The Bob Billings Rising Star Award is awarded to a company less than 5 years old with rising potential.

Dr. Ryan Brittingham, of 2006 winner Legends Drive Dental Center, isn’t just thinking about potential. He wants to offer the area’s most cutting-edge, technologically advanced dental care. And that means giving patients the best means possible to make their own health decisions.

“Each operatory is equipped with an inter-oral camera, which lets us show the patients their own teeth up on a flat-screen monitor that lets them see what we see,” he said. “It helps with the education part of treatment. There’s multiple ways to fix things, and it’s easier when patients can see it themselves. And then I think they can understand it a little bit better.”

The center’s technology also offers patients a certain level of convenience.

“We have a machine that lets us make crowns and outlays in one appointment. It’s called a cerec – that’s a high-technology piece of equipment that lets us do that,” Brittingham said. “Crowns are designed and milled right in the office, so there’s no temporaries. The patient leaves with the permanent restoration.”

There are other advances that Brittingham plans to pursue. He says he’d like the clinic’s charting to go paperless in the next year or two. And the center’s next big move will be adding digital X-rays.

“That’s going to reduce our radiation exposure to patients up to 80 percent, which is a big step,” he said. “We haven’t added that yet, but that’s the next thing.”

The practice largely serves young families, but Brittingham says they’re getting more clientele looking for cosmetic dentistry.

Dr. Ryan Brittingham

“We’ve started developing a reputation around town for cosmetic procedures we’ve done,” he says. “We’ve really changed some people’s lives by fixing their teeth.”

The Chamber has played a role in that reputation, too. Brittingham says the organization has provided a lot of beneficial networking opportunities.

“I’ve found as I’ve become more involved in the community,” he says, “it seems like a lot of the people I’ve met are active in the Chamber.”