MARCUS, Iowa – With Iowa Department of Public Health statistics showing that half of Iowa’s dentists are over 50 years of age, and that patients in 69 of Iowa?s 99 counties lack adequate availability of dental services, Drs. Karl and Sara Koelling are filling a need in three rural communities, Kingsley, Correctionville, and Marcus.
Dr. Karl had planned to return to his hometown, Norfolk, Neb., after he graduating from the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s College of Dentistry in 1999, when the dentist he was talking with in Norfolk told him of an opportunity in Kingsley, where Dr. Larry Harman was looking to retire.
“It seemed like the right opportunity,” Dr. Karl says now. It was also a situation where his wife could begin her dental practice once she graduated from UNL a year later.
While a satellite office wasn’t in the Koellings’ original business plan, shortly after Dr. Sara graduated, Dr. Tim Destigter was tiring of the drive from his home and office in Aurelia to a second office in Correctionville, and offered that practice to the couple. “We serve a need down there,” Dr. Karl explained.
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After working to build those practices, and with seven years of urging from the economic development group in Marcus, the two opened their third office last October, in a new office built especially for them on the south edge of town, along Iowa Highway 3. Speaking of the Marcus office, Dr. Karl said, “It’s been going pretty well and we’ve been pretty busy from the beginning. My wife may try to come up one day a week with me this summer.”
“And if it becomes so busy we can’t handle it, our ultimate goal is to get an associate up here,” he added. “A lot of dental graduates are lost to the big cities. Many young grads don’t realize it’s tougher to be in the big city than it is to go and out serve the smaller cities that really need the services,” Dr. Karl said. “Small towns have their advantages.”
Each of the offices is state of the art technologically, with all patient records on a computer instead of paper. Even patient X-rays are digitized on can be viewed on a larger-than-life-size monitor. The same screen is also used for patient education.
The two dentists have a somewhat hectic schedule that sees them in Kingsley four days a week, and Correctionville and Marcus one and two days a week, respectively. They also maintain evening hours every Monday night in Kingsley.
The Marcus office draws from as far away as Cherokee and LeMars, due to the shortage of dentists in the area, Dr. Karl said. And the evening office hours are particularly attractive for working people.
When the Koellings were looking at small town situations, one consideration was that there would have to be access for the two to participate in different musical activities not too far from where they would be living and working.
Dr. Sara wanted a place where she could play violin with a symphony orchestra.
She played with the Lincoln Symphony all through college, and with the Omaha Symphony as well. Now she is actively involved with the Sioux City Symphony, and plays the violin with the Cherokee Symphony, in addition to being the organist for the First Lutheran Church in Kingsley, where Dr. Karl is the choir director. He has also sung with the Siouxland Master Chorale. “We look at music as our outlet, something we enjoy and do to break away from dentistry. We look at music as our break away instead of as a profession,” Dr. Karl said.
