Dr. Rick Hammel attended Kansas State University and graduated with his Doctorate from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Dentistry in 1977. Upon graduation, he wanted to be close to family and returned to his hometown of Clay Center. Dr. Rick practiced there for over 38 years, until he retired and sold to again move closer to his children and grandchildren in Olathe in 2015.
Dr. Hammel is passionate about helping fearful patients and patients with disabilities to get the dental care that they need to improve their health and their lives. A well-known and respected dental innovator, he helped establish and implement sedation dentistry in Kansas for patients that are fearful, anxious, or have disabilities that make receiving dental care very difficult for them. Dr. Rick continued on with his education and completed his residency in IV Conscious Sedation at the University of Georgia in Augusta, and he received his Fellowship in the Dental Organization for Conscious Sedation.
Dr. Hammel and his wife also have served with, and continue to serve for, The Belize Mission Project, providing dental care to children and adults in impoverished areas of the country. Their experiences with this mission inspired them to organize and begin the Clay Center Dental Mission project that brought dentists and hygienists from all over the country to help provide free dental care to those in need in North central Kansas.
Dr. Hammel provides programs and instruction on these topics:
- Complex and comprehensive treatment planning expertise for the broken-down mouth
- How to segment complex treatment over time to maximize insurance benefits and/or to help those who are needing to spread treatment over time
- Implementation of new technology such as digital impressions which reduces the need for time consuming adjustments
- Increase production by reducing the need for outside referrals by implementing new skills
- Knowledge and expertise in treating the fearful patient as well as dental conscious sedation and its implementation
- Work/life balance and retirement planning
- Developing and implementing core values and accountability systems to maintain those values both personally and professionally
- Down and dirty crown preps
- Faster, easier better dentistry to increase production
