In 2002, Ed Hood, DDS, built the office that would house his practice for the rest of his career.

The gorgeous brick building was equipped for eight operatories and dwarfed the 1,700-square-foot office that had held Hood Dental Care for the previous 12 years. Hood, at home in his new office, knew he had all the space he needed. Until he didn't.

“Going from my three-operatory office to this one that was 4,200 square feet, we could kind of get lost,” Hood said. “It was a beautiful office; patients always talked about how pretty it was. It was really something to be proud of, and I was. I never dreamed there would be a time when I would think to add on to it. That was it. Or so I thought.”

The growth that encouraged Hood to build the new office continued once he was practicing in it. He brought on an associate, Mindy Moore, DDS, and finished the practice's final two operatories (only six were equipped during construction). Then, 10 years after he built the new office, he stepped back. Somehow, in a way he had never seen coming, he realized that he was out of room as his son, Andrew Hood, DDS, was almost finished with dental school and set to join the practice.

“We were out of space, and you can only do so much with the operatories you have,” Hood said. “I never thought I'd need more space, but if you have demand and patients to get in, you have to have places to seat them. Same-day treatment is one of the biggest ways we can increase our productivity. We add people every day. I couldn't do that without the rooms.”

With that, Hood started to look into an expansion. A canal behind the building and development on another side meant acquiring the lot next to the practice was the only option. It worked. Hood selected the same contractor and many of the same team members who built his new practice in 2002, which simplified the process, including matching the building's original brick and creating an exterior staff entrance that mirrored the practice's main portico entrance.