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Candid, it has changed a lot for me. I used to not really smile, you know, kind of self-conscious of the crowding in my teeth. Also, I used to have a lot of jaw pain so Dr. Ryan was, you know, telling me about, “Oh, we should try it. I think this would be the best route for you, for some orthodontic health.” It gave me a lot of self-confidence. Even my husband noticed that I smile more and I’m not hiding my teeth. And I’m a singer, so it’s also helped with my singing and just creating more space in my mouth.

I was definitely… When I started, because I wasn’t very good at going when I was a kid and teenager, I was very nervous to come to the dentist for the first time. But they were very, like, patient in explaining things. They could tell when I was nervous, just to, kind of like help me relax and take a deep breath, and if I had any questions or needed them to stop, that they could stop at any moment.

One big hurdle that I had at Aurora Family Dentistry was when it came time to get my wisdom teeth removed. A few things that were really cool about the way that worked out. Dr. Ryan was able to talk me through what was gonna happen, explain it to me, make sure I was ready for it. I think we even put it off for a few weeks to time it right. I think he even went so far as to make sure to get it done on a Monday or Tuesday. So if I had any problems in the next few days, he would still be here in the office.

He provided lots of options, different options for numbing and anti-anxiety, and was just super encouraging. I had one tooth that was pretty twisted around back there.

The root of the tooth was kind of hard to get at, and I think it’s a case that normally could have been sent to a dental surgeon. Knowing who I was as a person, knowing that that would have made me probably less likely to actually go and get my teeth out, he was able to do it here and make it comfortable in a way that it could work out.

My husband and I moved up to Alaska and as we were figuring out the lay of the land, dental health is extremely important to my husband and has never been important to me. And we wanted to try to get plugged into a dentist and we were mentioning it at my husband’s work, and Ryan Ersland happened to be right there and said, “I’m a dentist, come on over.” And I had to explain to him that I didn’t think he wanted me as a patient because of how terrified I am of dentists. And he said, “I think we can handle it.” And he was right.

When I was a kid going to dentist appointments, they were always somehow traumatic. I had a lot of metal fillings put in at different times, and I weirdly had a lot of teeth grow in before the baby teeth fell out. So I had to get, like, 13 of my teeth pulled. My final straw was around age 11. I went to get a cavity filled and after 45 minutes of crying through the pain, the dentist had to stop.

And she said that my crying was making it too hard to do the filling that she thought it was all in my head that you don’t even need to be numbed for fillings and to come back next week and we would do it again. And I didn’t go back to the dentist for 12 years because I hated it. Well, I had a lot of fear just kind of built up in my head for that time as well as a lot of plaque built up. And so, I would come here shaking and get into the chair and be shaking and crying and they hadn’t even told me to say, “Ah,” yet. And I was freaking out.

And Dr. Ryan has been so patient with the early appointments and even to now just telling me it’s okay, being very encouraging. Every single person I’ve met here at the front desk and the dental hygienist and the schedulers and everyone I’ve come into contact with has also been very patient and handed me lots of tissues over my years here. I’ve gotten to the point now where not only do I not cry at every dentist appointment, I just kind of look forward to it. And I think that it went from, like, hour-and-a-half long cleanings that had a lot of pauses for crying and a lot of scraping out old plaque to just fun visits where we all smile at the end of it and go home, and it’s a big relief.

Well, that was such a big thing for me because I really didn’t know that I was coming down straight on it. So, that’s why I was so good at scissoring line and stuff. And then once he kind of showed me in a model what the bite is supposed to do, how the top is supposed to come over a little bit, it made a perfect amount of sense because what was happening is I was grinding my teeth as well at night. So that was interrupting my sleep and that was a part of that. So, through a combination of just kinda listening to him, and slowly but surely fixing some of the stuff that was there, came to a crossroads where I said, “Hey, you know what? I’m ready to do this thing right. Let’s do the whole full meal deal.” And we went for the restoration at that point.

Recently they just moved locations and they’ve come over here. So to have a place like this to come to that is so modern and nice and super close to the last one, it just means a lot to have quality care in Alaska. And so, if you can find that, you gravitate to that. That’s what you stay with. And this is absolutely that. It’s quality care in its finest.

And you can sometimes go to a really good dentist and maybe the bedside manner isn’t to your liking, or the opposite. But he has all the qualities that I actually like coming. Dr. Scott Lyke, he sees his patients as friends. He cares about them. He looks at them like family. And he’s made reference to his mother several times, “Well, I did this on my mother and she had this experience.” And he just makes you feel like you’re a part of that.

And he also always says, if you ask him, or he’ll tell you too, “If it were me,” and that makes you feel like his decision comes from kindness. It’s not about money, it’s not about wanting to do this or that. It’s about, is this the best thing for you, and how he would feel about it, he expresses to you. I feel like it’s very personalized care. He’s there for you and your situation and your problems, or even anything that might be going on in your life, you know. My husband went through some really hard times physically, us as an older generation, and he was amazing, you know, asking about him and wanting to help and make sure that he’s okay, you know, outside of dentistry.

I came here because my dentist had retired actually. I really felt fortunate because when I met Dr. Lyke, 71 years old, which was a few years ago, I could tell that I really, really lucked out. Then after that, really, you always know from your first phone call when you call a place. You know how the practice is running. From the very minute you talk to anybody on the phone, you know it’s gonna be a good experience. You walk in. I’m really big on a sterilized area, really, really clean. I look around first thing, and it was immaculate. Everywhere I walked, immaculate.

And then you just meet the people. Everybody’s nice from the front all the way to the back. And even if you’re not seeing the people who are walking down the hall that are working here, you still feel really wanted and, you know, really helpful. Yeah, it’s an amazing place.

Smile means a lot. I’m a very happy person. I love life. I like to have fun. When I came to him, my gums were receding, so my smile had changed for years because I didn’t want those gums showing, and now I don’t care.

Dr. Scott has done two implants for me. Actually, the two teeth were missing for years and it got to the point where I needed to have them and we discussed it, decided to go for it, and it’s the best thing I could have done with the implants. They’re in the back, you can’t see them, but I know they’re not there now. Made chewing a lot easier. He’s also done other crowns, but the most important part that he has done for me is the six crowns of my front teeth. When I came to Dr. Scott, the teeth were not in very good shape. Some of them weren’t, some of them were. One thing he did say is that those six teeth are my smile, and I was only gonna have four done. He did talk me into… I shouldn’t say that. He’s never talked me into doing anything, but that was one important thing to him, was my smile, and it made me think about it, and it’s like, “You’re right, I’ll have four different teeth, but so here’s my smile.” Dr. Scott did that for me.