Hundreds of people converged upon Beaches Orthodontics last Thursday when the practice hosted an open house for its new location at 150 Professional Drive (Suite 100) in Ponte Vedra Beach.
The Nov. 29 celebration featured four food trucks, a game truck and bounce house and drinks from St. Augustine Distillery and Veterans United Craft Brewery. The event also allowed the practice’s patients, friends and family and fellow dental field colleagues the opportunity to walk through the new office, which opened Nov. 1.
“I’m so excited,” Dr. Shreena Patel said. “It’s nice to have such great support. I don’t think I would have expected hundreds of people to come out and support us. It feels amazing.”
Previously located in south Jacksonville Beach, Beaches Orthodontics now features an office that is almost double the size of its former location. As a result, Patel said the practice has more chairs and can therefore see more patients.
In addition, Patel noted the new office has scanners, so the practice doesn’t have to take impressions, and features new technology, including new X-rays.
Patel made an offer on the office space in January 2018, closed on that offer in March and began build-out in July. The space, which was completed gutted for the new office, was previously a cosmetic surgery office and bank. Adams Contractors completed the renovations, with Lindsay Moore Interiors completing the interior design.
The new Beaches Orthodontics office features a bright beaches theme, with surfboards and photos of waves lining some of the walls. Perhaps most cool, for Gator fans at least, is a room in the office that is dedicated to the University of Florida, where Patel completed her bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, doctorate of dental medicine and orthodontics residency. The room is home to some of Patel’s diplomas, as well as Gators memorabilia and Gainesville Sun articles detailing the success of the school’s football and basketball programs in the early 2000s.
The office also pays homage to the practice’s previous owner, Dr. David Carden, whose 30-year practice in Jacksonville Beach featured shark taxidermy on the walls. Those same pieces of taxidermy are now hanging on the walls of Patel’s new office.
Beaches Orthodontics offers a wide array of services, including traditional braces, Invisalign clear aligners, Damon Smile self-ligating braces, AcceleDent Aura and more. The practice is also a local chapter of the Smiles for a Lifetime Foundation, a national nonprofit organization that provides orthodontics to individuals, ages 11-18, who may not have the opportunity to acquire assistance any other way. As a chapter of the organization, Beaches Orthodontics provides six to 12 children each year with complimentary orthodontics care, according to the practice’s website.
Patel, who is a Jacksonville native and graduate of The Bolles School, said she is happy to be permanently planting herself within her home community.
“I’m just happy how it turned out,” she said about the new office, “and I’m excited about helping new families.”
