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Dr. Hatcher: Helping Gator Chomps
DR. LAMAR HATCHER Jr. DDS, PA is not just an ordinary dentist-he’s a Gator helping chomps. His allegiance to the university isn’t happenstance; he was born and bred a Florida Gator. His parents met when they were both students at the University of Florida in the 1930’s after his father had made the move from his hometown of Kite, Georgia. UF was an all-boys school back then, but because his mother was a resident of Gainesville, she was allowed to take classes; she just couldn’t be rewarded with a diploma from UF.
After marrying, his parents moved to Georgia where his father worked in the County Agriculture Agency. Then the family returned to Gainesville, like so many do, when Hatcher was in second grade. He attended Sidney Lanier back when it was an elementary school and went on to graduate from Gainesville High School, where classes for seventh through twelfth graders were held at the time.
While Dr. Hatcher follows all UF sports it’s Florida football that tackled his heart and maybe even his soul. It started in the 1940’s when his father purchased four season tickets. What more could a kid ask for? Growing up he reveled in the excitement of watching all the home games with his father. Dr. Hatcher admits that as a true Gator fan he comes second only to his father. Two generations of Gators side-by-side in the west stands. They eventually added two more to their group making it an even half dozen season tickets. Because season tickets can be passed on to blood kin; it’s assured they’ll stay in the family forever.
In row 75, Dr. Hatcher can see the game without binoculars. When asked if he’d consider buying a box, there’s no question. He wants to watch the game out in the open, no matter the weather.
Every season brings a renewed vigor not just for the games but seeing all the other season ticket holders too. “It’s like a reunion every year,” explains Dr. Hatcher. As the years have passed, he’s watched as other Gators in the stands around him have aged or passed away giving their season tickets to other members of the family.
Dr. Hatcher was born in Macon, so not all of his kin are Gators. The rest of his father’s family stayed in Georgia to raise Hatcher’s cousins as good old Georgia Bulldogs. This makes for quite a rivalry during the Florida-Georgia game. “There’s so many more of them, I almost feel like an outcast.”
When the Gator games are here on home turf, the party starts early. Family and friends gather for traditional tailgating at the family house in the Golfview neighborhood near the UF Law School. After enjoying the camaraderie of fellow Gators, the group ambles over to the stadium at game time. Both of Dr. Hatcher’s daughters, Betsy and Holly, grew up as regulars at the festivities. Eventually both of the girls married and added their husbands to the game day mix. Now his daughters have young sons - Holly’s son Daniel and Betsy’s son Jake. While Holly and her family still attend home football games, Betsy now lives in Atlanta and getting to the games is a little harder.
In between games, Dr. Hatcher runs his longstanding dental practice here in town. He attended UF for his undergraduate schooling and then Emory Dental School in Georgia. After graduation, he returned to Gainesville and was fortunate to work under Dr. J.L. Kirkland, who was his family dentist growing up. “He was my mentor. Believe it or not, you don’t know everything when you graduate,” says Dr. Hatcher.
When it comes to hiring his own staff, it sure helps if they’re Gators. Not that Dr. Hatcher would be hard on anyone who happened to graduate from one of those other schools. But everyone in the office takes football pretty seriously, or at least doesn’t mention it if one feels otherwise. Don’t be surprised if at a Thursday dental appointment you’re surrounded by orange and blue. Since Dr. Hatcher isn’t in the office on Fridays, Gator colors are the uniform on Thursdays before the games. And just looking at the walls, it would be hard for anyone who wasn’t Gator all the way. Posters used to decorate the office, but are being replaced by artful framed photographs of the real reptiles floating in local canals and lakes or sunning themselves on the bank.
Of course, his practice is more than a place to mingle with fellow Gator fans. It is important to know that while he’s been in practice for 25 years now, there’s nothing close to old-fashioned here. Dr. Hatcher is enthusiastic about some of the new tools now available that really improve the quality of dental care. There’s the diagnostic laser, called a Diagnodent, which is used to find cavities. Light from the laser is directed at the tooth then reflects back to the machine measuring the difference in the wavelength. This reading provides vital information on the depth and location of the cavity and is particularly important when cavities are located on the biting surface of the tooth where they can be hard to detect until they’re large and more complicated to repair.
The dental tool that excites him the most is the Biolase laser. This operative laser allows a cavity to be repaired without the need for anesthetic. This changes everything for patients with allergies to anesthetic which can bring on an episode of life threatening anaphylactic shock. These patients used to have to make the difficult decision between dealing either with the pain of drilling or being completely sedated during dental procedures. Not anymore. This equipment is also more precise, reducing the amount of soft tissue damage to the gums and decreasing the time to heal.
To make sure he stays on top of the latest technologies and procedures, Dr. Hatcher regularly attends conferences not only here in the United States, but as far away as Sardinia, an island off the coast of Italy. He easily earns wellabove the necessary continuing education credits required by the State of Florida. His favorite symposium is the Implant Conference in Chicago every December. “Dentistry has changed so much, especially over the past few years. You have to keep up. There are so many new procedures and equipment, it really makes practicing dentistry fun,” explains Dr. Hatcher.
As part of his general dentistry practice, Dr. Hatcher routinely performs cosmetic dentistry such as bleaching and laminates or veneers to whiten teeth and improve smiles. Looking at the photos in his office, you can see patient after patient who has had their smile improved by Dr. Hatcher. One patient in particular was exposed to tetracycline as a child causing the recognizable bluegrey staining on his teeth. Before and after pictures illustrate the changes, his smile was improved dramatically one office visit at a time.
Dr. Hatcher explains the success he’s seen with titanium implants used to replace a single tooth, a bridge or even a full set of dentures, to help his patients. “The implants are used as an anchor or base for crowns or to replace teeth when a tooth has been removed. Threads on the implant help to stabilize it while it’s being put in place. After that, the bone actually grows to the tooth making the implant much more secure and comfortable. This procedure really makes dentistry a pleasure.”
Dr. Hatcher loves Gainesville, beyond the pleasures of Gator sports. One of the bonuses of having his practice in a small town for such a long time, is that he has had the pleasure of watching families grow up generations at a time. “It is fun living in Gainesville,” explains Dr. Hatcher. “We aren’t inconvenienced by the problems a big city has like the traffic, but because of the university we have a lot of cultural diversity.” G
Dr. Hatcher’s office is located at 2516 NW 43rd Street in Gainesville in the Millhopper Professional Center. Or you can call Dr. Hatcher at 352-378- 2935.