Penticton dentist putting smiles on patients' faces for more than 50 years

Dentist Dr. Ron Bentham in one of the treatment rooms at his Penticton dental practice.

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November 16, 2020 - 8:00 AM

If you are looking for dental services in Penticton, Dr. Ron Bentham can bring a smile to your face.

The long-time local dentist, whose practice is located at 107-3310 Skaha Lake Road, provides a full array of patient-focused dental care, employing the most up-to-date methods and using the latest equipment to help his patients with all their dental needs.

In addition to regular check ups and dental care, Bentham provides root canal work, cosmetic dentistry, crowns, bridges and implants and uses an Argon laser, which means usually there is no freezing needed.

“The only thing we don’t do is orthodontics,” he says. "We refer all braces, etc on children to the orthodontist."

The dental practice has a full array of the latest computerized equipment for dental treatment.

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According to Bentham, a visit to the dentist should not be a scary experience. So, he and his staff work hard to put patients at ease, both through the welcoming atmosphere found at his office and the collaborative process he likes to establish with his patients regarding their dental care, before during and following it.

“I may know what they need,” he says. “But it’s important to know what they want.”

From the moment patients call Bentham’s office, they notice it’s different from many other dental practices. For one, he has a live answering service, which can immediately put a patient directly in touch directly with him.

“When it’s an emergency, a patient wants to talk to a real person, not a machine,” says Bentham.

The waiting room in Dr. Ron Bentham’s dental practice is decorated more like a living room than a typical dental office waiting room to help patients feel more comfortable visiting the dentist.

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That proved important, and popular, with many people during the 10 weeks at the height of the first wave of the COVID-19 outbreak when dentists’ offices were closed. Dentists were still available for emergencies but not all were immediately reachable. He was.

Because of his live answering service, Bentham dealt with about 100 calls for dental emergencies during that time.

Another difference patients notice is when they enter his dental office. Unlike many other sterile-looking waiting rooms in dental offices, his looks like a living room, complete with comfortable armchairs and a sofa. But it is not just about aesthetics. Bentham wants to put his patients at ease.

His practice offers a full COVID-19 safety protocol, including mandatory hand-sanitizing at the front door, temperature taking of patients, regular hand-washing, blood pressure and pulse checks and mouth rinses. Special Clearbright filters for disinfection in the most reliable and effective way are used, as is personal protective equipment.

Equipment is sterilized using UVC light and compounds are mixed using light, not chemicals.

Over the years, Bentham has seen major technological shifts in dentistry and has kept abreast of them, participating in ongoing training to keep up to date with the latest methods and equipment through courses he attends three to four times a year in Vancouver. In that way, he says, he can offer his patients the best and most up-to-date care possible.

And for Bentham, care does not end when a patient leaves the dental office. He prides himself on following up with patients after any major dental work, usually with a personal phone call later that day to make sure the patient is recovering properly.

He says dentistry is different now than it was when he came to Penticton in June 1969, straight out of dental school at the University of Alberta in Edmonton to start practicing with another dentist. A year later, he took over another dental practice and went out on his own.

But despite the years and the changes, his focus on patients — what they need, how they are doing and how they respond to the care he provides — has remained the paramount part of his work.

Whether it is improving someone’s smile, helping them chew better, easing their pain or just making them feel better about their experience seeing a dentist, it’s all important to Bentham.