Libby dentist retires after 46 years

Though dentist Dr. Dick Wood, one of Libby’s longest-serving professionals, retired in March, he said Monday, June 19 that he wishes he could work for 20 more years because “it’s so cool what we’re able to do in dentistry now.”

With a clear goal of practicing dentistry since he was in high school, Wood looked to mentor Dr. Hanagan (he could not recall his last name), who practiced in Libby at the time, and saw “what those guys could do — make a good living and set their own hours.”

Wood experienced this flexible schedule firsthand as Hanagan also mentored him in fishing. They often took an afternoon off to head to the Fisher River.

Grateful for an “excellent” staff that kept his own practice running smoothly, Wood said that working four day weeks and keeping an efficient schedule not only let him go to the bank or post office between patients but also to continue working until the age of 74 and still enjoy his job.

“I got to spend time with my kids as well,” Wood said. “I coached my son’s baseball team and remember taking him down to the field to practice and I’d pitch, he’d hit and our black lab would fetch the ball. A perfect situation.”

Upon gaining his dentistry credential in 1969, Wood spent two years as a U.S. Navy dentist, which he now considers extra training time.

“I was in contact with all the specialists in the Navy, and I learned a lot from them,” he said.

Returning to Libby in 1971 to open his practice, Wood remembers there were few dental specialists available at the time, not even in Kalispell or other nearby cities.

“I didn’t back down from a lot,” Wood said. “But when I needed help the few orthodontists and periodontists and oral surgeons who were around ... we all worked together and helped each other. If I had someone in a lot of pain, I’d call a specialist and he’d say ‘get them in the car right now, I’ll see them.’”

From manually processed x-rays to fully digital imaging, Wood has seen dentistry change so as to be almost unrecognizable.

“I would have liked to have kept working, but it becomes not worth it to retool,” he said.

To make the expense of updating equipment worth it, you have to be able to use it for many years.

Wood and Janice, his wife of 28 years, have four kids between them. Wood’s daughter Terri followed her dad into dentistry, practicing as a dental hygienist.

Currently building a new house — he’d rather live nowhere but Libby, he said — and looking forward to spending quality time with his wife, Wood said he enjoys being busy but also looks forward to some time as “the king fisher of the Fisher River” after taking senior fisherman position after the recent death of local fisherman Lloydie Moe.

“Some days I park my rig down there by the river and I hear ‘honk, honk, hi Dr. Wood’ because they know my vehicle,” Wood said.