with little stuff. By the time I was, probably, 5 or 6, my grandfather told me what an orthodontist did. I thought that sounds kind of fun, messing with wires and little things. Of course, I had zero appreciation at 5 or 6 years old what the whole prospect of orthodontics really was, but that set my mind on a course.”
While it’s unusual to decide that early on a career — and stick with it — it was also useful to Myers as it allowed him to be strategic in every phase of his education.
“All the way through junior high and high school, I was picking classes to work my way towards college and then picking all my classes to get into dental school,” he said. “Then in dental school, I already knew I needed to be competitive and at the top of my class to be selected to get into orthodontic school. I always knew where I was going, so I was prepared for the challenges that it brought.”
Originally from Wisconsin, the Myers family moved to Conway in the 1980s when he was in high school. He graduated with his class up north, then made a beeline for Arkansas where he earned a bachelor of science degree from University of Central Arkansas and completed dental school and orthodontics residency at the University of Tennessee in Memphis. From the start, he knew he wanted his own practice.
“I finished residency in the spring of ‘94 and then came to Conway to get everything all set up and opened my practice in Conway in February of ‘95,” he said. “It was a huge risk. I was probably pretty close to the end of a generation that you could finish school and go right out and start your own practice from scratch. There are still some people who do it, but the debt load out of school anymore is incredible; folks getting out of dental school, medical school, it’s half a million dollars or more in student loans.”
Myers remembers the early days of his practice as challenging. At the start, he was the sole employee handling appointments, receptionist chores, billing and collections in addition to his orthodontist duties. Money was always tight. Looking back, Myers credits God and his family — wife Michelle and daughters Logan and Katherine — for surviving the lean years.
“I remember once, I needed $600 and rent’s due in three days,” he said. “I opened my mailbox and my Sunday school teacher from Memphis had just felt led that David could stand a little money, and there was a $600 check in my mailbox. Or low on food, come home from church and there’d be a box of food sitting on my front porch. Don’t know who brought it, where it came from.”
As the COVID-19 pandemic reminds him, no matter how long you’re in business, there will always be things you can’t foresee. Myers readily admits 2020 hasn’t yet provided ideal conditions for celebrating a 25-year milestone, but his patients and his invaluable employees have made it a trip well worth taking.
“Running a business is not what I was trained to do. I was trained to straighten teeth,” he said. “So, running a business and managing people is not my gift or forte. I seek and pray for guidance and wisdom all the time at that, and the Lord has been nothing but faithful all along the way.
“It was quite the challenge. But getting to be your own boss and doing things the way you wanted to do them, I wouldn’t have done it any differently.”
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