DDS, MS · Pediatric Dentist & Co-Founder
Dr. Kevin Ricker
DDS, MS Pediatric Dentist & Co-Founder
> “I do not have a dog. I have a tortoise. His name is Bridget.”
- Wildlife photographer
- Amateur musician
- Evidence enthusiast
- Bridget The Tortoise Owner
I’m Kevin Ricker, and I’m one of the dentists at Chatham Pediatric Dentistry. I was born in Miami, but my dad’s work moved the family around a bit. By the time I was ten, the family settled in Jamestown, North Carolina, right next to Greensboro. I was a boy scout, a grocery bagger at Harris Teeter, and a camp counselor.
I graduated from the University of North Carolina with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and married my high school sweetheart. My first job out of college was teaching math and coaching tennis at Eastern Guilford High School. That high school burned to the ground just eight years later. There’s probably a metaphor in there somewhere if you look hard enough. It only took me a year of teaching to realize that I was nowhere near strong enough to do that job.
My math background had granted me some computer savvy, though, and I got a job at the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center answering phone calls on their help desk. I was lucky to get some promotions, and I ended up in a job where I helped some of the doctors use their computers to try to solve medical problems. I quickly realized I was far more interested in what they were doing than what I was doing. I came home and told my wife that I should become a health care provider.
My teeth were a mess. I’ve got a condition called Osteogenesis Imperfecta, which leaves my bones and teeth brittle. Around this time, I was breaking teeth left and right, and I realized I had better relationships with my dentists than I did with my physicians. That long-term relationship appealed to me. I started volunteering at the local emergency room and shadowing in dental offices. It became clear quickly that I should pursue dentistry.
I was fortunate to enroll at the University of North Carolina Adams School of Dentistry. During the summer between the first and second years of school, I went with a group of classmates to Malawi in southern Africa. While there, a friend remarked about how excited I was to work with and talk to the children there. A lightbulb went off, and I quickly decided to specialize in pediatric dentistry.
In dental school, I was class president, I participated in dental research (mostly on osteogenesis imperfecta), and was inducted into Omicron Kappa Upsilon, the premier dental honor society. I graduated with honors and distinction. I stayed on at UNC to complete my pediatric dentistry residency program for three more years of specialty training. When I graduated in 2015, there were only two pediatric dentists produced in the entire state of North Carolina. The other was my UNC classmate, Alexandra Boudreau. We decided within just a few months of meeting each other that we wanted to work together. Dentistry can be a stodgy profession, and we appreciated each other’s approach to children and a shared sense of humor.
While we were plotting the course to open CPD, I worked as a pediatric dentist in other settings. I worked for a practice just north of Fort Liberty (or Bragg, depending on when you’re reading this), where I treated mostly military families. I worked in a rural private practice in Raeford. I spent three years working one day a week at Duke Children’s Hospital, where I saw medically interesting patients for dental care under general anesthesia.
Chatham Pediatric Dentistry opened in 2016, and it remains the most important part of my career. Alex and I have cultivated exactly the environment we’d hoped for. It’s a place where patients are cared for like family, in a setting where we can take all the time we need to get a child as comfortable as possible. We’re part of the community we live in, even supporting kids outside the office through outreach efforts. Since opening, we’ve watched families grow, kids mature, and even had a few want to come back and shadow us, hoping that they’ll be able to become dentists some day.
Out of the office, even on my lunch breaks, I like to take pictures of wildlife. My photography has won awards and been published in field guides. When I’m not laying on my belly on a deserted dirt road trying to get an eye-to-eye shot of a canebrake rattlesnake, I’m frustrating my neighbors by loudly playing guitar on my porch out in the woods of Chatham County. My two children are students in Chatham County Schools, and my wife works roughly eighty hours a week volunteering in various non-profits to support public education and marginalized communities in the area.
Education & Training
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: DDS with Honors and Distinction & Pediatric Dentistry Residency (MS)
- UNC Adams School of Dentistry: DDS, with Honors and Distinction, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Pediatric Dentistry
- UNC Hospitals: Pediatric Dentistry Residency (MS)
- Board Certified: American Board of Pediatric Dentistry
Professional Memberships
- Fellow, American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry
- Diplomate, American Board of Pediatric Dentistry
- American Dental Association
- NC Dental Society
- College of Diplomates of the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry
