Rick Bankhead and Paul Groipen teamed up in 1979. We purchased an existing office from Dr. Phillip Melnick. Dr. Phil was eager to return to school for periodontics. Dr. Phil bought the practice from Dr. Salem Lasker. Dr. Lasker was here since the 1930’s. He was part of the fabric of Early Hyde Park. We still hear tales of those by-gone days from some of Dr. Lasker’s remaining patients. We have certainly grown and modernized. But the actual practice is chock full of history and we love hearing the seniors tell stories of coming here in those early days when they were children.
In 1991, Drs. Bankhead and Groipen bought another practice in West Roxbury from Dr. Al Peters. Dr. Peters had known of our great reputation, so he wanted us to take over the care of his patients (all of which he had grown very fond of, over the years…). Dr. Peters was head of the Board of Registration of Dentistry. He was also the brother-in-law of Michael Dukakis. We grew out of Dr. Peter’s office in 1995 and renovated another dental office at 399 Belgrade Avenue (just around the corner from Dr. Peter’s practice).
399 Belgrade Avenue was the original location of Dr. “Scotty” Scovatto. Scotty was the past-president of the Massachusetts Dental Society. Here again there are lots of fun stories to intertwine the varied histories of the patients. There are records going way back and for the doctors and staff it’s fun to track the history of certain teeth issues.
In 1986, Rick’s brother Kirk joined the practice and has been a joy and pleasure to have the Bankhead boys as a team!
In 1989, our practice acquired Dr. Warren Childs, an excellent periodontist from Harvard University. Warren has grown from one half day to 3 days and he is so well liked and respected. He is kind, caring and precise.
In 2001, Dr. Stuart MacDonald completed the very long journey from being a dental assistant in our practice (while in high school) to graduating from Tufts Dental School. He was a political science major but through his ties to the practice he changed course. His two sisters, Erin and Tara also work in our practice. So, together, they join in creating another family tradition here at Drs. Bankhead and Groipen!
Many of our staff members have been with us for more than twenty years! Our practice has the gratifying pleasure of giving four assistants encouragement to further their education to go on to become dental hygienists as well! In fact they all started as after-school helpers. We have had two of our young staffers to go on to become dentists as well!
Frankly, people love to come to this practice. We all seem to love teeth and how they affect people’s mental and physical health. Come on down and join our team, either as a patient, or working in our warm, friendly environment.