As someone who sees the value in leaving egos at the door, Dr. Amanda Cole says she isn’t entirely sure why Dr. Bill Beck chose her to carry on his practice’s legacy.
But the soft-spoken pediatric dentist does know that she’s beyond honored to carry on a tradition of gentle, compassionate care that has won the trust of young patients for decades.
“Bill had this practice for I think 27 years, so he’s seen some patients’ families for three generations now,” Dr. Cole begins. “Honestly, I don’t know what made me the right fit, but Dr. Beck had met with a lot of people because he’d been looking to retire for a while, and it was really important for him to feel good about the transition and who he was leaving the practice to.”
But in a goodbye letter Dr. Beck wrote to his patients, the retiring dentist made it clear that Dr. Cole won his respect, admiration and trust.
“The next generations, including my granddaughter, will be cared for by Dr. Amanda,” he wrote. “I feel very lucky that Dr. Amanda entered the picture. She is a wonderful pediatric dentist, mother, wife and daughter and the perfect person to carry on the practice and bring it into the next era. Dr. Amanda's philosophy about care and treatment of patients is to be admired.”
With Dr. Cole’s background combining science and business—she studied both biology and economics during her undergrad years at Syracuse University—she was interested in inheriting an existing practice that embodied a sense of community. The American Board of Pediatric Dentistry-certified dentist was eager to hit the ground running with the lessons she learned from both her professional experience and exhaustive education.
That education also included dental training at the University of Pennsylvania while simultaneously completing her master’s work in public health, and then a residency at Temple University, where she and a close friend shared chief-resident responsibilities; from there, she headed to the Yardley, Pennsylvania practice Sea of Smiles. That’s where Dr. Cole discovered what it’s like to do what she loves alongside “one big family,” while also developing a patient-care philosophy that suited her natural desire to help others.
“I’m so lucky to be able to help take care of people, that’s the thing I usually focus on,” Dr. Cole says. “Especially kids—of course, every child is different, but caring for them affects how they grow. At the end of the day, I want everyone to be comfortable, and I want people to feel good about where they are.”
A desire to put patients at ease necessitated a significant overlap period between owners. Dr. Cole officially took over the practice in April, with Dr. Beck staying on board through September to help ensure the transition goes as smoothly as possible for patients, their families and the office team—a team Dr. Cole is quick to praise for comprising the kind of “good people you find in your life that make it that much better.” It’s also a team Dr. Cole trusts will help cherish her predecessor’s legacy while making the practice her own.
That first step came when the practice’s original name retired with Dr. Beck, a new chapter that feels significant for Dr. Cole. She leaned into the idea of legacy with the new naming: “Babbie” is inspired by her late grandmother’s nickname and is an ode to the importance of family. With two toddlers at home and her extended family throughout the area, Dr. Cole appreciates the importance of family and community, and celebrates this as she moves into the future.
“I have so many ideas!” she enthuses. “I’m constantly thinking about how to make this a good experience for kids, how we can keep building on those positive experiences, and then creating a community and building on the one that’s already here. … My husband, my father-in-law and my dad are building a cute little clubhouse, and we’ll have sensory toys for the little ones, and we’re planning a mural—my hope for that is doing an event where patients can come and fill in that mural.”
But just as Dr. Cole recognizes the importance of embracing the practice’s next chapter, she also wants Dr. Beck’s patients to feel just as at home in her care as they did in his, and like they’re a treasured part of Babbie Pediatric Dental’s family.
“To know Dr. Bill is to love him,” she says. “This practice really feels like a community from the people who work here to the patients and parents, and I think it’s because Dr. Bill has created such a beautiful legacy. The office walls are covered in patients’ artwork, and we’re going to frame some of those in a special place that’s an ode to him and the history of this practice.”
And feeling at home in a well-loved space is big on Dr. Cole’s mind, as she, her husband and their children recently—and happily—moved back to South Jersey.
“We love where we live, it’s been so wonderful,” she says. “We bought an older home that we’ve been fixing up. It’s really beautiful, and it translates so well to this practice: I’m not trying to change it too much but I am making it my own while honoring its past.”
Babbie Pediatric Dental
Vineland
(856) 205-0099
BabbieDental.com
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Published and copyrighted in South Jersey Magazine, Volume 21, Issue 4 (July 2024)
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