Mt. Baldy Dentistry welcomes associate

SANDPOINT — Not too many kids will claim they like their dentist.

Dr. Greg Prins, however, the new associate dentist at Mt. Baldy Dental, said that is part of the reason he became a dentist.

"I always liked my dentist growing up and we had a family friend that was a dentist,” Prins said.

It was in high school when he started thinking about becoming a dentist, he said. Prior to that, he considered engineering. He job-shadowed in both fields at the time, but decided he like the interaction with people that dentistry offered.

"And I really like fixing things and building stuff, so I really like that about dentistry as well," he said. "So that got me pushed more toward that direction, so I just went with it."

Prins grew up in Walla Walla, Wash., and attended college at University of Idaho. There, he met his now wife, Amber (Trost) Prins of Priest River. The couple went to Arizona and attended Midwestern University, where Greg Prins went to dental school and his wife went to optometry school. They would often visit the Priest River/Sandpoint area in the summers and Prins said they knew they wanted to move back to the area eventually.

"We spent a few years in the desert, trying out a different climate — we were ready to come back to the Northwest after that," he said.

He started at Mt. Baldy Dentistry this past summer, and said he enjoys the job and the community. "Working with everyone in the Sandpoint community is amazing," Prins said. "Everyone is so nice to work with ... I like it a lot."

When Prins first applied for the job, Dr. Todd House, who has been at Mt. Baldy Dentistry for about 18 years, said before he met Prins, his staff informed him that "he is a keeper."

What really stuck out about Prins, House said, is that he wanted to be in the area. Other applicants were simply looking for a job, but House said that is not all he was looking for in an employee. He wanted someone who would be a good fit for the community and had a desire to be here, he said.

"He seemed real to me," House said. "He came across as a nice guy and he didn’t have any kind of chip on his shoulder ... I was looking for someone I would get along with, somebody with a neutral, calm personality. And someone I thought the staff would like, as well as the patients — so far Greg has fit that bill."

Mt. Baldy Dentistry, 1305 Highway 2, is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Mondays and Tuesdays, and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday through Friday. Call 208-263-6806 for information and appointments.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.