Late last summer, Newtown Smile Dentistry welcomed its newest practitioner, Dr Brad Pinkos.

As practice principle Dr Sean Lee recently explained to The Newtown Bee, he made the acquaintance of Dr Pinkos right around the time when former owner Dr Bryson M. Filbert, Jr, was poised to fully retire after maintaining a one day a week schedule at the 34 Church Hill Road office.

“After a couple of meetings with Dr Pinkos, I realized he would be not only a perfect fit for our office and patients, but was prepared to take the torch from Dr Filbert, who was retiring,” Dr Lee said.

In a recent interview during a break in the action at the busy practice, Dr Pinkos talked about growing up in neighboring Bridgewater, and becoming interested in dentistry at a relatively early age.

“When I was in third grade, I was experiencing some difficult issues with my teeth,” he recalled. “After being fitted for some time with braces, I remember the day they came off and being shocked at the transformation. I was amazed at how much a difference it makes when you can smile at people without being embarrassed at how you look.”

That led Dr Pinkos to volunteer for a dental service mission through his church while still in high school.

“We went with a dentist and about ten other volunteers to Honduras,” he said. “This was a mission to a very remote location, several hours by jeep off the paved roads. The location had no clinic facilities or even running water. The dentist primarily did back-to-back extractions — nearly 100 per day for the time we were there.”

After returning, Dr Pinkos said he was firmly set on becoming a dentist. After graduating from the University of Richmond with a BS in biology and religion, he attended dental school at Tufts University and completed his DMD degree.

Since then, he has completed hundreds of hours of post-graduate continuing education, including more than 100 hours of dental implant surgical training. He also returned for a second dental mission trip to Honduras, as well as one to Jamaica — now serving as a practitioner.

“That second trip to Honduras was for a pediatric mission out of Boston,” he said. “We did mostly sealants and fluoride treatments on that trip. It was at a nearly identical rural location as my first mission, but at least this time we were able to bring a battery powered drill, and we had running water.”

Dr Pinkos’ most recent mission was to Jamaica, where he actually had time to take a brief break to see some of the island.

“That was the most sophisticated location of the three. We had electricity and many treatment stations,” he said. “Because of that we were able to do a lot more to help each person we saw. We also were able to diagnose one patient with oral cancer. The majority of those we saw had never seen a dentist, though.”

Interestingly enough, it was a similar passion for service on dental missions that was a crossover point between Dr Pinkos and Dr Lee when they first met earlier last summer.

“Over several meetings we got to know each other,” Dr Lee said. “Besides doing dental missions and military dental service, we discovered we had a lot in common regarding our commitment to a patient-centered practice. He liked the idea that we treat every patient like family here at Newtown Smile.”

So extending the offer to work in Newtown was a no-brainer.

“Brad is a high-caliber talent,” Dr Lee said of his new practitioner. “He’s had a tremendous amount of training, and his work is very, very good. His concern and care for our patients is second to none.”

Dr Pinkos brings to Newtown a strong background in performing dental implants. After his arrival at Newtown Smile, the practice invested in a 3D X-ray machine that permits Dr Pinkos to create a precise treatment plan for the creation and placement of implants.

“Thanks to this technology, we can help many more people replacing teeth with implants who had to previously be sent elsewhere — often at significantly greater expense,” he said. “It’s pretty amazing that we can now image and create an acrylic appliance that literally snaps into the mouth with drilling targets, depths and angles all pre set.”

Dr Pinkos said because of the high accuracy this new system provides, the implant procedures result in minimal pain.

“So many people worry about prolonged pain, but we’re finding there is typically less pain than with an extraction,” he said. “Now the procedure is so simple, patients are usually back to work the next day, and back to enjoying corn on the cob in a week or two.”

Since the majority of implant work is more cosmetic than medically necessary, the practice has an arrangement with a financial services firm that can arrange monthly payments to cover the cost — including a few options with zero interest.

Besides his work doing more routine dental procedures and implant surgery, Dr Pinkos is a certified provider for Invisalign clear aligner orthodontics.

Throughout March, which is Oral Cancer Awareness Month, Dr Pinkos and Dr Lee are offering anyone free oral cancer screening, and are welcoming new patients. For more information call 203-426-3310 or visit newtownsmile.com