ROCKPORT — After Thursday, Dr. Philip Higgins, DMD, won't have to put on the game face he's been wearing the past couple of months.

He won't have to say goodbye to one patient, shake hands or give a hug, and then compose himself and think about the steps needed to care for his next patient, sitting just 10-feet away. He will be free to reflect on the good and the frustrating of his 34-year career in dentistry in the Midcoast, and the plan he has to work toward making a new group of people's lives and health better.

June 19 is Higgins' official last day of work. It will be a half-day, and one that likely includes some more heart-felt cards of thanks, a few balloons and maybe something sweet to eat, with or without a candle. There will be more hugs, words of congratulations and gratitude, and tears.

Higgins saw his first patient in Camden on July 7, 1980.

"I remember it well. It was Mitty Beal, he was the captain of a boat in Camden Harbor and he needed work done right away and he was referred to me," said Higgins.

Higgins is a well-known name in family dentistry in the Midcoast. He was first a partner in private practice with Dr. John Goss, and then on his own. Higgins' retirement from private practice is just a few weeks shy of the 34th anniversary of the day he saw his first patient, but it also marks the beginning of a new phase in his career.

Born and raised in Bangor, Higgins graduated from the University of Maine in Orono and taught biology at Katahdin High School for a year before heading off to dental school. He graduated from Tufts University of Dental Medicine in Boston in 1979 and followed that with a year of residency at Maine Medical Center in Portland.

In 1979, he was a member of the Omicron Kappa Upsilon academic fraternity and the American Society of Dental Anesthesiology. He won the Maine Dental Association President's Award in 1991 and 1999, and in 2001 became an honorary member of Sigma Phi Alpha's Chi Pi Chapter.

After opening his private practice in Camden in 1980, Higgins hired Goss to be his associate in 1983, and they became partners in practice a year later. Higgins and Goss worked for 20 years together on Elm Street, at the corner of Willow Street.

In 2003, they dissolved the partnership and Higgins opened a new practice on Applewood Road, off Route 90, in Rockport. Goss stayed for a while on Elm Street, before following Higgins to his own new location off Route 90, and also in Rockport, but both still independent.

"Every day you have to get up and say you're going to do better. After four years, it dawned on me that this was going to be my job. Before that, I did everything in 12- to 18-month chunks," said Higgins. "In order to keep doing this, I had to make a commitment to every day do better. You can't put this work on autopilot, you have to constantly learn or be passed by."

Higgins said that his partnership with Goss was a good one.

"I fed off John's desire to always be a better dentist," said Higgins. "Technology has flooded our field like so many others. But it's just an additional tool. Just having the tools does not make a great dentist. You still need good hand-eye coordination, mental processing, problem solving and sleuthing to be a good dentist."

What has not changed in his 33-plus years of family dentistry are two procedures: building a denture and extracting a tooth. Technology has not improved methods to do either, and so he has done both processes the same since 1980.

The reason for dissolving their partnership had nothing to do with personality or practices, and everything to do with their future aspirations, according to Higgins.

"The reason to end our partnership was that we had different goals for the ends of our careers," said Higgins. "And this is the result of that, I am making a change and he is continuing to practice."

Throughout his career, Higgins has been committed to continuing his education, as well as bringing others along by developing and teaching curriculum and exams at University College of Bangor. He has also served 10 years on the North East Regional Board of Dental Examiners, as the perio/restorative examiner of candidates taking the NERB exam, and served two years reviewing, investigating and leading proceedings on complaints for the Maine Board of Dental Examiners. His membership, affiliation and representation on both state and regional associations, committees, societies and councils are too numerous to list, but shows his long-standing commitment to do more than just practice dentistry on a daily basis.

"I always believed that the things you do outside the office make you a better dentist," said Higgins. "I have learned a lot about the law and overall, I have learned that the profession has an outstanding group of people. Less frequently, there were people who needed a mid-career discipline, and even less frequently there were people who needed a career change.”

A few other "extra-curricular" activities stand out as watershed times that helped Higgins hone in on exactly what he wanted to do when he gave up his private practice, but wasn't ready to stop working.

From 2006-2012, he provided practice management consultancy to residents in the Advanced Education in General Dentistry program at Togus VA. In 2012, he became the chief dental officer for Penobscot Community Health Center in Bangor, providing clinical leadership for dental services and supervision of dentists and residency director. He is also charged with ensuring quality of care, and overseeing all dental education programs.

"Three years ago, I began thinking about the end of my career, and I find that the teaching part, being around young people, has always been fun," said Higgins.

Higgins said the clinic employs 75 people, and that it's a Federal Qualified Health Center, designed to fill the holes in health care.

He said that 85 percent of the patients are on MaineCare, or pay on a sliding scale due to their inability to pay for services. As an FQHC, the clinic is required to treat low-income patients, and it provides a variety of health services, not just dental care.

