Inside the Owings and Sam dentist office, you will see framed family photos and dental accolades on the wall. Upon a closer look, you’ll notice the practicing dentists in the facility are related.
For the family, the multi-generation dentistry just happened to fall into place and follow in their father’s footsteps.
“It wasn’t intended this way,” Dr. Rebecca Owings Sam said. “It was like, my dad was a dentist and Alan and I worked in the office, but it wasn’t like oh we are going to go to dental school.”
Dr. Alan Owings and Dr. Rebecca Owings Sam, brother and sister, currently practice dentistry together. The duo started dental school at the same time and graduated from the Dental College of Georgia in 1992.
“People would say, well who made the better grades? Well, he probably made some better grades at times and I might have made some better grades at other times, but it was not competitive,” Sam said. “It was what do we do to help each other and study. So it was a good experience. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.”
Sam joined the family dentistry straight out of dental school, while Owings joined in 2003 after practicing prison dentistry. During this time, the business moved from the ever expanding West Avenue location to its current home on Martintown Road.
The father and children combo worked together until Dr. David Owings death almost six years ago. Now in 2022 they are adding a third generation with Dr. Allison Owings Bass, Owing’s daughter. Similar to her family, she went to dental school straight from Clemson University and received her nursing degree and license.
“When I started dental school, I realized I might like working with my hands, and now I think about all the time if I was a doctor or a nurse, just making decisions and assessing and writing prescriptions all day I would be so bored,” Bass said. “I am glad I get to do something and have a tangible product that I can point at and say I did that.”
They all enjoy working together and having a tangible impact on the North Augusta community.
“We have some patients that were still my dad’s patients that started out with my dad and a lot of times they will remind us and they will not be all that old, but they are older than me,” Sam said. “But they will talk about how long or they will have brought their relatives in and they will become part of the practice and I’ve watched it. It’s a cool thing for North Augusta, it’s still a small town so you will get out and you will see people and be a part of their lives.”
Being a part of people’s health and their lives is something that they treasure.
“One of the best parts is being a part of people’s families and relationships,” Sam said. “And the other part is being able to have somebody say that they are not happy with their front teeth being discolored or something that is happening and you can change that and make that better and this like ‘Wow, we helped do that.’”
“This was just a place that I loved and I got to see growing up, my dad and Becky just loving their community,” Bass said. “I loved how people who are patients here were patients here when they were five years old and they bring their five year olds. I liked how you get their patients in there the same forever and develop a relationship with them and you just develop a relationship with your town.”
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