Local Dentist Opens State of the Art Office
by Scott A. Sumner
Dr Ash Mokhtari was born in Tehran, Iran and it has been a long journey to Thunder Bay. “ My dad was a Judge in Iran and my mom worked as a teacher at the university. After the Iranian revolution we moved to Holland where my Dad worked at International Court. My first ambition was to go to med school but it was tough to get in. Europe was a bit saturated and I spoke English so decided to come to Canada,” said Dr Ash Mokhtari who worked in the summers planting trees in Northern Ontario. “ I started my studies at the University of Ottawa in science
and was accepted to the University of Western Ontario in dentistry. My orginal plan was to go to a small town in Northern Ontario like Nipigon.”
Ash eventually bought Dr. Peter Powell’s practice about 4 years ago with the goal to build a new dental office. “ Most people won’t do a project like this because of the cost involved. My place of work is where I am 8 to 10 hours a day or 1/3 of my life so you want it to be a nice place. I spend more time here than at home. Most people think the opposite with their home being the most important place,” said Ash. “This building was one of the first I saw and I liked the location. Also the building was fine with little interior walls to knock done. We bought the building last July and opened July 1st this year. It took about 11 months from the date of purchase.”
Most important in creating the new office was the design according to Ash. “ The design took awhile and even to the last minute we were changing things. Even now we see things we would change after having worked in the space but we accomplished most of what we wanted. The
building has to fit the way our staff and I work as dentist. The way I work may be different from someone else. The maze has to flow for me.” said Ash.
The Memorial Ave building is 3600 square feet and originally was a Bank of Montreal. There are 8 stations or op rooms. The design means they can be used for hygiene or dentistry. “ At our old location at Arthur Square on Red River Road we couldn't grow. When we moved we
became a digital operation and are a state of the art office with digital x-rays and are phasing out our file system to go digital like in the hospital. You can communicate electronically and it will make things a bit easier to manage,” said Ash. “ My goal is once we have higher volume we will have another dentist here. Next year the plan is to get an associate or another dentist who is downsizing and doesn’t want the management, of a whole office.”
The whole construction process worked very well according to Ash. Overall everyone is pretty happy with it including the staff and patients. The cost to produce the new office was approaching $ 1 million dollars. “ We used a lot of new equipment. Bill Pawliuk Designs did the layout and worked with the contractor, Spoljarich Construction Ltd. He also designed my house on Lake Superior that I had purchased recently. Henry Scheen worked with me on the flow of the office set up and equipment. It is quite a technical challenge with a lot of people involved. At the beginning we had weekly meeting to make sure everything worked. Dental offices are very technical to put together, with the piping and compressors.,” said Ash. “ We now have the ability to take more patients and can double our size. That was our goal and it is already happening. In three months we have increased our hygiene work by a lot and theybecome patients. I also take a lot of emergencies when their dentist can’t fit them in.”
Very unique about Ash is his interest in long distance running as a sport. “ Most of my running is done here. I run around the Sleeping Giant. People think I am crazy but that is what I do. It takes about 3 to 4 hours and is quite long with tough terrain with trees fallen. It is fun and keeps me in good shape,” smiles Ash, age 44. “ I also do these ultra Marathon races in many countries. The Canadian Death race is 125 km in 24 hours at Grand Cache, Alberta. My next race is Nepal in November. It takes 5 days just to get to where the race starts. You have to take a bus to the start or rent a helicopter but it is expensive. The race is 250 km and in the Himalayas mountains. You have to carry all your supplies with you in a backpack. The race takes 1 week on average 40 km from one camp to the next. The last day is a longer run. You have to have at least a year of training and do research to see what you need and what you have to do. In the camps they give you hot water so you can make camp meals. Many are professional runners that get paid by equipment companies who provide say running shoes. I have done some fundraising in my running and next year I want to raise funds for Dilico who take care of native children in need that I see here a lot in practice. Dentistry has a lot of
stress and you must take breaks. The patients are under stress and it can transfer to you so you have take breaks.”
It is nice to see some exciting new offices in Thunder Bay. I am sure you will be impressed with the new state of the art dental office of Dr Ash Mokhtari.