"Two things were very intriguing to me during this time in the past couple of years," said Higgins. "One, it was a chance to work with young doctors from all over the country, to learn something new all the time from them. Also, working with special needs adults two days a week, this was interesting due to the fact you really have to try different things with this group, which includes the homeless, the mentally ill and drug users, and there is a real need for that service."

He said that while one might consider obvious challenges working with these kinds of patients, the mere fact that some travel two to three hours to get to the clinic is something that is often overlooked.

Higgins also discovered that he wanted to bring his private practice experience to a public clinic.

"There were and are professional challenges facing this clinic and I want to try to make it work. I think it's an ego thing for me, I was hoping I could solve the hurdles they face as I have watched them since they opened this 10 years ago," said Higgins.

A resident of the Midcoast, Higgins said he plans to travel to the clinic weekly, spending a couple nights each week in Bangor. His goal is to work at the clinic for two or three years and if he can't make an impact within that timeframe, "then somebody else should."

"It's very different supervising your private practice staff than managing your peers. It will require some skill set enhancements on my part," he said.

While Higgins looks forward to putting his stamp on Penobscot Community Health Center and the community it serves, Dr. Katie Cunningham has been working to put her stamp on the practice that Higgins has grown and nurtured over the past 34 years.

Higgins and Cunningham were introduced by a mutual friend, and the young doctor has been tapped to take over the practice.

Cunningham is originally from Albuquerque, N.M., the daughter of an Air Force dad, which prompted the family to move a lot. For the most part, she grew up in Dayton, Ohio, and earned her Doctorate of Dentistry Science from the Ohio State University College of Dentistry in Columbus. Since June 2013, she has been a family dentistry associate in Benton.

She lives in Manchester with her husband, Scott, two dogs and a cat. Cunningham came to dentistry by way of chemistry.

"In college, I was studying chemistry and was setting myself up to go to graduate school for chemistry. But I had a moment when I realized all my mentors were just researching and applying for grants, and it seemed no means to an end," said Cunningham. "And being in a military family we always had new doctors and dentists and I always found that my dentists were happy and content. I thought the field would be a good fit for me after talking with some friends."

In her junior year of college, Cunningham made a "quick switch" to prepare for dental school, and spent the next four years studying and eventually working as a student extern.

She is excited about working in a field that for many years has been dominated by men, in part because women are natural caregivers and she said that patients are in tune to that. Her resume includes providing dental care to underserved populations, intellectually and developmentally disabled adults and medically compromised patients in hospitals, as well as volunteer work with Special Olympics, Give Kids a Smile, the American Student Dental Association, Smiles for Schools and Head Start.

Given her experience with kids and dentistry, both as a student extern and volunteer with various organizations and program, Cunningham has learned a few tricks when it comes to keeping kids happy in the dentist's chair.

"Distractions. And renaming all the dental tools as cartoon characters," said Cunningham. "And it doesn't hurt to let them know there's a prize or a sticker to take home at the end."

As she prepares to take over the reins from Higgins and move further into owning her own practice, Cunningham said her philosophy is not to try and do everything, and to let others help.

"If I now the specialist can take better care of the patient than I can, the patient should go there," said Cunningham.

She said that over the past two weeks, having Higgins working with her to share his knowledge of his patients' histories and even personal situations has been very helpful in helping her get up to speed and be able to connect with the patients.

"Learning habits, tendencies and the stages of their treatment has been great. Every day he tells me you'll be meeting 'Mr. Smith,' he needs this and that and then any special concerns," said Cunningham. "And going forward, I'll be relying on the staff and the hygienists, just as much. They know the patients' personal history, which is important to building relationships."

Cunningham said knowing the little things about people can help bridge the divide from the old doctor to the new one.

"I use Facebook a lot like many other people and I check local news too, to stay up with people's lives and ultimately provide better care," said Cunningham.
Higgins said he wants Cunningham to make his practice her own, in time.

"I've always had the feeling that because our practices reflect our personalities, you need to let your practice reflect you, let it shine through," said Higgins. "John and I needed to have our individual stamps on our practices, and Katie will too. My shoes won't fit her. She has potential to take this in a whole better direction."

As for himself, Higgins said that too much time in one thing, in one place, cane make one "stagnant." And so he sees this change, all of the changes he is making, as a challenge.

"This has reenergized me," said Higgins. "I don't know how you give up the relationships you have established with your patients and your staff without being excited about the future challenges."

He added that the Midcoast community has been a great one for him and his family, and that he and his staff have tried for 34 years to make everyone happy. He said he knows there are a few out there that have left unhappy, but for the most part, he thinks they have succeeded.

Higgins also takes pride in his belief that the Midcoast has some great dentists, including Goss, who he still regularly refers patients to, and he also takes a lot pride in being a part of that group.

"Walt Strang on Sea Street took me under his wing early on, and all my career I listened to what people said about him, that he was a fine dentist and a real gentleman," said Higgins. "I would be proud to have people speak of me as they still do Walt."

Editorial Director Holly S. Edwards can be reached at hollyedwards@penbaypilot.com or 706-6655.