Dr. Lane Eddleman and Dr. Mike Nolan have known each other for years, though not always as one dentist to another. The Monroe, Louisiana, doctors are business partners now, but at one time, Dr. Nolan was coaching Dr. Eddleman in youth baseball. “He had good hands even then!” Dr. Nolan jokes.

Today, the doctors own an eight-operatory practice that they built from scratch. For Dr. Eddleman, the practice is the realization of a dream he carried with him for five years after graduation from dental school. For Dr. Nolan, the practice has reinvigorated his 33-year career and given him new tools to treat his patients.

The practice of Lane Eddleman, DDS, and Mike Nolan, DDS, opened in April 2009 and is nestled in scenic woodlands between a local college school of pharmacy building and a community hospital in town. It sets itself apart with a distinct, plantation-home style exterior; a wraparound porch welcomes guests and inside, floor to ceiling windows flood the space with natural light.

While the doctors are partners, the vision for the practice space is mostly that of Dr. Eddleman and his wife, Andreé, a hygienist with the practice. They have been collecting ideas and feedback from other dentists since 2004, when Dr. Eddleman graduated from Louisiana State University School of Dentistry.

Dr. Eddleman was especially interested in finding out what other dentists did and did not like about their own practice space, and in learning what they would have done differently, if they were to build again today. “Every dentist I talked to wished they had built bigger,” he says. “My plan was to build a big enough space to grow into…but I needed to bring someone in. Who better than Dr. Nolan?”

In 2008, when Dr. Eddleman approached him, Dr. Nolan was then one of three dentists in a well-established practice. Several of the older partners were looking toward retirement, which meant that the character of the practice where he’d worked for 33 years was sure to change. The offer from Dr. Eddleman, a young doctor whom he admired, would give him the chance to try something new. “I would help him step into technology and he would help me by being a mentor in the same building,” Dr. Eddleman says.