New doc in town

MOSES LAKE — The name on the sign will be different, but there’s a new hand on the wheel at Moses Lake Family Dentistry. After almost 30 years, Dr. Craig Harder has hung up the drill for good. Dr. Nicholas Smith officially took the reins Jan. 9. 

“We’ve got a great guy who’s going to continue the tradition and take good care of people,” Harder said. 

Harder, who grew up in Spokane, had early exposure to the medical field. His dad was a veterinarian in Colfax, serving patients from Kahlotus to Ritzville, Harder said.  

“Being a small business owner was something I always wanted to do and had a vision of, because I watched my dad do it,” Harder said. “I wanted to be in health care of some sort. The whole idea of working with your hands and doing some artwork along the way is a big draw and being able to get people healthy without (it being) life-and-death.” 

Harder did his undergraduate work at Idaho State University in Pocatello, Idaho. Originally, he planned to be a veterinarian like his father but also applied to dental schools, he said. 

“I got into every dental school I applied to and was an alternate to vet schools, so the writing was on the wall, apparently,” he said.  

Harder opted for Creighton University, a Jesuit university in Omaha, Nebraska, and spent a year in Moscow, Idaho as an associate. In 1996, Dr. Ron Tuff of Moses Lake passed away and his family was looking for someone to take over his practice, and Harder took the opportunity. 

“The local dentists all helped out for a month and a half while I got my Washington license, and we went from there,” he said. “It’s been great.”

In 2003, Harder expanded the practice and moved it from a small building on Ivy Avenue, where it had been since the 1950s, to a brand-new building on Nelson Road next to Columbia Middle School.  

“We were a little hole-in-the-wall three-operatory business before, and now we’ve got six operatories here,” Harder said. “Hopefully Nicholas can expand it some more and keep it growing and improving.” 

Smith grew up in Pocatello, Idaho, he said, and his path to dentistry paralleled Harder’s in some ways. Smith’s uncle was a dentist, and Smith worked for him as a teenager cleaning up in the clinic. That gave him a chance to discover that dentistry was for him, he said. 

“It just fit together,” he said. “Seeing that dentistry can provide a great quality service for people, being able to work with my hands, having the opportunity to be in business at something that I thought was fun and interesting. It all kind of came together like magic.” 

Smith also did his undergrad work at ISU and went to dental school at Creighton, studying under some of the same professors Harder had learned from decades earlier. His first job was as an associate in Arizona, and then he found himself in Hailey, Idaho, where he met his wife. She was from Moses Lake, he said, and so they and their three children – a 5-year-old and 2 1/2-year-old twins – moved back to her hometown. Smith worked as an associate for some local practices until Moses Lake Family Dentistry became available. 

“It was kind of neat for me when he brought his family here as we were closing things up on the sale,” Harder said. “The kids were close in age to what my kids were at the time when we built this building.” 

Harder had some other offers, but he wanted just the right dentist to pass his practice on to, he said. 

“The big thing right now is corporate groups buying dental offices because they'll pay a lot more for them, and we did look into that,” he said. “At the same time, it wasn't what I wanted, so when Nick started checking things out, I was very relieved to know that it was going to move to a single person who would take good care of people without the money being the top object.” 

Harder and his wife are planning to do some traveling to visit their grown children. He’s also keeping his hand in doing telemedicine for a group in Dallas, Texas, that treats dental sleep apnea. 

“A whole new works is opening up for me on that side of it,” he said. “It’ll keep me busy, but I won’t have to work as hard. I can do it while I’m traveling as long as I’ve got a computer.” 

The staff is staying on – except for one who’s also ready to retire – and Smith doesn’t have huge changes planned apart from updating some of the technology, he said. He prefers to focus on the basic reason for dentistry. 

“I always want someone to be able to eat food and be able to enjoy it,” he said. “For me, that's a pleasure of life. (I want to help) people maintain and prevent things from becoming worse and get out of pain if they're in that kind of situation. Just everyday general dentistry: fillings, crowns and extractions where necessary.” 

He also wants to add a few other things so as to keep his patients from having to seek out another dentist for specialized work like implants and surgery, he said. 

“I want people to know that we're here to help them and take care of them,” Smith said. “If current patients or other people are looking for someone to help them feel confident in a smile or (have) trouble eating, let's see if we can help … There's a lot of people who don't have dental home, and we're trying to help people have a home.” 

    Moses Lake Family Dentistry, now under new ownership, has been in the building next to Columbia Middle School since 2003.