Slidell dentist helps thousands of kids get dental care
By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – It’s not hard to guess about the success of Slidell dentist Don Donaldson through the pediatric practice he has operated for 50 years that is better known as “Bippo’s Place for Smiles.”
Donaldson created something very special in his children’s dental practice when he wrote a book in 1970 during the time he served as the first pediatric dentist in the U.S. Navy. It was about a baby hippo visiting the dentist for the first time and became the foundation for a lifetime of business success that helped children overcome their fear of the dentist.
Not only has Donaldson, and now his two dentist daughters, used the theme in four of his own area offices, but he later licensed Bippo to more than 80 dental offices in the U.S. and Canada.
However, for all the success that Bippo has brought to Donaldson personally, very few probably know what the longtime Slidell businessman has done for literally thousands of underprivileged children in the state of Louisiana.
It began in the early years of his practice when Donaldson was one of very few dentists who would take children only covered by Medicaid. Why so few?
“The reimbursement from Medicaid was so low in Louisiana, and most other states too, that most dentists couldn’t afford to take the kids. Not only did you not make money taking those kids, but you lost money because of the time you couldn’t work with other patients with insurance or who could pay,” he explained.
Nonetheless, Donaldson did take those kids because of the need he saw, and then 20 years ago, went a step further to become an advocate at the state level in Baton Rouge for the dental industry, work that led to the Legislature approving much more money for the program, and increasing the reimbursement percentage so more dentists were willing to take the kids. His work has almost single-handedly guaranteed that thousands of children in Louisiana received dental care when they otherwise would go with none.
For the work he has put in the past two decades, something he continues to do today, Donaldson was recently honored by the Louisiana Dental Association (LDA) with its prestigious Distinguished Service Award, the highest honor bestowed by the LDA on any dentist. (See separate story.)
Donaldson said the decision to spend countless personal hours, and plenty of his own money, to help children covered by Medicaid was a conscious decision he made after seeing more-and-more children go without dental care.
“I knew I had a decision to make. Do I abandon these kids, or do I decide to take this problem on myself?” he said. “I always had a passion to help children, especially those who were underprivileged, so that’s why I have done this for the past 20 years.”
His personal practice is now run mostly by two of his three daughters, Dr. Jill Donaldson and Dr. Kay Daniel, who does orthodontic work within the practice. Bippo’s Place for Smiles continues to be a very different kind of dental experience for kids—something that led to a business which grew from one to five offices in the area.
Donaldson said that once deciding to be a dentist he knew he wanted to be a pediatric dentist, something that was solidified when he spent a summer working at a summer camp in North Carolina.
However, becoming a dentist almost didn’t happen since his father put the love for the outdoors in he and his brother, especially during their younger years growing up on 80 acres of land in the Slidell area near Magnolia Forest.
“We lived in New Orleans, but my dad was in real estate and purchased the land in Slidell, where we came and spent most summers,” he said. “We loved to fish and hunt, something I still have a passion for today.”
Life in the outdoors had Donaldson seriously considering a career in the forestry industry, but his father helped change his mind when he was a senior in high school.
“I remember him sitting me down and saying, ‘Don, you have excellent grades and can do anything you want. You might think about other careers since there will be plenty of days with the forestry job that will be very cold or very hot being outside all the time.’
“He was friends with Dr. Grush in Slidell so I got to spend a day watching him work and that kind of changed my mind,” he said. “After that, it seemed like a better option. I appreciated the way my dad didn’t make up my mind for me, but kind of guided me to consider something else. It’s the same thing I tried to do with my kids.”
During dental school at the University of Alabama he got drafted into the Vietnam War and became the first pediatric dentist ever in the U.S. Navy. While he was serving at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, he penned the Bippo book.
“I knew at that point I wanted to be a pediatric dentist so I really focused on ways I could make the dentist visit easier for kids, and something they didn’t fear,” he said.
“When I put my mind to anything I am usually very focused continually until I figure it out. I remember waking up at 2 a.m. one morning and having this idea about a baby hippo going to the dentist for the first time—that was it and I wrote the book after that,” he said.
It took about a year to refine the entire book, then he published the book and trademarked the idea in 1973. After finishing his time in the Navy, he returned to the New Orleans and Slidell area where he opened his first practice in 1972 in Algiers, followed by the Slidell office in 1973. Since then, he added three other area offices for a total of five locally.
The Bippo idea was so successful from the early years that he decided later to license it, a plan that drew tremendous interest. Within five years he had over 80 other offices all around the country and in Canada with their own Bippo. But he admits the effort to support all those offices, especially in the early time they started with Bippo, was overwhelming.
“It took so much time to handle all the questions since you have to remember I essentially am Bippo, and I’m the guy who knew exactly how to incorporate it all into a dental practice,” he said. “I was on the phone all night, every night, so after five years I quit selling any more and kind of let the licensing thing wind down.”
Donaldson laughs when talking about some dentists who essentially tried to copy the Bippo plan.
“Most of the dentists who were interested came to our office and shadowed Bippo for the day,” he said. “And some of them would try to create their own character so they didn’t have to pay a license fee. It was pretty funny to see how many tried that—they learned it wasn’t quite as easy as you think.”
At this point in his life, Donaldson is still involved in the administrative end of his local dental offices but spends more time working with the Legislature for the ever-changing Medicaid situation, and flies around the world doing the thing he still most loves—hunting and fishing.
He recently returned from one of his favorite places, Argentina, which he calls the “best winged shooting location in the world.”
As for Bippo and the success he found with the baby hippo, Donaldson remains humble and low-key, as he is with any kind of spotlight on himself.
“I guess it worked out pretty well,” he said with a smile.