Elgin Family Dental Clinic, 570 S. Eighth Ave., pictured here on Thursday, April 20, 2023 went through a change of practitioners this spring and is now operated by Dr. Nicholas Best and Lyric Best, a dental assistant.

ELGIN — The Elgin Family Dental Clinic went through a change of practitioners this spring when Dr. Eli Mayes sold his practice to Dr. Nicholas Best and Lyric Best, of Wallowa.

Nicholas Best left Winding Waters Clinic in Enterprise and Joseph to start the new practice in Elgin, and Lyric Best served as a dental assistant at the Wallowa County clinics.

“Everything is signed and set to go for May 1, the day ownership actually transfers,” Nicholas Best said.

As part of the agreement, Mayes, who retained his practice in La Grande, will still see some patients for the continuation of their care until it’s complete, and Best may be referring some patients to Mayes’ clinic in La Grande for certain services that cannot be provided in Elgin. The collaboration is designed to offer most dental services conveniently in Union County.

For the time being, the Bests will be commuting from their home and farm in Wallowa, but “down the road” they may find a residence closer to Elgin, Nicholas Best said.

“It’s more or less a hobby farm, most ranchers tell me. I also have two sons, Stetson, 7, and Hudson, 9, and we love to hike around in the woods, play in the snow, go hunting or fishing,” he said. “We’re always doing something outdoors.”

Best started his education at the Oregon Institute of Technology with a full-ride track scholarship, and he was studying engineering.

“Then I quit school altogether that year and started building houses for the next three years in Clackamas County,” he said.

After that, he changed his game plan and returned to school, this time to Portland State University for the next four years and from there to OHSU School of Dentistry, where he graduated in 2017.

Meanwhile, Lyric Best finished her dental assistant education in 2016.

Nicholas Best’s first practice was in the Portland metro area, and while there he was contacted by Winding Waters in Enterprise, asking for his help and ideas on how to set up a dental office.

“Coming from a construction background, and then building my own office, I gave them a few pointers,” Best said. “They eventually offered me a job, and I moved to Enterprise where I started with a one-room dental clinic and built it into a 12-room dental clinic with three dentists.”

That’s when the Elgin clinic opportunity came along, and it would allow him to do his own thing, his own way, he said.

At the Elgin clinic, Best will be offering general dentistry from comp exams, cleanings, fillings, root canals, crowns, extractions, bridges, dentures and partial dentures.

He performed a lot of extractions at Winding Waters, he said, so he’s skilled at doing those when needed.

There are only a few circumstances in which he would have to refer a patient to another dentist, he said.

“Part of my partnership working with Dr. Mayes involves sending my patients to him for services like 3D X-rays, scans, implants, tongue-ties and lip-ties,” Best explained.

Occasionally, a patient may be referred to a specialist for things like advanced periodontal surgeries, really challenging root canals and difficult extractions as well as orthodontic treatment.

Best said he will be expanding his training to include 3D printing and 3D scans for crowns and fillings.

This will reduce the patient’s wait time between temporary and permanent crowns, and it will reduce the cost of permanent crowns.

“That’s where we’re heading anyway,” Best said, “and it will be an awesome addition out there in Elgin.”