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May 9, 2008

Neibauer Dental Care Founded on Philosophy of Helping Others

By Rebecca Plevin Observer Staff Writer

Dr. Chris Neibauer said he is on a mission to change the way dentistry is practiced in the United States. Neibauer, who operates 13 dentist offices across Maryland and Virginia, said his practice is founded on the simple desire to help others.

Neibauer's business philosophy stems from his experience serving as a Seventh Day Adventist missionary in a dental clinic in Yaoundé, Cameroon, for five years. At that clinic, he treated village people, Peace Corps participants, embassy officials and ambassadors, he said. He said he offered dentistry and orthodontic services on a sliding scale and charged people what they were able to pay.

During those five years, he said he did, "tons of work to help tons of people." As a missionary, he said the goal was to "replace yourself" and to "make the need for a missionary not have a need anymore."

Neibauer returned from Cameroon in 1987 and opened a private practice in Waldorf, Md. The corporation began major expansions in 2006 and Neibauer Dental Care's Herndon location opened Monday. As in the company's other locations, the Herndon office is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday. That the practice treats patients during extended office hours and offers day-of appointments are part of Neibauer's overarching goal to "help others by being more available," he said.

Neibauer radiates passion and energy and said, "My vacation is my vocation." He said he expects his employees to feel the same desire to serve the community and when hiring new dentists and technicians, he said he looks for inspired people who have "a need to help, not a need for a job."

He said he believes that when people love the purpose behind their job, everything else will follow. When people work only for money, he said, "they never really get a full life" and will "always be chasing the rainbow."

Neibauer Dental Care is scheduled to open three more offices in the region in the near future and Neibauer said he would like to open more offices across the country. But as Neibauer grows his dental corporation, he is not forgetting about his experience in Cameroon. His dream, he said, is to "sponsor a clinic in Africa." Once he has about 30 or 40 offices in operation, he said, he would "start entertaining that idea."