Disregard his innate gift for top-quality health care, honed over three-and-a-half sterling decades. Never mind his convenient central location in Salisbury. Forget even that he has absolutely no cavities. The fact is, Dr. William Elliott and the staff of Salisbury Dental Care are just some of the nicest, warmest and most caring practitioners of the dental arts and sciences that you will find anywhere in the region.

It’s palpable from the moment you walk through the front door, resplendent with its carved-wood watercraft that seems to be a harbinger of the smooth sailing and tranquil seas that await you inside.
Intelligent and soft-spoken, Elliott’s nature is the behavioral equivalent of Vicodin but without the Rx. It’s a formula that his patients certainly appreciate.

“He’s an excellent dentist…the only one in the area I would ever want to go to,” beamed Christine C. Berry from her wingback chair in the warm, softly lit living-room waiting area in which she was nestled. And Berry should know what she’s talking about. Not only is the Berlin, Md., resident one of three generations of her family to have placed their health in Elliott’s caring hands, but at age 101 she’s had plenty of time to figure out what she likes.

Two-thousand nine, meanwhile, marks an important time in Elliott’s career, as it represents the 10th year of his practice at 1300 S. Division St.

“I’d been part of a active practice in Cambridge since 1972,” Elliott said, “but ultimately I decided I wanted to create a more personal, intimate practice elsewhere… a kind of dental boutique at which I would treat one patient at a time and not have to worry about the business side of the operation, which a larger practice demands. I just wanted to help people get well and be happy. So, in 1999, that’s what I did, and the results have been gratifying.”

It was certainly a risk worth taking. The good doctor’s patient volume rose sufficiently steadily that he decided nearly two years ago that his full attention was required in Salisbury — even though he lived, and still does, in Cambridge.

But the key to forming such an intimately personal practice, as anyone who’s done it right will tell you, is in those precious couple of positions the practitioner fills in support of the professional aspect of the operation.

“What I like best about working for Dr. Elliott is that he sets such a great tone for the entire practice,” reports his office manager, April Tingle. “He’s so easygoing and calm that you eventually see that demeanor spread through the entire practice, including the patients, so that ultimately the entire environment becomes reassuring and serene from top to bottom.”

After running Elliott’s office for over five years, the married mother of two has had ample opportunity to assess the situation. She forms a vital part of the practice, Elliott insists, including responsibility for all the bookkeeping, all the appointment scheduling and making sure that the ever-tranquil environment stays as fresh and clean as the good-natured spirits who work there.

“Each person here performs an indispensable function to the overall integrity and constitution of the practice,” Elliott, a former triathlete and eight-handicap golfer with nine grandkids, asserted. “If I am the practice’s technician and April is its rudder of stability, then Dana would have to be its personality.”
And so she is. After 13 vivacious years as Elliott’s trusted and capable dental assistant, Dana Mills is as filled with alacrity as her smile is with perfect white teeth.

“When people ask me what I do, I tell them my job is to help make beautiful smiles,” said Mills, the married mommy of two yummy yellow labs named Tide and Sammy. “I use my personality to help people relax through humor and conversation. If you were to walk into the office and see one of our patients sharing a story about their personal life, you’d see that nine times out of 10 it’s me they’re talking to.”

“You could say that Dana is the Yin to my and April’s Yang,” offered Elliott with an unmistakable chord of amused resignation. “Together, these women make this practice what it is, what it’s been and what it will be. I really can’t imagine it without either one of them.

“Meanwhile,” mused Elliott, “I can’t even imagine myself without Gail, my wife and best friend for 43 years. Her support has not only been the foundation for my success professionally but as a human being, too.”
See what happens when you’re surrounded by good women?

William Elliott, DDS, 1300 S. Division St., Salisbury, Md.,
410-543-2320