Dr. Drew Chase – The Smile Maker

 
As the sound of “Chill” music emanates from the adjoining living room, Drew Chase sits at his kitchen table and pauses for a few seconds before sharing a perfect description of his personality and purpose.
 

“If you ask me what I do, I’m not gonna tell you I’m an Orthodontist. I tell you I make smiles. I mean, that’s the bottom line – make smiles both physically and emotionally.”
 

The son of an orthodontist, Dr. Andrew Chase wasn’t always sold on the idea of following in his father’s footsteps. In fact, when he was a student at SUNY-Albany, orthodontics was the furthest thing from his mind. And then he fielded a phone call from his uncle.
 

“He asked me what I wanted to do with my life and I told him I wanted to go into business,” said Chase. “He told me I had what it took to be a good orthodontist. He said, ‘You’re phenomenal in sciences. You’re incredibly artistic. You’re super social. All of those are the ideal qualities of an orthodontist.”
 

“And he left me with one thought. He said, ‘It’s also a business,’ and he hung up the phone.”
 

Drew’s newfound awareness of his unique combination of qualities was a moment of reckoning. Shortly after the conversation with his uncle, Chase marched to the registrar’s office and changed his major to biology with a business minor. The path to his calling was clear.
 

After completing his education and training, Drew was licensed and joined the practice of his father, Robert, immediately injecting life and vision. They rebranded the practice ARCH Orthodontics, an acronym for “Andrew and Robert Chavez and Chase.”
 

The boy from The Bronx had landed in suburban Boston with a mission to build the family business and build smiles along the way. A practice that started with a single office in Stoughton in 1974 blossomed to a fruitful tree of seven locations – Hyde Park, Westwood, Canton, Bridgewater, Hyannis and Orleans.
 

The Chase family lives less than five minutes from the Westwood ARCH, which actually opened before Drew and his wife, Kim, moved to town with their daughters, Chloe and Mila, in 2015.
 

The current space on Route 109 is the second location ARCH has occupied in Westwood, and the journey to the finish line on that one has a story.
 

“We were down the street at the corner of 109 and High Rock. I had begged to get in the space for about a year and a half,” said Chase. “After it was vacant for over a year, he agreed. I signed the lease and Kim and I sat down at Starbucks across the street. It was a beautiful, spring afternoon. It was about two o’clock, and we had our coffees on that front porch and about 45 middle school kids walked into Starbucks. It was insane. We just laughed and said, ‘This is the perfect location.'”
 

While the bulk of his clientele is middle school kids, advancements in dentistry and orthodontics have broadened the scope of those ARCH serves on a regular basis. The explosion of lingual and invisible technologies has opened the door for more adults to pursue orthodontic care as they look to perfect their smiles.
 

“I provide an opportunity for people to enjoy who they are, what they look like, and that has an impact on their lives in the most positive way,” said Chase. “Take a person – a kid, adult, doesn’t matter – that doesn’t have a nice looking smile, and they’ll have a tendency not to smile. Now how approachable is somebody who isn’t smiling ever? Not as approachable as somebody who is.
 

At ARCH, the staff create smiles while smiling. An effervescent personality, Dr. Drew doesn’t take himself too seriously. He passes that love of life on to his team and his patients in obvious ways on a consistent basis.
 

“That beauty of having fun while you’re making a smile,” said Chase. “It’s the foundation of what a smile is. Right? Love it.”
 

That same approach works at home, where Drew and Kim empower their daughters and engage in the Westwood community.
 

“Kim is very engaged with the Westwood Community Chest. The fact the community is so passionate about supporting its neighbors is really wonderful,” said Chase. “The heart of any community is the dedication of a family to itself and to their neighbors. Helping to grow and develop my girls into wonderful caring individuals is such an important thing.”
 

Don’t take yourself too seriously. Put your skills to work. Give back. Have fun. SMILE.
 

To learn more about Dr. Drew Chase and ARCH Orthodontics, listen to our conversation on the Westwood Living Podcast Network, found on SoundCloud and YouTube by searching “Westwood Living.”