A top priority at our office is to work as a team and to maintain a family feel. We love our job and enjoy providing you with the highest quality dental care. We know that the way we work together enables you to have a comfortable experience and will build your trust in us as you are treated like family!

Dr. Thompson has been practicing dentistry in Eldersburg for over 19 years. He grew up here and went to Freedom Elementary, Sykesville Middle and graduated from Liberty High School in 1994. From there he earned a BS in Biology from Houghton College, NY. Dr. Thompson earned his Doctor of Dental Surgery Degree from the University of Maryland Dental School in 2002.

He lives in Eldersburg with his lovely wife and 5 incredible children. His hobbies include golf, reading, building projects and cheering for the Ravens! He serves as an elder at LifePoint church and is part of the Medical Missions team there. For updates on his overseas work, please see the Dental Missions tab.

Sam has been working with Dr T for over 7 years now. She is kind and friendly and excellent in patient care. She has over 12 years experience in the dental field and is a great addition to the team. An avid Ravens and Orioles fan, she currently resides in Westminster. She recently took her first overseas missions trip, bought a house and got pregnant - all within 3 months! Her son is growing quickly and is a super cute kid!

Michele is our newest assistant and we are glad to have her! After 20 years in the merchandising field, she made a career change and earned her certificate in dental assisting. We are glad she did, because she is kind and friendly and is great at her job! Michele lives in southern PA with her husband, a daughter in college and a son finshing up high school. She loves her animals, time with family and friends, the beach and cheering on the Caps!

Rachel received her dental hygiene degree from Allegany Community College in 2001 and has worked with Dr T for over 16 years. She grew up in Eldersburg and has been riding horses since she was three. Her specialty is barrel racing - the most exciting 16 seconds on horseback! She lives in Sykesville with Patrick (her horse) and her two dogs.

Mayson has already been with us for over a year! She graduated with her bachelors in Dental Hygiene from the University of Maryland School of Dentistry. She has multiple years of working experience, including experience treating patients in public health clinics all throughout the state of Maryland. Her interest in dentistry started by watching her father practice as an orthodontist in Carroll County. Mayson grew up in the area and she currently lives in Finksburg. She enjoys spending time with family and friends, traveling, and volunteering in the middle school ministry at LifePoint Church. She is so excited to be a part of Dr. Thompsons team!

Annie is now an experienced veteran hygienist and is balancing work with being a mom! She is sweet, quick with a smile and has a gentle touch. Annie graduated from the University of MD Hygiene School and has 5 years of experience working on patients. She currently lives in Westminster. She is pictured here with her husband, JJ. Annie now has two beautiful little girls!!

While Bridget just started with us in July of 2017 as one of our front desk receptionists, she has been friends with Dr. Thompson for years. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame with an American Studies degree in 1996. Shortly after graduation, she married her high school sweetheart, Geoff. They have 4 beautiful children and 2 sweet Bernese Mountain Dogs. They have lived in Eldersburg for 18 years.

While she enjoys watching Ravens and Notre Dame football, her favorite pastime is watching her daughters play soccer and her son perform in local drama productions and voice performances! She also enjoys camping and spending time with friends and family! She is excited to be a part of Dr. Thompson's team! Bridget is quick with a laugh and she is a joy to work with!

Laurie has been with Dr. Thompson as a front desk receptionist since July 2017. She graduated with a degree in Accounting from the University of Baltimore. Laurie has lived in Eldersburg since 1997 with her family. She is married with a son in college and a daughter in high school. Her passion in life is spending time with family and friends. She is a busy mom who loves watching her kids participate in their various activities. She also enjoys reading, music, the outdoors and watching the Ravens and Orioles. Laurie has been with us for 4 years and we love having her at our front desk!

Samantha is our newest part time receptionist, working with us during the summer. She is a junior at the University of MD and is planning to major in Communications and Public relations. Samantha runs cross country and track at UMD and spends much of her off season in preparation for races. She grew up in Eldersburg with her parents and brother and their beloved dog Ernie. We are sad to see her go off to college, but enjoy having her with us when she is home!

Out of gratitude for what God has given me, I am committed to being a blessing to others by using the talents He has gifted me with. The trips I have taken have truly touched my life and my heart, and I have received far more than I have given. You hear about poverty in other parts of the world, but when you see it in person, treat people in pain, or simply show them love by caring for them or giving them a hug and a smile...you are changed inside.

We will be visiting some amazing ministries while there, including Bring Love In, Embracing Hope and Women at Risk. We will also visit some of the orphanages in the area. I am bringing a suitcase of dental supplies in order to set up a portable extraction clinic just in case we run into a child that needs help with a toothache!

UPDATE: While in Ethiopia, we felt led to adopt two teenagers we met. After mountains of paperwork and two more trips to Ethiopia, Samri and Abel came home in April 2015!! We love having them as a part of our family of 7!

