Meet the suburbs’ top oral-health professionals
SuburbanLife Magazine – June 2012
A Rare Formula
At Pi Dental Center, discover a comforting, nonthreatening environment—and much more—for all restorative dental care
by J.M. Kovacs
“Pi” officially stands for Prosthodontics Intermedica, a multidisciplinary medical approach to engineering smiles that are comprehensively healthy for a lifetime and sparklingly attractive, distinctively suited to each individual patient.
The professional website www.pidentalcenter.com highlights numerous other designations for the signature letters, but probably none is more apparent than “Passionate Ingenuity.” Here is where a truly inspired and experienced team will go far beyond the norm to ensure scientific perfection and total patient satisfaction. The Pi team thinks as if with one mind, embraces as if with one heart. Warmth is evident in every genuinely welcoming handshake and professional passion is defined by immeasurable energy to succeed.
Drs. Thomas J. Balshi, James R. Bowers and Glenn J. Wolfinger have never turned a patient away without a solution. Sometimes “it takes a village,” and the dental village in Fort Washington thrives on their synchronization and their seemingly endless resourcefulness.
Meet a patient named Frank, age 28, alone in the world with both parents deceased and no known siblings. Once homeless and damaged by unknown history, he now resides in a group residential home as a ward of the state, befriended by members of a local church. Frank is eager to hold a job but because of missing, misshapen and numerous abscessed teeth, his best efforts to smile often frightened others, causing him to be rejected. His dream of a life well lived had nearly disappeared until his very loving church friends sought to find him a bridge to a better world.
Enter the Pi Foundation, the charitable arm of the Fort Washington Dental Center, one of a few of its kind in the country, with a mission to rescue human beings in precisely Frank’s predicament.
Frank’s case was doubly challenging because his fear of dental treatment was nearly paralyzing. On the day he received his smile, the first hour was devoted simply to helping him grow beyond his fear and making him emotionally comfortable to accept the gift he so desperately wanted.
With that accomplished, three doctors, one anesthesiologist, one registered nurse and six surgical assistants worked in tandem, strategically ensuring that Pi’s trademarked Teeth In A Day® would imminently happen and magically transform Frank’s life, like it had transformed many others before him.
Dr. Bowers gently massaged Frank’s neck as he fell into sleep; Dr. Balshi deftly performed the surgery; and Dr. Wolfinger flew back and forth into the laboratory to fine tune and custom shape the wonderful surprise teeth that Frank would wake to find in his mouth. Not a dry eye was in the “village” as the procedure came to its close.
This is passionate ingenuity. It happens at the Pi Dental Center almost every day.
Although the Pi Dental Center is a nonthreatening and comfortable environment for all restorative dental care, it is also a haven for “Premium Instruction.” Doctors who share the passion for cutting-edge care come from around the world to learn the miraculous strides achievable through implant dentistry, and some of the most prestigious graduate schools in the country send their prosthodontic residents to the Pi Dental Center to be trained.
Other “Pi” designations not found on the website but often appearing on the dental center’s vibrant Facebook page are Prosthodontic Innovations, Pertinent Information and Personal Invitations to explore for oneself and discover a dental world different from any other. The blend of skill and compassion at Pi is a rare formula, but it is evenly applied for the smallest tweak or the most dramatic dental achievement.