Dr. Brent Boyett D.O., D.M.D.

Brent Boyett DMD

In looking back over my life, I would like to be able to say that I was always a serious student but that is far from the truth.  Those who knew me at Sulligent High School in 1984 will most likely remember a student, who was more interested in football than his academic pursuits.   I played quarterback and throughout my senior year I thought that the whole universe revolved around a pointed leather ball.  I am not proud of my high school academic transcripts, to be sure.

I started college as a pre-law student but quickly discovered that my interests were more directed toward the sciences.  I loved freshman biology and began to take elective courses in things like zoology, botany and anatomy.

Great educators at Brewer State Junior College like Dr. Bobby Roberson and Mr. Paul Thompson inspired me.  I was fortunate to be influenced by goal-orientated academic minded peers like Greg Taylor, who earned his PhD in biology and now teaches here in Hamilton at Bevel State Junior College. I transferred to Birmingham – Southern College and shared a dorm room with roommates like Danny Potts (who is now a neurologist and a world-renowned advocate and spokesman for Alzheimer’s disease victims) and Marty Mead (who went on to law school at Harvard University).  Marty now practices law in Los Angles.  These people and many others pushed me to apply myself in the classroom.  I credit them with influencing me to place value on my education.

My parents raised my three brothers and they too place value on education.  My parents both worked not only to provide opportunity for us but were also our biggest cheerleaders.   They provided constant encouragement for me, and I often needed it.

In the fall of my junior year at Birmingham –Southern, my oldest brother developed a heart condition.  I remember well how sick he was and how he suffered in the ICU at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).  My father had meetings with the doctors and I listened as they described that his only chance for survival was a heart transplant.  Steve spent 7 months on the transplant list but never received a donor.  He died in 1987 and watching this changed me.  I wanted to become a healer.  I wanted to be the “answer guy” who could help solve health problems.  My heroes and my mentors became doctors.

After I finished Birmingham- Southern with a BS in biology, I took a job making $5 per hour at Caraway Methodist Medical Center in a pulmonary lab.   The idea was to learn about medicine from inside the hospital.  The experience was worth more than the pay and it was there, that I met my wife.

Sandra was a cardiac care nurse in the CCU.  I remember the first day that I met her.  She was wearing red glasses and green surgical scrubs.  She and I had lunch together that day and it was like we had known each other all our lives.  She was an experienced nurse when I met her.  One day I was making my rounds in the CCU.  I walked over to her room to say hello.  While I was talking to her, her patient’s EKG alarm started sounding.  In a flash she jumped over the rail of the bed and delivered a karate chop blow to the patient’s chest.  I later learned that this is called pre- cordial thump.  She had used this to cause the patient’s heart to start pumping again.  I thought that her quick decisive action was the sexiest thing that I had ever seen.  I remember thinking “Hmm, this girl is good”.  Now, 23 years later, she is the mother of my children and my partner in life.  Anybody who knows us,  knows that I married up.  I believe that my gift in life is the ability to surround myself with smart capable people who push me to become better myself.  My wife may be the smartest person that I know.  I look to her wise council often.

In the fall of 1989 I applied and was accepted to UAB School of Dentistry.  Dental school was hard and stressful but I was going through it with several good friends.  It reminds me of the friendship born out of battle.  After you spend 4 years together under stressful condition, you get to know your colleagues on another level.  We helped each other and made it through.

While all of my classmates were setting up their dental practices or starting in dental residency, God had other plans for me.

Two years before my graduation from dental school, my younger brother had started Osteopathic medical school in Kansas City, MO.  He excited me by telling me about the principles of Osteopathic medicine which focused on holistic care and the importance of preventing disease as opposed to just trying to cure it.  The holistic approach described the delicate balance that the body will maintain when outside harmful influences are removed.  These influences were not only biochemical but mental, structural and spiritual as well.  For true wellness, all must be in balance.

I took the medical school entrance exam and graduated dental school in the spring and started my four years of medical school in the fall of 1994.  During those years of medical school, I flew back to Hamilton on the weekends and practiced dentistry in Dr. Larry Cox’s clinic on Saturday.  I would fly in on Friday, work all day on Saturday and fly back on Sunday.  This allowed me to hone my skills as a dentist while learning to become a doctor.  I quickly realized that the two disciplines actually enhanced each other.  My training in one benefited the other.

When I graduated medical school, I was already an experienced dentist.  I elected to continue my training in Family medicine.  I moved to Tupelo and did three years of additional training along with my life long friend Jason Hatfield.   Jason had graduated high school with my younger brother, Patrick and medical school with me in Kansas City.  Jason was my study partner and best friend throughout medical school and residency.  My maturity and his organizational skills complimented each other well.

