Hometown Dental making use of newly built offices in Charles City, New Hampton

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

The Drs. Faldet, along with their staff at Hometown Dental, are enjoying having room to spare at their new dental buildings in both Charles City and New Hampton.

Dr. Reed Faldet started his practice in Charles City in 2019, taking over for retiring dentist Dr. Stephen Earney. A year later, Faldet’s fiancé, now wife, Dr. Addison Faldet, completed her degree and took on the practice of Dr. Todd Becker in New Hampton.

After getting settled in, the new dentists quickly realized that working in their inherited locations would not be viable in the long term for them or their staffs.

“It was like having a two-bedroom apartment with 10 kids,” said Reed Faldet. “We knew we needed to update. It would have been a huge ordeal to work in the same space.”

Not only was the workspace too small for their needs, but the equipment in the building was more than 30 years old and required frequent maintenance and repair.

Replacing the equipment in the small buildings would have been challenges on their own, with the difficulty compounded by the fact that the plumbing and electrical infrastructure would need major renovations to support the new equipment and technology.

Rather than trying to replace outdated equipment in buildings too small for their needs anyway, the Faldets decided to start from scratch and construct brand new offices in both Charles City and New Hampton.

“With a new build, we were able to design the building around the dental equipment and technology,” said Faldet.

Planning for the new buildings began in March of 2021 and they broke ground on the construction in October of that year. This summer, on June 22, they officially opened their doors and began practicing in their new spaces.

Each building is approximately 3,300 square feet, roughly three times the size of their previous work space. This has allowed Hometown Dental to expand its treatment rooms from three to eight, along with additional space for rooms dedicated to private consults, lab work, sterilization and a team lounge.

“It’s really nice just having a bigger room,” said Faldet.

The larger space not only allows for more privacy and a quieter environment for patients, as other patients and staff are no longer working on top of each other, but also makes it easier for the office to allow flexibility in the schedule. In the event of a patient needing emergency dental work, there is a much greater likelihood that there will be an open seat for them immediately.

“That’s huge,” said Faldet. “It’s to help people get in a little bit quicker.”

A larger location has also been beneficial for the staff, allowing the Faldets to hire additional staff to spread out the office workload.

Having identical buildings in two cities does come with some pros and cons. There is an advantage to having the same layout in each building, making it easier for employees to navigate as they move from one location to the other. Exam rooms, offices, and equipment will be in the same place no matter which city they are working in.

“It’s nice that everything is set up the same,” said Faldet.

At the same time though, for those that frequently move between the two locations, Faldet says it can get a little confusing to keep track of exactly what is in one location or the other.

Having been in the new buildings all summer, there’s little left to do outside of minor interior work and some landscaping. Right now the Faldets are working on hiring additional staff to fully utilize the new space they have to fill.