RUMFORD – Dr. John Gallant has been bringing his upbeat positive attitude and natural cheerfulness to patients for 51 years.
In mid-August, he will close the doors on his Hancock Street office after being there for 44 years, and retire.
“Being a dentist is the most enjoyable thing I could do. Every time I get supplies, it’s like Christmas and there are always new things,” he said.
But most importantly, he chose the career because he enjoys people, working with them, helping them.
“I’ve always wanted to help people and I’ve always dropped whatever I was doing to help. Wanting to do that has always been there inside me,” he said.
The love and affection of his patients are everywhere in his office – a framed scenic photograph of the 1998 ice storm by one of his patients, a poem composed by another patient, a ceramic depiction of a child, a stained glass sailboat and sunset, and other bits of admiration.
Because he enjoys his work, staff and patients so much, he would like to continue in his career.
“But I want more time with my wife, and time to visit my children and grandchildren,” he said.
He and his wife, Lynn, have four children and nine grandchildren.
Although it took Gallant seven years to graduate from Stephens High School, it took just eight to earn his dentistry degree.
He didn’t have poor grades. Instead, he suffered a serious ski accident as a teenager and lost a year of high school, returned to school the next, then, while a student, was drafted into the U.S. Army near the end of World War II for two years.
Now he attends three Stephens High School reunions: 1944, 1945 and 1947, the year he actually received his diploma.
He graduated from St. Michael’s College in Vermont, then from what was Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, now the University of Maryland.
Gallant is a first generation American. His father and grandfather immigrated from New Brunswick to Rumford nearly a century ago to begin work in the paper mill. He is one of six boys.
At age 80, he is the eldest dentist practicing in the area. When he retires, only four will remain locally, one in his 50s, two in their 60s and one in his 70s.
Gallant treated generations of patients. He’s treated some of the grandchildren of his first patients when his office was above what is now the Family Dollar store on Congress Street. And he made dentures for some people he first treated as youngsters when he was a new dentist.
He’s seen improvements, the most important, he believes, is how dentists view patients.
“We think of them and their needs. I love to have a little kid who comes to the dentist for the first time so I can give them a good impression, rather than the old way of sit still and hold on.'”
“A first experience with a dentist lasts a lifetime. The attitude toward patients changed in the 70s when preventive dentistry started. We needed to shape up and worry about the patients and stimulate them so they want what they need,” he said.
His greatest satisfaction is in keeping people healthy and helping make some people more attractive with crowns and veneers.
“I look in their eyes and I see the satisfaction they have,” he said.
Gallant is a member of several civic groups, and he loves to golf. He’s thinking he might take up fishing again.
He’s been trying to find a buyer for his practice, but so far, he’s had no takers.
“I’ve enjoyed working all my life. I’m almost afraid to quit,” he said.
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