Northside Dental Co: Changing Perceptions

by Charles McGuigan 11.2021

Interior spaces, when appointed with care and artistic precision, can make a visit memorable and enjoyable. Less is often more, and muted, neutral colors, coupled with inconspicuous lighting, put the spirit at ease. That’s certainly true with the space that houses Northside Dental CO and Bates Ortho on Richmond’s Northside, an interior created by Taylor Bates, whose husband, Dr. Sheldon Bates, an orthodontist, shares the building with Northside Dental CO.

When you pass through the front door, you’re immediately greeted at the reception desk by a delightful woman who offers you a T-shirt along with cup of coffee from one of the city’s local roasteries. 

“People can have really terrible thoughts or feelings about going to the dentist so I think we really wanted to transform the way people thought about it, even as they walk in,” says Katelin Heim, Northside Dental CO’s office manager who excels at both marketing and customer experience. “This is not just your standard dental experience. It’s changing perceptions, and also bringing something really cool to the Northside.” As we walk down the corridor to an office on our right, I gaze into the dental rooms that flank the left wall. Each room is well-lighted and crisp, in a word, welcoming. Not in the least institutional. “Calming, but relaxing,” says Katelin. “Kind of a coffee shop sort of a vibe.” 

After we take our seats in Katelin’s office, we’re joined by the two dentists who head up Northside Dental’s team—Dr. Shelley Yang and Dr. Chelsea Tolbert.

Chelsea tells me that after completing her residency in York, Pennsylvania she decided to come back to Richmond where she had attended VCU’s School of Dentistry. This was on about the time that COVID struck with full force.  “We had a lot of struggles finding an office,” she says. “And then this opportunity presented itself. A really beautiful office in a great part of town, and there’s a huge need for dental offices here. It has been great.”

Northside Dental opened its doors for the first time on July 25, 2020 about five months before the first vaccination—outside of a clinical trial—was administered in this country.

Opening dental offices during the pandemic had its share of pitfalls, but there were bright spots as well. “It delayed our opening just a little bit with the pandemic shutting everything down,” Katelin tells me. “But when things reopened, a lot of other established dental offices were completely backed up because they couldn’t see patients for three to four months. So we were actually able to kind of assist getting people back into the swing of things.  We had been able to hit the ground running with COVID protocols in place from day one.” 

Since their opening about a year and a half ago, Northside Dental has attracted many folks. They have about 2,000 patients today, and that number will continue to grow.  “We’re newbies, but we’re still expanding,” Katelin says. “The response from the community was greater than we could have ever imagined. Bellevue, Laburnum Park, Ginter Park. We get a lot of our patients through referral, too, which is the best compliment that we can receive—having our patients suggest us as their dentist to their family members and loved ones.”

This is a full-service dental clinic with fourteen employees including two dentists,  four hygienists, assistant hygienists, an insurance coordinator, a receptionist, and, of course, an office manager, who oversees the entire operation.

Dr. Chelsea Tolbert describes the services provided at Northside Dental. “We do hygiene checks, and we also do restorative work,” she says. “That means fillings, root canals, crowns, dentures and extractions. We’re also trying to grow the implant part of this office.”

If a patient requires surgery for something like an impacted wisdom tooth she is referred to an oral surgeon. “We don’t put patients to sleep,” Chelsea says. “We just do local anesthesia.”

Both dentists here possess extremely good bedside manners. They put their patients at ease, and educate them as well.  

“We try to make patients as comfortable as we possibly can,” says Chelsea. “I think laying back is kind of a submissive position, and people feel vulnerable. They have a lack of control, and don’t always understand the procedure.”

To alleviate these fears the good doctors here educate their patients. “We really pride ourselves on explaining what we’re doing to the patient and giving them options so that they feel comfortable to make their own decision,” Chelsea says. “We want them to fully understand everything that we’re presenting so they can make a knowledgeable choice, and I think from there they start to feel much more comfortable and relaxed.”

Just a few hours earlier in the day, a patient who had previously developed a fairly acute dental anxiety at another dental practice, came back to Northside Dental after an initial consultation. “Last week he came in with a lot of anxiety and I talked to him today,” Chelsea tells me. “I asked him, ‘How are you feeling?’ He said, ‘I don’t have any more dental anxiety. Coming here and being able to express my concerns has totally changed my feelings. I don’t have any more fear.’”

Northside Dental’s other dentist, Dr. Shelley Yang, who studied dentistry at West Virginia University, has been attracted to her chosen field since childhood. 

“It goes back to when I was about eleven years old,” she says. “My hygienist and my dentist always made me feel good and safe about my teeth, and I’ve always wanted to help people. I’ve always liked helping people, and I’ve always been drawn to teeth. It’s the first thing I notice on somebody I meet.”

And now Shelley is offering to her patients what she received as a girl. “A lot of kids have a fear of being in any sort of medical environment because they probably think, ‘I’m getting a needle,”’ says Shelley. 

At her first job as a dentist, Shelley had the good fortune of working with a dental assistant who had a background in pediatrics. “And we tried to give the kids a great experience,” says Dr. Yang.  

At Northside Dental, Shelley applies what she learned. “Most of the time when we give children local anesthesia and stick them with the needle, they don’t even know it,” she says. 

Shelley describes the process.  “We place a topical anesthetic for a very long time and we do this trick where we hide the needle,” she explains. “And then we spray high pressured water in that area and say we’re washing off the nasty tasting jelly.” 

And that’s when the young patient is jabbed. But with the jet of water and the topical anesthetic, the child doesn’t feel a thing. “They don’t even know what’s going on,” Dr. Shelley Lang says. “So there is no anxiety.”

As I make my way to the waiting area and the reception desk, Katelin Heim, who walks with me, says, “In this office everyone matches really well together, which is great because if everyone likes each other everyone’s willing to offer a helping hand. Serving patients and providing quality care is the most important thing to all of us.”

Northside Dental CO

3404 Hermitage Road

Richmond, Virginia 23227

(804) 767-3410