‘Brace-ing’ for impact: UK alum champions dentistry, tradition and community impact

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Jan. 9, 2025) — The article below appears in the Winter 2024 edition of Kentucky Alumni magazine.

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A nondescript, repurposed auto repair garage in downtown Lexington serves as the headquarters of Dr. Greg White’s latest business venture. It’s the kind of industrial structure that fades into the cityscape, unnoticed by those who pass it daily.

Inside, however, the décor — an inviting blend of glass and brick, metal and wood — reflects an elegant fusion of the organization’s underlying principles: preserving tradition while boldly embracing modernity.

Even White’s mezzanine-level office at PepperPointe Partnerships is adorned with artifacts that echo Kentucky’s rich history, each a testament to the forces still shaping the Commonwealth’s future. White gestures to his curated collections displayed within his transparent-walled workspace — Kentucky-inspired vestiges that embody and celebrate the spirit of the Bluegrass.

“It’s Kentucky’s ‘three-Bs’ — bourbon, basketballs and bridles,” White said as he proudly showcases an array of UK memorabilia and the impressive collection of horseracing goggles and bridles interspersed among family photos and commendations. A shimmering display of crystal glasses and bottles filled with the Commonwealth’s signature libation sits opposite his desk, ready to welcome visitors seeking counsel on their dental industry concerns. The mementos symbolize the things he loves most about Kentucky.

“It’s a rare, rare thing — there’s a commonality of people and a pace that people move through in Kentucky, whether it’s the lakes in the summer, football or basketball season, or the horse races — with that common thread of bourbon that kind of floats all the way through it,” White philosophizes about the state that he adopted when he was 18. “There’s a pace in Kentucky that everybody moves to in unison without even thinking about it or talking about it; you just do. It doesn’t exist everywhere. I don’t even know if it exists anywhere else.”

A West Tennessee native, White has cultivated a gregarious, approachable demeanor. Coupled with his signature 500-megawatt smile, visitors feel immediately at ease — a quality that undoubtedly contributed to his rise as one of the state’s most successful and recognizable orthodontists.

Biting back at consolidation

Shortly after completing his studies at the University of Kentucky’s College of Dentistry in 1991, White became a founding partner of what has become White, Greer & Maggard Orthodontics. Today, the practice stands as one of the largest privately owned pediatric and orthodontic groups, not just in Kentucky, but across the United States.

“I don’t think small businesses exist just for the purpose of the business,” White explains of his business principles. “It must be integrated into the fabric of the community. Without that, you’re really not contributing to the culture.”

Now, with PepperPointe Partnerships, he and his staff in the renovated Spruce Street building are dedicated to safeguarding community-based dentistry practices from being absorbed by large, faceless investment groups known as Dental Service Organizations (DSOs), which have been disruptors in the dental industry for more than a decade.

“PepperPointe is an idea of how to fight back against the consolidation now occurring in dentistry through the private equity-backed model,” explains White.

In 2018, as several partners and orthodontists at White, Greer & Maggard entered their 50s and 60s, thoughts naturally turned to retirement and succession planning. White recognized a growing trend: the dental profession was gradually shifting from private ownership to a more aggressive corporate model — similar to what had already occurred in medical practices and pharmacies — where the focus moved from patient care and community to a greater emphasis on profit.

“How do you minimize and trivialize something that has meant so much to you in your life? You’ve spent so much of your life building relationships with all those community partners out there — how do you ensure you preserve those? I didn’t like the idea of selling to a private equity-backed service organization. But I also knew it would be very difficult to continue fighting against inevitable consolidation.”

White observes that private equity-backed firms consolidated approximately 10 percent of dentistry nationally in 2015, a figure that has surged to 35 percent just a decade later.

He began reaching out to orthodontists and pediatric dentists throughout Central Kentucky.

“I said, ‘Hey guys, we must stop seeing each other as competitors,’” White explains. “‘We’re not competitors. The real competition is the changing marketplace,’ and that resonated with them. PepperPointe was created to help independent practices come together in ways that provide all the economic efficiencies you get in a dental service organization while maintaining independence and autonomy.”

More than 100 dental offices across Kentucky, New York and Virginia have embraced the PepperPointe Partnership’s ethos, resisting private equity-backed DSOs to remain doctor-owned and committed to their communities.

White explains that this resource-sharing paradigm allows independent practices to maintain care standards while benefiting from economies of scale. By pooling resources, they reduce costs on business functions like marketing, HR and purchasing; secure better reimbursement rates; and afford cutting-edge technology, ensuring top-quality patient care.

