Rogers High Graduate Launches Dental Practice

After nearly a decade of working as a dentist in this country and overseas, including serving on two humanitarian missions in Ecuador, Rogers High graduate Peter Elton has recently launched his own dental practice in Gig Harbor.

The 1997 graduate purchased a practice last month from two retiring dentists. He sees about 30 patients a day and works with a 13-member staff, including hygienists and office personnel. 

Buying his own practice is the culmination of years of hard work as both a volunteer and paid dentist, including several years in the U.S. Army Dental Corps and, more recently, working as a dental associate at a private practice in Puyallup.

 Post-high school education

After high school, Elton attended one year at Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah and then embarked on a two year church mission in Brazil. It was there that Elton decided to become a dentist.

He recalls the day he called his father, who is also a dentist, to discuss classes he would take when he returned to BYU.

“I asked him if he liked being a dentist, and the answer was a clear ‘yes.’ I remember talking on the phone with him and watching all of these little kids running around dirt streets. I decided right then and there that I wanted to be of service to people as a dentist.”

Over the next four years, Elton earned his bachelor’s degree in zoology. Majoring in this field provided the necessary prerequisites, he said, to be accepted into dental school. 

While in college, Elton joined and was elected president of a pre-dental student club. As president, he organized a dental humanitarian expedition in 2002 and 2003 to the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador.

Elton coordinated the efforts of more than 100 dentists and volunteers and lived briefly in the Galapagos Islands while setting up hotels and facilities for those participating in the program. He is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese. 

“This was a way for me to experience dentistry in a completely different setting,” he said. “Our dentists taught the local dentists there different techniques. It was so rewarding to see how grateful the people there were for our service. It was also personally gratifying to provide dental care without expecting anything in return.”

In 2003, Elton also married Rogers High Class of 1998 graduate Brooke Carpenter. After graduation from BYU, Elton moved to Massachusetts to attend Boston University’s Goldman School of Dental Medicine.

He graduated Cum Laude in 2008 with a doctorate of dental medicine and also received a faculty prosthodontics award. Prosthodontics is a branch of dentistry that deals with the replacement of missing teeth and related mouth or jaw structures by bridges, dentures, or other artificial devices.

During his time in Boston, Elton interned at two dental offices and volunteered for community service, including helping with a Special Olympics dental screening at Harvard University.

Military service

After earning his doctorate, Elton worked nearly three years as a general dentist with the U.S. Army Dental Corps in Landstuhl, Germany. He was awarded an Army Commendation Medal in 2011 for meritorious service and dedication to duty.

While in Landstuhl, Elton treated U.S. and NATO soldiers who were evacuated from Iraq and Afghanistan with medical and dental combat injuries. He also treated their family members, including children. 

Among the cases Elton treated were soldiers whose front teeth were shattered by improvised explosive device (IED) blasts.

“They couldn’t eat because they had broken teeth or exposed nerves,” he said.

Elton returned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord in March 2001 and worked six months as a brigade dentist, providing comprehensive dental care to brigade soldiers in clinic and field tent settings using portable equipment.

He then spent one year with the U.S. Army Dental Corps serving on a team of eight dental providers responsible for the care of nearly 10,000 soldiers at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

Coming home to Puyallup

This past year, Elton returned to private practice working as an associate dentist with Puyallup Valley Dental Care, owned by dentist Steven Urback.

While working with Urback, in addition to placing fillings and crowns, Elton used his surgical skills to place dental implants and bone grafts, as well as to remove teeth, including impacted molars.

He also volunteered to help provide dental services for Puyallup School District students served by a mobile dental van program that Urback founded a decade ago.

The Medical Teams International Dental Van Program provides a fully equipped two-chair mobile dental clinic that travels to schools in the district to provide free dental services to students from low-income families. Most recently, Elton provided dental care to Hunt Elementary children. 

Urback described Elton as a skilled dentist who was liked by staff and patients.

High school years

Elton became a student in this district in tenth grade after having spent his childhood traveling to various parts of the world with his military family.

At Rogers High, Elton participated in the arts and athletics while earning college credit for Running Start classes at Pierce College.

He played upright bass in the school orchestra, enrolled in pottery and art classes, competed one year on the junior varsity soccer team, and excelled on the Rams diving team, winning 14th place in state during his senior year.

Elton highlighted the work he did for his senior year culminating project during several dental school interviews. His project included making his own electric guitar.

“I think of dentistry as an extension of art,” Elton said. “Just like I made things during art class in school, I am now making crowns, dentures, and basically making little sculptures and creating art in the mouth.”

Future goals 

The 34-year-old said he decided to buy a practice in Gig Harbor to remain close to his family in the Puget Sound region and to enjoy hobbies including cycling and scuba diving. His father, William Elton, is a prosthodontist on an Indian reservation in Chehalis. 

He and his wife live in Olympia with their three children, ages 2, 4, and 6. He plans to relocate his family to Gig Harbor in the next year. Elton’s office is in a two-story medical building that overlooks a scenic wooded area off Olympic Drive Northwest.

Elton said he looks forward to meeting the many patients who were cared for by the two retired dentists.

“I want to continue the legacy this practice has established.”