A Simple Mission: Greater Access to Optimal Care
Aspen Dental allows professionals such as Dr. Evelyn Cheek to grow and thrive while providing excellent care and a positive patient experience
One could say that Dr. Evelyn Cheek was destined to become a dentist. The Michigan native hails from a family of healthcare professionals—aunts and uncles with careers in medicine; her mother a practicing dentist; and four of five siblings also in dentistry. But her career choice was less about family tradition and more about being drawn toward a calling from an early age.
“I always wanted to do something that would help other people,” she said.
Dr. Cheek was also interested in becoming a leader, thinking outside the box, and innovating. While attending dental school at the University of Michigan, she took a detour and completed an accelerated Master of Public Health program in health management and policy. Her focus on research, education, and policies surrounding access to care would lead her to the American Dental Education Association and a role as director of public policy research. But she missed the clinical side of dentistry and, six years after graduating dental school, returned to Michigan and began working as a dentist. Her goals were to provide optimal patient care and help those in need while further developing her personal growth and leadership skills. Aspen Dental was the place that could make it all happen.
A growing network of successful practices throughout the United States, Aspen Dental offices are owned by independent dentists, each operating with clinical autonomy in a provider model that supports doctors and their teams so they can focus on providing comprehensive, affordable care for patients.
“I was trying to find my clinical home, and that’s why I was attracted to Aspen, because its mission of breaking down the barriers to access care resonated with me,” Dr. Cheek said.
At all Aspen Dental locations across the country, licensed dentists at all stages of their career are able to spend more time doing what they love in a community that needs their skills, while also exploring a path to practice ownership. Behind each independently owned Aspen Dental practice is TAG – The Aspen Group, the healthcare service organization that supports and empowers each licensed dentist practice owner and their teams to deliver the best possible care to every patient. TAG offers comprehensive administrative and business support—providing practices with everything from state-of-the art technologies, scheduling, and marketing to advanced continuing education and mentorship from experienced clinicians.
Path to Practice Ownership
Aspen Dental considers its initial relationship with dentists an investment in finding the right professional who is clinically sound and committed to leading a team, and works with them to hone the clinical and leadership skills needed to become a practice owner.
Dr. Cheek spent her first few years in practice at local Aspen Dental locations, focusing on clinical matters and learning how to develop, manage, and motivate teams. All along, she enjoyed access to expert training and support, continuing education, and peer mentorship. After serving as a managing clinical director, she took over an existing Aspen Dental practice in Ypsilanti, MI, and more recently opened a second practice in Allen Park. (Fun Fact: It was as a practice owner that Evelyn took on her husband’s last name and started to go by Dr. Cheek—since her actual name, Dr. Lucas-Perry, was already well-established and in use from her family members nearby).
“What’s core to Aspen is mentoring and leadership development,” she said. “You have a larger set of mentors outside of your local area, and that’s where you get a lot of one-on-one attention. For instance, right now I’m part of Aspen’s leadership development program, which has an external organization providing a 360 review that will help me understand how I can better lead my teams. That’s something that I really appreciate because I know I’ll be able to grow from that.”
Aspen Dental has been at the forefront of advancements in dentistry, strategically investing in technologies that represent a higher standard of care. This year, the company began a massive digital transformation. New offices are fully digital, equipped with technology from intraoral scanners to 3D printers, and existing practices are undergoing fully digital upgrades. Training and support initiatives are in place to help teams adopt the digital workflows.
Dr. Cheek noted that Aspen Dental is ahead of the curve on technology, which she said has enabled better patient education, digital workflows for implants, crowns, and dentures, and the in-house fabrication of Aspen Dental’s own clear aligner, Motto.
“It’s technology that is well vetted, and it’s allowing us to work more seamlessly in our practices, but more importantly, provide better patient care and education that allows patients to truly understand the importance of oral health,” she said.
A Team with a Dream
Aspen Dental is a network of small practices whose teams are aligned with the same vision surrounding the patient experience, and who enjoy an empowering culture and ideal work-life balance. “You have a team of people behind you who are dedicated to your growth, and who are just as passionate about delivering the best patient care,” said Dr. Cheek. “So, Aspen is my partner, and that partnership to me has made a world of difference in terms of my personal and clinical growth, as well as my patient care.”
