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10/27/2021 08:30 AMIt is over; it is done. Dr. Howard Tunick will not have to ask patients to open wide; he will not have to reassure nervous youngsters about the drill; he will not have to give reminders about flossing and brushing.
That’s because Howard, who practiced dentistry in Deep River for 41 years, retired at the end of September. Deep River Family Dental, however, hasn’t gone anywhere. Howard has sold the practice to Dr. George Kwon, a graduate of Boston University School of Dental Medicine.
“The minute I met him I knew he was right. I felt really good about it,” Howard says. “I interviewed over 20 people before finding the right person for a small-town solo practice.”
Howard is still going to the office, making sure the transition goes smoothly, but said that he plans to stop soon. What he does at the office now is say goodbye to longtime patients.
“People say they are happy for me and sad,” he says. “Everyone is family. I’ve seen four generations of some families.”
He admits he will miss not simply his patients in the dental chair but the camaraderie of his office. He says that even people who didn’t have appointments would stop by the waiting room to chat.
“There was always ongoing conversation in the reception room,” he recalls.
Retirement for Howard is a by-product of COVID-19. During the lockdown, the office was closed for four months.
“I did a lot of things. Now I can see options,” he says. “I have very many hobbies that I’ve not had time for.
Those hobbies focus on outdoor activities. He is a lifelong canoeist, starting from the time he was 13 when his parents allowed him to take a six-week canoe trip through Maine and Canada. He used to do what he describes as heavy-duty whitewater canoeing. Now he favors a different style. Canoeing, he says, it is a “beautiful, meditative” exercise.
When Howard was 13, he also started target shooting, which he still does today at a local sportsmen’s club. It’s not his only shooting sport. He does archery as well.
Howard’s activities will certainly include more time working with animals. He has long volunteered at Ray of Light Farm, an animal rescue facility in East Haddam. He has worked particularly with a mule named Emma who was traumatized and frightened when she first arriving at the shelter. Now, after much work the Emma, she is comfortable when Howard rides her.
Part of his outfit proclaims his loyalty, a belt buckle with the logo for Mule Days, a gathering of mule enthusiasts and their animals in California. The belt buckle goes along with his Western boots. He has five pairs.
“I even wore boots at my wedding,” he says.
Howard is married to Leslie LeMay, who grew up in Chester.
On a leather cord around his neck, Howard wears two sheep dog whistles in different pitches that he uses to call his dog Scout, an Australian shepherd mix. Scout, nonetheless, is always close at hand, a regular in the dental office and whose presence serves to put some nervous patients at ease.
Howard grew up on Long Island and started college at the University of Toledo. When he had to get up repeatedly at night to go out and shove the ice off the top of the Ford Galaxy convertible his mother had lent him, he decided he needed education in a warmer climate. He transferred to the University of Miami, from which he graduated.
After college, he enlisted in the Air Force, serving for five years flying refueling tankers. During this time, a friend was in dental school, enjoying his studies, and kept telling Howard he, too, had to become a dentist.
“I figured I was going to have to do something when I got out, so I applied,” Howard says.
He admits his undergraduate grades had not been outstanding, but he had a stroke of luck in his interview at Ohio State. The four interviewers were also veterans.
“I knew after that I was in,” he says.
Upon graduation, he wanted to work in a country, not a city, practice. He had learned that Dr. Harold Samuels in Deep River was looking for an associate.
“He hired me right away,” Howard recalls. In 1983, Dr. Samuels retired and Howard took over the practice.
Dentistry, Howard says, is changing all around him. He keeps up with new techniques through continuing education courses, but his goal was always to keep things as uncomplicated as possible.
Patients, he explains, wanted to be out of pain, to chew, to save teeth.
“They appreciated that I provided services as simply as I could,” he says.
He has arranged payment plans to spread out the cost of services and even in some cases, forgone payment entirely.
“It’s the way you do things in a small town,” he says.
Howard is leaving his practice, but nothing has changed about his feelings for the community he served.
“I absolutely love Deep River; the people are wonderful,” he says. “I loved being a dentist here.”