New dentist glad he's had work experience

Lambert is a 1989 graduate of Crawford High School and a 1994 graduate of Chadron State College. He then worked for six years before entering the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s dental school in Lincoln. This past May he graduated and has begun practicing in Deadwood, S.D.

“I knew a long time ago that I wanted to do something in the health professions,” Lambert said recently during a brief stop in Chadron en route to his 15-year class high school reunion in Crawford. “I started leaning toward dentistry when I was in the seventh grade. Justin Moody and I were in the same class. He was planning to become a dentist and he got me to thinking about it, too.”

Moody has been practicing dentistry in Crawford several years now while Lambert is just launching his career. However, Lambert says he’s not sorry that he worked six years before going to dental school.

“I wanted to do some things before I went to dental school,” he said. “I thought some work experience would be good for me. I thought it would help me carry on conversations later in life. Mandy and I also wanted to live in a big city for a while, although we never thought we would make a big place our permanent home.”

Mandy is his wife, the former Mandy Williams of Scottsbluff. They met at Chadron State and were married in October 1993, when he was a senior at CSC and a few months after she had graduated and was working at B&B Printing in Chadron. They have a six-year-old daughter, Katelyn.

Lambert’s first job was at Crow Butte Resources, the uranium mine southeast of Crawford. For four years, he ran the geophysical logging truck which includes a probe that is placed down each new well to pinpoint the location of the uranium and determine the quantity of ore that is available.

“It was a fun job and I learned a lot,” Lambert related.

Next, he and Mandy moved to Kansas City, where he worked in a quality control laboratory for Aventis Pharmaceuticals for two years. That was their big city experience.

He was accepted at all three of the dental schools where he applied. He said he was impressed that both of his CSC chemistry professors, Dr. Jack Swanson and Dr. Clifford Cox, instantly remembered him when he called them and asked them for letters of recommendation six years after he’d graduated.

“I found that my training at Chadron State had been really good. Dental school is a lot of work, but I made it through just fine,” he said.

After his doctor of dental surgery degree seemed assured and he had passed his clinical exams, the Lamberts because looking for a place to practice. He said they chose Deadwood not because they plan to gamble, but because they like the Black Hills and also because the dentist he will work with, Dr. Dennis Mills, is left-handed.

“I’m a lefty and I needed to work in an office that is set up for a left-hander,” he said.

The son of DeWayne and Glinda Lambert of Crawford, Travis said his practice seems to have gotten off to a good start. He said Dr. Mills did an outstanding job of announcing his arrival and had numerous patients lined up for him to see immediately. The new dentist found it encouraging that two of the first young mothers he examined promptly made appointments for him to see their children.

“I kind of took the long road to becoming a dentist, but I think it was the best route for me and is going to work out all right,” he said.