Brighter Smiles

New dentist sets practice in Kaunakakai.

By Léo Azambuja.

Friendly Isle residents have another option for achieving a healthier and brighter smile, thanks to a new dentist setting up practice in Kaunakakai.

Dr. Ron Bloy, DDS, moved to Molokai last January and started practicing last week out of Molokai Community Health Clinic.

It has been an abrupt change for Dr. Bloy. For 19 years he practiced at O’Neill, Nebraska, a small rural community of 3,500 inhabitants. Little less than a year ago Pele’s rage reached Dr. Bloy’s clinic, burning it down in the middle of the night.

In a strange twist of fate, a day before his clinic burned down Dr. Bloy and his wife received in the mail the tickets to a Hawaiian vacation they had been planning. Some of their friends told them that their vacation had gone down the drain. The spirited dentist said otherwise. “We needed a vacation before, and now we really need one.”

Before losing his clinic to a fire, Dr. Bloy said he thought he was going to retire in O’neill. “I began to examine other options,” he said, noting that in the meantime he slowly phased out practice by attending his last clients out of a friend’s clinic.

In October Dr. Bloy saw an ad at the Christian Medical Dental Society, offering a job opportunity on Molokai. The following month he came to the island for an interview, and in December he got offered a job here. “We started packing up two weeks later.”

Dr. Bloy is still adjusting to the island. He rented a place in Kalae, and his wife is joining him in March, bringing their pets, which will have to meet quarantine requirements. Only then he says his place will feel more like home.

The new dentist has been here for only a short period, but the friendly spirit of residents has already got to him. “Everyone has been wonderful,” Dr. Bloy said. “I’m looking forward to become part of the community.” Dr. Bloy, who said he likes to live in small communities, is also interested in getting to know the people and culture of Molokai.

For the time-being Dr. Bloy is only attending to Medicare and self-paying patients. After receiving appropriate licenses he said he will be able to expand his care to patients carrying other types of dental insurance.

Molokai extends its welcome to the new member of the community. To set up an appointment with Dr. Bloy please call the clinic at 552-5038.