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Date: 7/19/2023
EAST LONGMEADOW — After several years working in other towns, Dr. Vinay Kapoor has brought his brand of friendly, yet professional dentistry back to East Longmeadow. His new practice, Alliance Dental Care at 265A Benton Dr., will be open to the public on Monday, July 24.
Kapoor has been a dentist since 1998. He said that while it seems like a cliche, he went into the field because he “truly did want to help people” especially “people who are afraid of the dentist.” He began working with Baystate Dental 25 years ago and has served patients in East Longmeadow, Longmeadow and Wilbraham as part of the practice.
Kapoor decided to open his own practice to “complete my vision” of what dentistry should be.
Alliance Dental Care offers a wide array of services including cosmetic dentistry, whitening, orthodontics, extractions, implants, dentures and partials. If there is a service that Kapoor and his team do not offer, they work with local specialists in the area, he said.
With a long professional history in the area, Kapoor was able to bring in a team of professionals that have a proven track record working with him. That team includes office manager Ryan E. Douglas, who has worked with Kapoor for more than 13 years. In addition, he hired hygienists Gina Calabrese and Jennah Miller, each of whom he has worked with for more than 10 years.
Alliance Dental Care will have five employees to start, but Kapoor said, “I built this office to grow into.” He noted that people often wait up to six months for a cleaning to be scheduled, but Alliance Dental Care has the capacity for up to five hygienists to take care of patients at the same time, reducing the amount of time people must wait for routine dental care.
Aside from having enough space to treat patients, Alliance Dental Care also has state-of-the-art technology to provide the most up-to-date care. “We’re very tech-forward when it comes to dentistry,” said Douglas. In addition to having what Kapoor called an “infection control department [that] is larger than [in] most offices,” the practice also uses diagnostic tools such as cone-beam computed tomography and low-radiation imaging.
Kapoor broke ground on the office in the fall of 2022. “I’m proud of the people we worked with,” Kapoor said. Bill Laplante of Laplante Construction created the exterior of the building, while Craig Schweitzer of Schweitzer Construction worked on the interior.
Kapoor said he was involved with the project at every step and spent about a year prior to the groundbreaking choosing a site and designing the office. Kapoor’s choice of location was intentional.
“Benton Drive is one of my favorite areas. There are no traffic lights, you can hear the birds chirping, it’s safe,” he said.
The design of the building was also deliberate. Kapoor said he wanted the exterior to look like a New England style home, rather than having an industrial office aesthetic. He said that throughout the office he worked to include touches that add warmth and an inviting feeling.
“I think the building shows character, warmth,” said Douglas. Kapoor added that rather than being “cold and foreboding,” the office has art on the walls “to make people smile.”
Douglas said that when people walk in, the first thing they see are friendly faces. “I think that helps lower your anxiety,” he said. He commented that the goal is to give “service to the people that are [more] used to disservice. In today’s culture, we’ve really lost that personability. I think that will resonate.” He said that when people come to the dentist they are often in pain and afraid.
“The majority of our job is to teach and have you take it home and practice it,” Douglas said, adding that putting people at ease makes that job easier. An example of this is the inclusion of a treatment room with extra space to allow a parent to sit with a child while they are undergoing procedures. Douglas said it helps eliminate most of the anxiety around going to the dentist and prevents bad experiences from creating a lifelong fear of the dentist.
That is why Kapoor’s philosophy is to provide “a compassionate, fun, yet professional environment,” what he called, “hometown professionalism.”
While East Longmeadow is not technically Kapoor’s hometown, he has lived there for decades. Douglas said Kapoor “has a passion for what he does, and he has a love for this town. What better way to combine the two loves than to open an office here.”
Kapoor said, “I really do like living here. My kids both went to the high school. We won first place for hometown float in the [2023] East Longmeadow Fourth of July parade. We worked on it in our garage. I’m very proud of that.”
Of working in East Longmeadow, Kapoor said, “This is where I want to be, and this is how I want to do it. We do the work we love, and we love the people we serve. What I’m doing is sincere. In a small town, you can’t fake sincerity. Reputations are built on being genuine. [Patients] put their trust in me and I really try to come through.”
Kapoor said former clients often ask him when he will be working in the area again. He said that his message for the East Longmeadow community is, “I’m back.”
For more information, visit alliancedentalcare.com.