Still Flying High and Sharing the Importance of a Smile After Nearly 40 Years, Former Air Force Colonel Dr. William Caldon Embraces Cutting Edge Dentistry as a Partner in High Peaks Dental in Upstate New York

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Oct 15, 2013, 08:30 ET

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y., Oct. 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Growing up in small town Kentucky, Dr. William Caldon DMD can't remember a major epiphany that set him on his life course in dentistry – but when he was in fifth or sixth grade, his dad pointed out that a local dentist up the street had a good, comfortable life and suggested, "Why don't you become a dentist?"

Still sharing the value of a smile—and helping repair and create thousands of them for his grateful patients--nearly 40 years after graduating from the University of Louisville School of Dentistry, the well-traveled former Air Force Colonel has over the past 17 years continued to build a thriving small town practice in Upstate New York with Dr. Michael T. O'Connor and Dr. Donnon "DJ" O'Neill.

With locations in Plattsburgh and Lake Placid (both about an hour south of Montreal), High Peaks Dental perfectly combines small town values and old school personal customer relations with such modern, cutting edge services such as Lumineers™, laser gum therapy, CEREC® Crowns, Invisalign® and Sedation Dentristy – along with a trademarked Six Month Smiles® technique that utilizes nearly invisible clear braces to gently straighten and align teeth in an average time of just six months.

Dr. Caldon recently penned a chapter called "The Importance of a Smile" in the recent Amazon bestseller "Out Front: Business Strategies from Frontline Entrepreneurs," a book that focuses on a range of successful business and interpersonal success strategies. He has spent over 37 years repairing smiles and is proud to contribute to the national conversation regarding the importance of image in the workplace. In the wake of the book's publication, he has appeared in discussions on NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox.

Post dental school, Dr. Caldon took a unique route towards his present small town private practice - which found him serving his country and providing oral health care to our military members throughout the world for two decades. Typically, when we hear someone is an officer in the Air Force, we will ask about the specifics of planes and missions flown. But serving a behind the scenes role in oral healthcare, Dr. Caldon did all his "flying" while working on service men and women in the dentist's chair.

He had graduated college at 19 and at 23, was the youngest graduate in his dental school class. Realizing it would be a challenge to immediately start making ends meet in private practice, he joined the service for the opportunities it offered for more experience and to "pick up speed and learn new things." A few years into his military career, when he thought he might re-enter civilian life, the Air Force offered him an opportunity to work in Southern Italy for three years. After that, the Air Force offered him additional training in a two year Advanced Education Program in General Dentistry (AEGD) in San Antonio. In addition to Texas and Italy, his military career took him and his growing family to Michigan, Illinois, England, New York and McGuire AFB in New Jersey, where he spent the last year of his military career.

Highlights along the way included the two-year general dentistry residency program, in which he received intensive training working closely with numerous specialists, including oral surgeons, periodontists, prosthodontists, pedodontists, endodontists and orthodontists. Dr. Caldon was later assigned as an instructor and Officer in Charge of a one-year general dentistry residency, which provided additional training in all phases of dentistry to new Air Force Dental Officers. In addition he was commander of dental clinics for several years in England, Plattsburgh and New Jersey. Dr. Caldon was the last dentist to leave the closing Plattsburgh Air Force Base – which is near where his future partner Dr. O'Connor had originally established his practice.

Having the good fortune of partnering with Dr. O'Connor, Dr. Caldon became the catalyst for changing the face of the practice. He helped expand the original location beyond its single four treatment room office - and later the practice expanded to a second office (Saranac Lake, which is now the Lake Placid location). As Dr. Caldon's vision for a larger business that better served the community took shape, Dr. Caldon and Dr. O'Connor later added another partner , Dr. O'Neill. Their dental staff also includes their associate Dr. Andrea Beanan, DDS.