Introducing Dr. Andy Engel of Living Dental Health
When you first meet Dr. Andy Engel of Living Dental Health, you are entranced by his calm demeanor and genuine interest in listening and truly hearing what you have to say. He is a dentist, right?
There are plenty of jokes about dentists who like to ask you all sorts of questions when your mouth is wide open mid-exam.
Hey, dentists are fluent in garbled speech.
But Dr. Engel is different. He wants to know about you as a person when you aren’t limited by suction devices, water sprayers, and sharp equipment. He’s been practicing dentistry in Bend for over 20 years, and he’s pretty darn good at it. In fact, he was going to be an oral surgeon until life – as it tends to do – happened.
We sat down with Dr. Engel and asked him many questions about himself to get a better feel for who he is as a person and a dentist. And well, this made him a little uncomfortable. You see, he’s used to listening and getting to know his patients, not the other way around. But he was gracious enough to share many lovely details about his life and history. Here’s what we learned.
Dr. Engel was born in Fargo, North Dakota but moved at six months of age to Boise, Idaho, where he spent much of his childhood until his family relocated to Oregon in 1988. An avid athlete, Dr. Engel started skiing shortly after learning to walk and had aspirations to compete in the Olympics. He decided that dentistry was probably the safer option, and we’re glad he did (although it would have been pretty cool to have a former Olympian as a dentist).
Dr. Engel knew he wanted to become a dentist when he was in the eighth grade. He loved to fix things and would take apart his toys and put them back together. He also wanted to help people. This combination led him to seek a career in the medical field and, ultimately, dentistry. After completing his undergraduate degree, he attended dental school at Oregon Health Sciences University. Finishing school early, he pursued advanced training in full mouth reconstruction and oral surgery and later aesthetics, implants, ClearCorrect, tissue and bone grafting surgeries.
When he first moved to Bend in 1998, he helped establish Century Dental Group. He then founded Living Dental Health to fulfill his dream of being an entrepreneur. The name Living Dental Health is synonymous with Dr. Engel’s desire to help his patients quickly and safely address any oral health issues so they can live a healthy, full, and active life here in Central Oregon.
When it comes to patient care, Dr. Engel is a bit of a detective. He strives to understand each patient’s needs and then provides recommendations to help them achieve their desired results. To Dr. Engel, there is no cookie-cutter approach to dentistry. He’s been trained in so many ways that he can pull options from his tool belt that may be foreign to other dentists.
His dream patient: someone who is a good communicator.
Dr. Engel firmly believes that his success in helping patients is dependent on the ability to work as a team with his patient to deliver exceptional results. Plus, Dr. Engel wants a patient he can get to know on a first-name basis, so when he sees them around town, he can say hi and pick up where they left off.