High Tech in the BerkshiresHigh Tech in the BerkshiresHigh Tech in the Berkshires
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High Tech in the Berkshires
As a young boy, Gene Messenger found comfort – and his calling – through comic books. When he was 8 years old, he attempted to emulate the actions of one of his favorite heroes, Spiderman. "I thought, well, if he can climb walls, so can I."
Dr. Messenger's ill-fated attempt landed him in a dentist's chair with a broken front tooth. While many children would have detested the multiple visits to dentists to get a crown, young Messenger was mesmerized by the experience and the idea that dentists could be superheroes, too. "In dentistry, 99 percent of the time, we can fix something," Dr. Messenger said. "Every dentist I went to was so positive, that when I was 8 and they asked, 'What do you want to be when you grow up?' I said I wanted to be a dentist."

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An Office on the Menu
Dr. Messenger attended dental school at the University of Tennessee at Memphis. He was vice president of his class and he and his wife had two children while he was in school. In 1991, he graduated and in 1993, set up practice in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts.
A member of the American Dental Association, Massachusetts Dental Society, Berkshire Dental Society, and a past vice president of the Academy of CAD/CAM Dentistry, Dr. Messenger works six days a week and devotes his time to treating his patients. For more than a decade, he was based in a 175-year-old Victorian-style building and former funeral home. The facility's age and structure didn't allow for much freedom with operatory configuration and set-up.
Dr. Messenger knew that he wanted to continue to focus on growing his business as well as create space for his daughter, Anna Marie, to join the practice when she graduates from the University at Buffalo dental program in 2012. "I absolutely love what I do. I feel very blessed that my daughter's becoming a dentist, as well," he said.
With thoughts of expanding his practice to serve his patients, Dr. Messenger went to lunch with a friend in late 2010 at a local restaurant in North Adams, Mass. The restaurant was situated on 12 acres and was part of a resort that was for sale near the Massachusetts-Vermont border. "I said, 'Well, let me walk around the building,' and I went around the corner and I saw the area and [I knew] I was moving my practice," he said. "It was pretty much that fast."
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High Tech in the Berkshires

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