MEXICO — Dr. Jerrold Cohen loves the River Valley area. He can’t imagine living anywhere else.

“You can’t find a better place to live with better people than in the Rumford, Mexico and Dixfield area,” he said.

So when he retires from his 40-year dentistry practice on Aug. 26, he’ll be nearby at his Rumford home or his Roxbury Pond camp.

“It’s just a great place to live, the friendliness, outdoor activities, the four seasons, it’s all about people,” he said Tuesday afternoon from his practice located at 131 Main St. in Mexico.

Cohen, 65, is a Rumford native who graduated from Stephens High School in 1962, then Tufts University in 1966 and the University of Pennsylvania Dental School in 1970.

While away at school, he always knew he wanted to come back.

Now, 40 years later, he is saying goodbye to some of the thousands he has treated over the years. Some people were schoolmates, some former teachers, some are the children or grandchildren of his first patients.

For the past year, he has been trying to gradually reduce his hours. Now, during the final three weeks of his practice, he’s working two-and-a-half days a week.

He has maintained a patient load of 1,800 people, and has treated more than 5,000 different people since he began his practice.

He has seen huge changes in dental technology over the years. Now, because of fluoride, sealants and other procedures, young people have far fewer cavities. The time he once devoted to tooth removal and making dentures, is now spent on prevention.

“There is no procedure I do today that I learned in dental school, the materials are different, the technology is different,” he said.

He, like others in his profession, keep up-to-date through ongoing educational programs.

Besides treating residents of the River Valley area, Cohen also serves as clinical supervisor a couple of days a semester at the University of Maine at Augusta, Bangor campus, dental hygienist school. He hopes to continue with that after retirement as well as doing some part-time teaching at the University of New England Dental School in Biddeford.

He’s also looking forward to a possible return to baseball coaching at the middle or high school level, boating, attending more Mountain Valley or Dirigo ballgames, more skiing, more reading and more time to get outdoors.

He is pleased that he chose dentistry as a profession.

“The most satisfying is dealing with people one-to-one, offering healthy choices, and seeing the smiles on their faces after I’ve performed a procedure,” he said.

For the past four years, he has tried to find someone to take over his practice, without luck.

Instead, his long-term employee, dental hygienist Lisa Doherty, plans to lease the office to establish her own practice.

Cohen, who serves on the state’s Board of Dental Examiners, said Maine is one of only three states that allows dental hygienists to set up their own practice. Doherty has worked with Cohen for 30 years, and will offer teeth cleanings, sealants and fluoride applications. She will also be able to make referrals in a network with other specialists.

Cohen is making referrals for his patients to other dentists within a 50-100 mile radius of the River Valley.

He said he had always wanted to be a professional and to help people, and dentistry worked out just right. He and his wife, Jennifer, also a Stephens High School graduate who is a nurse, have two children. His daughter, Julie, graduated from Brown University and lives in England where she is an author, wife of a musician and mother. His son, Matthew, a University of Pennsylvania graduate, is an internal medicine physician in Philadelphia, husband of a lawyer, and father of two sons.

“They’ve both done well and they both graduated from the Rumford school system,” he said.

When Aug. 26 comes, he said he will feel terrific.

“I will miss my patients who are all my friends, but I have a great feeling of accomplishment,” he said.

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