Meet

Dr.

Blen

Hi, thank you for visiting my website. My name is Michael Blen, otherwise known as Dr. B. As a native Memphian, I am proud to have established a pediatric dental practice like few others here in Memphis. My mission statement has always been to provide quality dental care in a safe and nurturing environment in order to create happy and healthy dental patients for life. Every child is an individual and should be treated as such.

My goal is to build trusting long term relationships in order to provide my patients with the necessary skills of proper oral hygiene and knowledge of basic nutrition to keep their teeth and overall oral structures healthy. This combined with supervised and consistent home care is a recipe for excellent oral health for life.

After graduating Memphis University School, I decided to go away to college in order to experience and meet people from different regions. The University of Wisconsin-Madison was the perfect spot for this. Other than being extremely cold, I mean extremely cold for a southern boy; it was fantastic. Wisconsin is really a melting pot for all kinds of diversity. After graduating with a BS degree in Sociology with a focus on pre-dental sciences, I came back home for dental school; The University of Tennessee.

I entered UT with the intention of practicing general dentistry with my father (the real Dr. Blen) after graduation. During my third year in dental school and upon working on my first child in the pediatric dental clinic, I realized exactly where my passion and focus was, and everything changed. It seems I am a combination of my mother, a long-time kindergarten and first grade teacher (St. George’s elementary school) and my father, the dentist. There was no turning back. After my parents’ blessing of specializing in dentistry, I soon graduated and moved on to continue my education at a two-year Pediatric Dental residency program. (Side note: General/family dentists have four years of overall dental education and then go into private practice. A dental Specialist goes on for more training. Pediatric Dental specialty programs are highly competitive 2-3 year programs after the General Dental education. With specialized training with children and those with special needs, pediatric dentists are the equivalent to a pediatrician in medicine.)

Upon graduation, I married my beautiful wife; another native Memphian whom I grew up with and who happened to be a dental hygienist. We moved on to the pediatric dental residency program in Houston, TX: the University of Texas Houston Health Science Center. Again, I wanted to get away to experience a different community, demographic and diversity in order to better understand my community in the 901. The program was everything I wanted, and Houston was fabulous for us newlyweds to start out on our own.

Upon graduation from the residency program and on my way to becoming Board Certified in Pediatric Dentistry, it was back home for the both of us. I went to work in Bartlett, TN in a large group practice. This multi-doctor and now multi-location pediatric dental practice gave tremendous care to patients and was fabulous for me to learn from. Large group practice, however, was not my dream, as I felt as I lost the personal touch from seeing too many patients in per day. Even though this is the way of the ever-evolving pediatric dental world, my dream was to have a boutique style pediatric dental practice where I really can build relationships with my patients and families.

So, in 2005, after seven professional years of group practice and personal years of two new additions to our family, a boy and a girl; my wife and I decided it was a good time to open my current office in east Memphis.

This is where I am today. In the heart of far east Memphis in my bubble at the corner of Poplar and Massey. I set forth with the goal of establishing a boutique style pediatric dental practice for maximum comfort and hospitality for my patients and their parents. I am fortunate to have the support of my wife and kids. I am also very grateful for my staff who also believes in the same value system. Times change constantly but the core always remains the same. I am ever evolving and striving to improve on my practice.

Personally, I have a wonderful wife who has since traded her dental hygiene skills to become an esthetician. She has established her own practice here also in east Memphis (www.marbleskincare.com). My children are genuinely great people with bright futures. In my free time, I waiver between many sports. This seems to come in waves: used to be running, Olympic distance triathlons, basketball, golf and currently, tennis.

During my education and private practice years, I became:

Member of American Dental Association
Member of American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry
Member of the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry
Member of the Memphis Dental Society
Staff at Lebonheur Children’s Hospital
Staff at Lebonheur East Surgery Center
A published journal author

I would love the opportunity to meet you and your family. Please call my office at 901-415-2536 with any questions.