FEATURED BUSINESS · DEER PARK

Michelle Broughton grew up in Babylon, and for a while the Deer Park dental office on Half Hollow Road was just a place she picked up temp shifts.

Now she owns it with her husband.

Dr. David Broughton and Michelle Broughton took over Long Island Dental Wellness at 163 Half Hollow Road in the fall of 2024, buying the practice from Dr. Kevin Henner, a past president of the New York State Dental Association who had built it over decades.

The introduction that made it happen came from Michelle, who brought the two dentists together at a Suffolk County Dental Association meeting in 2024.

The couple themselves met online, through a mutual friend, and married in September 2025.

He is 34, from Bethpage, a former wrestler who spent seven years in private practice and served as chief resident at Stony Brook Hospital.

She is the hygienist — which turns out to matter, because the changes they made to the office are almost entirely about the twenty minutes a patient spends in the chair being quietly unhappy.

Noise-canceling headphones. Cozy pillows. Memory foam chairs.

“We genuinely want what’s best for our patients,” Dr. Broughton told Greater Long Island.

The clinical side got its own upgrade: digital scans instead of the mouthful of putty, HD photography so patients can see what the dentist is describing, AI-assisted reading of X-rays, and newer minimally invasive options — including Curodont, a treatment marketed for reversing early decay before it becomes a drill-and-fill.

It is, in fairness, still a dentist’s office.

But the thing worth noticing here is not the technology, which every practice on Long Island is buying.

It is what Dr. Broughton said about the purchase itself.

“You’re not just buying the practice. You’re inheriting a real community.”

That is the whole business model of a place like Deer Park in one sentence, and it is why this column exists.

A practice that has been on Half Hollow Road long enough to have grandparents and grandchildren on the same chart is not an asset that transfers cleanly.

It transfers on trust, one appointment at a time, and the new owners appear to know it.

Long Island Dental Wellness is at 163 Half Hollow Road, Suite 1, Deer Park. The office can be reached at 631-667-2820.

Sources: Greater Long Island · Babylon Local directory