After my first year of residency, I became licensed to practice medicine and I started moonlighting in emergency rooms.  I remember the very first ER shift that I ever worked was at the hospital in Red Bay Alabama.  I worked about 48 hours straight.  I went in on Friday and came out on Sunday.   It was quite intimidating to realize that I was the only doctor in town that weekend and that I had the responsibility of the entire hospital on my shoulders.  Car wrecks, heart attacks, I saw them all. And with the help of some of the best nurses in the business, we took care of the patients.

Throughout my residency, I worked during my off time at ERs in Corinth and Amory, MS. , as well as in Red Bay, AL.  I saw a lot and I learned a lot.  Between my 40 to 60 hours per week at the residency and my ER moonlighting, I continued to practice dentistry on most Saturdays.  My boss in the residency supported my moonlighting in the ER.  I agree with him, that some of my best learning came when I was alone, in charge and completely responsible.  I must confess that I became drawn to the adrenaline rush of the critically ill patient.  I still derive a great deal of satisfaction from emergency medicine.

After an 11-year courtship, finally married in the spring of 1999.  We had a private ceremony on the beach in Hawaii.  It was just the two of us and I think we are both glad that we kept it low key.  It was a beautiful ceremony and it was just for us.
We came back and rented the Tupelo Civic Center and had a huge party for our family and friends.

When I completed my residency in 2001, my brother (Patrick) had already been practicing for a year in Hamilton, AL.  He, Jason Hatfield and I had started a cooperation called Physician’s Clinic.  The 3 of us worked together in a small double wide modular clinic.  We admitted patients to both the hospital in Winfield and in Hamilton.  We soon decided to open a second practice in Winfield.  I quickly found myself working in a clinic in Hamilton, a clinic in Winfield and practicing dentistry in a separate location in Hamilton.  I had patients in the hospital in Winfield and in Hamilton and I had a few nursing home patients on top of that.  It was crazy and I had to learn how to say no (which was not easy for me to say for some reason), but my twins (Austin and Zach) had just been born and suddenly, I had a whole new set of priorities.

My brother (Patrick) decided in 2003 that he wanted to go back and complete a residency in Orthopedic Surgery.  It seemed we were all embarking on different paths, so I bought out the Hamilton practice and Jason bought out the Winfield practice, and the 3 of us split up.  It was a bit sad for me because we had planned out this practice together.  It had been the culmination of years of preparation and planning but again, God had another plan.

After the break up, I moved my dental practice to its current location and hired an office manager for the medical practice (Lisa Colburn) and an office manager for my dental practice (Linda Purser).  Both of these ladies had risen through the ranks by exceptional leadership and work ethic and I am proud to say that Lisa Colburn still holds a management title today.

Initially, we were working hard but not working smart.  Most days I felt like we were chopping down a tree with the wrong end of the ax.  Despite everyone’s best effort profit was thin and chaos was the order to most days.   I had always supposed that the medicine and dentistry would be the hard parts to handle and the business would simply be common sense,  but I was very wrong.

I was at my wits end one day when a salesman called from a consulting agency in Portland, Oregon.  He told me that they specialized in bringing order to chaos.  Their consulting firm had helped hundreds of practices and he felt confident that they could help me.  He offered to come from Portland to Hamilton to sit down and meet with me. He assured me that I was under no obligation so I allowed him to come and tell me more.  He showed up right on time at 5:30 after I had worked all day.  We sat down and talked from 5:30 pm until about 2:30 am.  At the end of our conversation, I wrote him a check for $37,500.00 and hired his firm to help us get organized.  Over the next year and a half my management team and I flew to Portland twice and I took my entire medical and dental team to Clearwater, FL for training.  Over that year and a half we easily spent over $100,000.00 learning about things like making and following policy, leadership and management by statistic.  To this day, I believe that it was a good investment. Our care is delivered by a team approach.  Each member has an important role and the whole of our team is far better than the sum of its parts.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that we have invested millions of dollars on equipment and education at our practice.  We believe that we have the responsibility to provide the best medical and dental therapies supported by the current best evidence.  Anything short of that would leave us feeling like we weren’t  fulfilling our obligations to our patients.   The trust that our patients place in us to care for them is a responsibility that we do not take lightly.  We constantly invest in our education and equipment to improve what we do and what we provide to our patients, the best care available in our field. Now for the rest of the story…

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