The Hook Magazine – Home & Health Issue
Wellness From All Walks: Seven of Our Region’s Most Inspiring Practitioners
September/October 2010 – click here for PDF of article
If Dr. Marvin Fier’s face or name seems familiar to you, there may be a good reason – he has graced the cover of dental trade magazines and been featured in popular national magazines like New Beauty. He’s traveled the world, from India to Thailand to Costa Rica and many places in between, giving lectures on various aspects of dentistry to other dental professionals. And he has received honors and distinctions from so many of the top dental organizations that it’s hard to keep track.
When asked what sets him apart from other dentists, Dr. Fier has no hesitation in answering. It’s in his patient approach – treating a whole person as opposed to just their mouth. “What drives us is a commitment to helping people be healthy and well, and what drives me is changing people’s lives,” he says. “You begin to see that it’s a lot more than teeth. The way we function here is very different.”
Though Dr. Fier practices general, implant and cosmetic dentistry, it’s obvious the latter is his passion. He also sees it as an art form – matching a client’s expectations with reality and choosing just the right shade and shapes to make natural looking veneers, for example. It might be easy to dismiss cosmetic procedures as pure vanity, but Dr. Fier sees them as something more. Often in dentistry, a restorative procedure is inextricably linked to one that may also be defined as cosmetic, often making it a necessity. But beyond that, and perhaps more importantly, he sees a connection to mental health and a patient’s happiness through his work.
“I know very clearly that when people change a smile they’re not happy with, the smile that’s truly inside comes out and they can function and interact with people in a whole other way,” he says. “We see people climbing up the work ladder, meeting partners and smiling a heck of a lot more.” smilerockland.com, 845-354-4300