White adds that PepperPointe has bolstered rural dentistry by successfully recruiting dental professionals to communities that previously struggled to attract them.

White reminds that one of the primary missions of the UK College of Dentistry, established in the 1960s, has been to educate dentists to provide care for Eastern Kentucky.

“As a member of the college’s advisory board, we’ve had many conversations about how we get the doctors who are graduating into the rural, underserved areas,” White explains. “The way to entice them is through ownership and reimbursement necessary to invest in technology. Creating the opportunity, educating them and placing them in an environment that provides state-of-the-art care is a win for everyone and will help improve oral care in Kentucky.”

Practices that work with PepperPointe Partnerships have seen tremendous growth, giving credence to the aphorism that a rising tide lifts all boats. White believes his model will allow practitioners to remain independent and make it easier for subsequent generations to assume existing practices when owners retire. He is focused on leaving the profession better for the next generation, preserving their motivation, autonomy and ownership to ensure long-term commitment to patients and communities.

“PepperPointe Partnerships represents a preservation of what was built and a transfer of what was built to the next generation,” explains White. “I’m proud of our mission to unite doctors to protect personalized care, and I’m proud of the team that lives out that mission every day,” White adds.

Early Smilestones

White understands the importance of community and giving back, of paying it forward. After all, early in his life, he was the recipient of other’s largesse that completely changed the course of his life.

The third of four sons, White lived with his sharecropping family in an ancestral home built in 1895 in the small community of Ripley, Tennessee, near the banks of the Mississippi River.

“We didn’t have running water or indoor plumbing until I was 9, " White recalls vividly.

His family tended to their 30-acre homestead while also laboring on a sprawling 1,000-acre farm half an hour away, where they cultivated fields of cotton, wheat and soybeans. As White prepared to transition into high school, neighbors extended to him the extraordinary gift of a private education.

“There was this school about 15 miles away, the Tennessee Academy in Brownsville,” White explains. “It was a private school that the people who attended had stock in — they owned it. A family that lived a few miles from us — we didn’t know very well — called us up one night. They said, ‘We’ve got a son who’s graduating. We’d love for Greg to attend this high school, and we’d sponsor him under our stock and provide him a scholarship if he’d play all three sports.”

White says that the opportunity changed the trajectory of his life more than any other four years.

“I met people in that school whose parents were doctors and lawyers and businesspeople. I was exposed to different experiences I’d never had growing up in that little house my great-grandfather had built,” White continues. “I graduated, and then I was right back on that tractor. I realized that I would be for the rest of my life if I didn’t make a move.”

In the blustery January of 1982, unbeknownst to his parents and with little more than lint in his pocket, White packed his car and drove to Lexington to visit a distant cousin at Transylvania University. On the Saturday morning before classes began, while exploring the campus, White crossed paths with someone who would help shape the next chapter of his life.

“I was standing there shivering in my Members Only jacket when this little old fellow came up and asked me if they could help me, and I said, ‘Yeah, I’m here to go to school,’” White recalls fondly. “He asked, ‘Well, were you here last semester?’ I said, ‘no.’ He said, ‘Well, when did you apply?’ And I said, ‘Once again, you’ve got me there.’”

The man White encountered was UK alumnus Monroe Moosnick ’40 AS, a distinguished chemist and head of Transylvania University’s science department. Moosnick detailed the application process, to which White, resolute and defiant, responded, “I don’t know what to tell you. I’ve got $23 in my pocket and a half tank of gas. I can’t even get back home at this point.”

The two men discussed White’s limited options. Financially, White’s family was strapped. The Soviet Union’s grain embargo was in effect, and the cost of soybeans had also plummeted. Moosnick, impressed with the young man’s bravado, pulled strings to get the unconventional prospective student enrolled.

“He paved a way for me to receive student aid, work-study and a part-time job at Max & Erma’s waiting tables,” White remembers.

Moosnick and White met for lunch every Wednesday at Stella’s Kentucky Deli on Jefferson Street. By the end of the first semester, White found the financial burden of his private education too daunting and decided that his only option was to return home.

“Right before May term began, I told Dr. Moosnick I couldn’t afford to return, even with all the help and loans. He said, ‘I’m going to miss our Wednesday lunches. Check your mailbox before you leave tomorrow.’ The next day, I found a letter with a full academic Jefferson Scholarship — room, board, tuition…everything.”

With the highly coveted merit scholarship, White completed his studies at Transylvania in three years and pursued dental school. Still a resident of the Volunteer State, he applied to the UK College of Dentistry. When placed on the waitlist due to out-of-state enrollment caps, White scheduled a meeting with the admissions administrator, where he passionately argued his case. Among his points was a bold promise: if admitted, he would commit to spending his entire career in Kentucky — a vow he has steadfastly honored.