I will be heading back to the middle east in April for my next medical trip. I will be joining four medical professionals from my church and 8 others from around the country. We will be setting up a makeshift medical/dental clinic in a church near a Syrian refugee camp to serve those who have been displaced from their homes. The civil war in Syria has claimed over 60,000 lives and hundreds of thousands are fleeing their homes. We hope to help in a small way to help these poor people by providing any medical assistance they might need. I will post an update this once I return!

I returned from the Middle East two months ago and I am still trying to process what I experienced there. The trip was both amazing and heartbreaking all at the same time. I came back completely empty and exhausted, but also with a passion for what God is doing there through the Christian church.

We saw a little girl who was 10 and needed a tooth pulled. She was terrified. When asked, her mom told us that she had a terrible experience with a Syrian dentist (he broke her tooth off at the gumline and now it was infected.) But then she shared about how they had been eating dinner on their balcony when a make-shift bomb being packed below them blew up. Part of the mans torso was blown onto the balcony at their feet. Later, the army came through and broke their windows with the butts of their guns and the glass shattered on her. This poor little girl has seen things that we only see portrayed in horror movies. Her eyes were haunting almost empty. But we had the opportunity to serve and love her with gentleness and kindness and then pray with her and her family that they would know the peace that only Jesus can bring.

An older gentleman was very thankful after I pulled two of his broken teeth. I told him that I had come all the way from America because I love Jesus and I wanted him to know His love, too. He came over to me, took my face in both of his hands and kissed me on the top of my head. Very moving.

We saw a man who had been beaten with metal rods by the Syrian Army and had his teeth knocked out. A young man who was shot and left for dead in a mass grave until his parents dug through the bodies and found him. A mother who burst into tears as I prayed that her son would grow up to become a man of God I knew instantly that she wondered if he would have a future at all. A woman whose tooth was severely infected but didnt want treatment because it wasnt as bad as the pain in her heart.

The Syrians, who were middle class just like you and me, have lost everything - family, possessions, and hope. Most of the people we saw were just escaping the refugee camps which are filled with crime, rape, unsanitary conditions, prostitution of children to wealthy Saudis who come up, overcrowding, etc They have had to choose to live in overpriced concrete shacks and starve rather than be fed and stay in the camps. They are unwelcome guests in the countries surrounding Syria because their presence has spiked the price of food, gas and rent. The refugees are truly lost no country, no job, no friends and no future.

And this is where God has led the church there to step in. They are reaching out to these people in love and generosity. During regular home visits to check in on the refugees, the Christians feed them, clothe them, encourage them and bring them

supplies. And the church keeps coming back to care for them the only love they have experienced since they left. This has melted the Syrian refugees heartsand has given them hope in the middle of a very dark time. I went and did what I could to alleviate the suffering of a few people, but the need is overwhelming. I left encouraged by the example of the people who live to meet the need of others constantly. What a privilege to serve alongside such heroes!

I fell in love with the people in this country on my most recent trip. We worked with a Christian church there that cared for the needs of the poverty stricken Muslims in the surrounding community. Although facing persecution and making up less than 1% of the total population, these Christians were willing to serve others in love. I was so humbled by their servant's heart and attitude - they are true heroes!

We worked in the clinic they had built and saw over 1000 patients. We had a full medical team including internists, a pediatrician, an orthopedic PA, a dentist and people distributing eyeglasses. I had the chance to work with some young dentists who became my friends very quickly. The church provided us some wonderful meals of lamb, rice and almonds (Mansef) and an after-lunch 'tea time' of Turkish coffee and cookies. I was impressed by the modern dental clinic as well as the skill level of the dentists I worked with. This was a very memorable trip and I would love to go back!

The reality of mission trips is that the travel can be brutal. We were originally scheduled to go to Egypt, but had to be rerouted to another country (unnamed to protect the church there) because of the unrest caused by the Arab Spring Uprising. Here we are blowing up pool floats to sleep on overnight in the Cairo airport. On the way home we went through 5 cities on 4 continents in 36 hours!

We had a sightseeing day and travelled to the ancient ruins of Gadara. In the foreground is the ruins of a 4th century Byzantine church. To the right is the Golan Heights, to the left is Israel and straight ahead is the Sea of Galilee!

On my first mission trip we set up a makeshift dental clinic in a school. Kids would be bused in from miles around the city to be able to see 'American doctors'. We had mattresses on top of desks for the patients to lay on and headlamps as a light source. Instruments were steam sterilized in pressure pots.

Almost every single child had cavities. In this area of the world they are very poor, but sugar is cheap. Most children had teeth that needed to be extracted, but we had to focus on those that couldn't eat or sleep at night because of the pain. It was heartbreaking to pull their teeth (some of them permanent), but we knew that a severe abscess could kill them and they did not have any access to futher care.

These kids were wonderful! They waited for hours on bleachers without complaining. They were brave and thankful and so adorable! One little girl needed two adult teeth out and we had trouble stopping the bleeding. In spite of this, she sat right by her friend and encouraged her and held her hand while we worked. I will never forget that moment.

I had just pulled his tooth, but he couldn 't stop smiling...why? Earlier he had gotten fitted with his first pair of glasses and couldn 't believe what he could see. His first words after were 'I see trees over there!'