Photo by Zachary Siebert / St. Joseph News-Press / Purchase this photo

Brave Taylor Patterson, 10, cautiously awaits Dr. Nichole White while she prepares to add a filling to his oral repetiore at Northwest Family Dental. Dr. White says Northwest Family Dental, which services low-income families, is a satisfying place for her because it gives her a chance to provide dental care to patients who otherwise would go without.

Taylor Patterson is getting a crown. Not the kind he’d wear on his head but the kind he needs to protect his tooth, which has been weakened by cavity bugs.

That’s how his dentist explains it to him, anyway, as she asks him to open up really, really wide, like an alligator.

“The good thing about this is that it will protect the tooth underneath and keep it from cracking,” she says, working with the crown to make it fit. “And you don’t want it to crack, because it’s one of your big-boy teeth. You’ll keep it forever if you take care of it.”

Finally, it fits — one king crown coming up for Mr. Taylor. Should the dentist put a hoax on it? Maybe one that will turn his teeth purple if he doesn’t brush them?

Taylor has something to say about this, but with his mouth full of fingers and dental instruments, his words aren’t clear. Finally, when the 10-year-old can speak again, the truth comes out: He’d much rather his teeth be blue than purple.

Dr. Nicole White has been with Northwest Family Dental only since June, but she’s already seen Taylor several times. And in a sense, he represents the reason she chose to work in this setting, where adults receive care they might not be able to afford otherwise and where kids with toothaches remind her of herself.

“My main reason for wanting to work in public health is that as the daughter of a farmer, there wasn’t a lot of extra money for going to the dentist,” she says. “And when you grow up with toothaches, you know how much being able to go to the dentist means.”

The community in which Dr. White grew up in is Mary’s Home, Mo., a small town off U.S. Highway 54 between Jefferson City and the Lake of the Ozarks made up largely of farming families. Although St. Joseph is much larger than her hometown, one of its draws for her was the similarity between people here and people there — ones she can ask about gardening and crops, thereby finding a way to connect to them even if they were strangers when they first sat in her chair.

And most people she treats are, in fact, strangers to her at first, given that Dr. White lives in north Kansas City with her husband, Alex, and their daughters, 12-year-old Lauren and 10-year-old Logan. But her patients don’t stay strangers for long.

“She brings great compassion and charisma to the clinic,” says Dr. Patrick Trauernicht, the dental director for Northwest Health Services, which owns the clinic. “Her personality adds a lot.”

It also helps ease the fear of children, such as a 6-year-old she saw recently who was shaking as soon as he walked into the operatory. Somehow, a dentist who names her tools as if they’re cartoon characters — her slow-speed handpiece, for example, is Mr. Bumpy — isn’t so scary. It’s quirks like this that make Dr. White “a good match” for the clinic, says hygienist Bertie Cronbaugh, and kids aren’t the only ones who receive her special treatment.

The clinic also treats adults and is able to offer relatively low costs, due to the fact that Northwest Health Services receives federal funding. Between Dr. White and Dr. Trauernicht, as well as their hygienist and three dental assistants, Northwest Family Dental serves about 40 patients on an average day, including walk-ins. While this would be a heavy load for anyone, it’s especially a challenge for someone who, like Dr. White, graduated from dental school just last May — but it’s not one that comes without rewards.

“When I have a patient return and can see they’ve been brushing and flossing — just maintaining care in a way they weren’t before — it’s like giving birth to a child,” she says. “And it can save their lives in the long run.”

It’s also something that makes them smile, which speaks to the little girl in Dr. White who loved to smile but covered her smile with her hand. Now, however, she can smile freely as she walks Taylor Patterson to where his grandmother sits in the waiting room. He has to keep brushing, she’s told him, because otherwise, he’ll have to come see her again and again and again.

As it is, he’ll need one more appointment to take care of another cavity — but maybe any dread of going to the dentist he’s felt before isn’t so strong after meeting Dr. White.

“I do love my job,” she says. “I love knowing I’m keeping kids and adults out of pain and educating them to take care of themselves. I can sleep at night, because I know I’m doing something for the community.”

Lifestyles reporter Erin Wisdom can be reached at ewisdom@npgco.com.