“And I never practiced anywhere else except in the state,” White says proudly with a broad smile.

White devoted himself to full-time practice from 1991 until 2020 before channeling his energy exclusively into PepperPointe Partnerships.

“It came down to a decision to ‘Where can I personally have a greater impact in terms of what access to care is going to be like and look like in the future?” White says. “This is where I can have the greatest impact — by impacting multiple doctors, multiple communities, multiple locations — and then recruiting for this next generation to fill their shoes.

Making an Impact

Despite his remarkable success in orthodontics, White has always remained grateful to those who supported his journey. Early in his career, he became a passionate advocate for community involvement. The White, Greer & Maggard name is ubiquitous throughout Central Kentucky, with sponsorships extending to more than 300 community organizations, including sports teams, the YMCA and various civic groups.

White’s commitment enriches not only the communities he lives in and his professional network but also the neighborhoods he serves. This passion drives his philosophy and his desire to help families provide sports opportunities for their children. Recognizing sports as a conduit to help kids mature and understand what it is like to function within a group dynamic, White is proud to see his company’s name emblazoned on the back of team uniforms.

“I think team sports can build people in ways other things can’t. It causes them to strive for something and push themselves to do things they might not have done for themselves, but they will do it for the person next to them. We don’t see it as sponsoring them as much as we see ourselves partnering with them. We want to partner in being a part of the kids’ lives no matter where they are in their lives.

White hopes his efforts alleviate the burdens of area families, especially for the mothers.

“I have a wife, Michele, of 34 years, and three of my children are daughters,” White explains. “I’ve worked predominantly with women throughout my career, as dentistry is predominantly female. Working with women day in and day out, you see the commitment that they make to their families and their jobs. A long time ago, I decided that I wanted our business to support the things that women are passionate about, and they’re passionate about their kids and their kids’ education and their kids’ extracurricular activities, and their churches and charities.”

White’s commitment also reaches his alma maters; for example, this past summer, he supported the Coaches for the Kids event — hosted by UK football coach Mark Stoops — and UK’s Lexington Challenger Tennis Tournament, both of which benefit the Kentucky Children’s Hospital (KCH).

“Greg is an inspiring champion, partner and supporter of Kentucky Children’s Hospital,” says KCH Physician in Chief and UK Department of Pediatrics Chair Scottie Day. “He’s changing the future of care for the children of the Commonwealth. We can’t express how grateful we are for his continued advocacy for our smallest patients and the impact it’ll have on the generations to come.”

Over the years, White has ventured into various businesses beyond dentistry, including a Michigan-based restaurant company and a firm that created the world’s top-selling custom breast prosthesis for women recovering from mastectomies. The dental profession, however, remains his passion — one that he passed on to two of his children. Daughter Jane-Katherine Jones ’13 AS, ’17 DE is a pediatric dentist at Beaumont Kids Dentistry in Lexington, while Madeline Hill ’19 AFE, ’24 DE practices at Madison Dental Associates in Richmond and Dr. Rebecca Wheeler in Nicholasville.

This past October, White earned another accolade for his office collection, receiving the UKCD Alumni Association Distinguished Alumnus Award from the UK College of Dentistry. Established in 2004, the award recognized White — the most recent graduate to receive the prize — for his professional excellence, community leadership and commitment to the college.

“I’ve had the privilege of personally knowing and observing Greg from his first day of dental school to the last day of his orthodontic training,” said Dr. Jeffrey Okeson, professor and dean of the UK College of Dentistry. “His professional drive to help patients has been very evident and effective. While his patients have benefited greatly, his insights and ambition have resulted in a much greater impact on our entire dental profession.”

Specifically citing White’s contributions as part of the college’s advisory board as helping guide the future of dental education, Okeson describes the alum’s commitment to the community and serving the rural populations as “outstanding” with a “positive impact.”

“I can’t overemphasize how much dentistry has meant to me,” White says. “Coming from that background and growing up in that way — I had great parents and great brothers, and there was love in the household, but we didn’t have much — and getting in that car and driving to Lexington and running into Dr. Moosnick and then the opportunity to be able to get into the UK College of Dentistry and then into the Orthodontics program…”

White’s words momentarily drift as he seems to compose himself and gather his thoughts.

“…what White, Greer & Maggard has meant to me personally and to my family — to now being able to contribute to and serve the community for the next generation, I can’t imagine anything in my life I would fight more to preserve than that.”