Cody takes the lead; mentor becomes associate
Robbinsville – Dr. Patrick Kelley had a mission when he started his dental practice in Robbinsville in August of 1988.
The rural town had been without a dentist for more than a year and Dr. Kelley saw an opportunity to provide a vital service for a community in need.
“I started from scratch,” Dr. Kelley said. “In two weeks, I was running as fast as I could go. The goal was to try to improve the quality of life for the incredible people of Graham County.”
A practicing Christian, Dr. Kelley saw his role as more than a dentist. Patients in his chair found an inspiring mentor, with many of his patients going on to earn teaching and professional degrees.
One was a young child named Kelsey Cody. She shadowed Dr. Kelley when she was in eighth grade.
Her AAU basketball coach – who was also a dentist – further inspired her. The fuse lit, she went to UNC-Chapel Hill as a full-ride Morehead-Cain Scholar, with a double major in biology and health policy and management. She stayed on to earn her dental degree.
Her general practice residency was at the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville and she spent summers working at the Graham County Health Department’s dental clinic.
Then, in summer 2019, she approached Dr. Kelley.
“I wanted to come home and asked him if that was even possible,” she said.
It was. Dr. Kelley took Dr. Cody on as his associate.
Now, starting Saturday, Jan. 1, 2022, Dr. Cody will take over the practice and Dr. Kelley will become her associate.
“I’m going to be the employee and she’ll be the boss,” said Dr. Kelley. “The main goal was to find somebody who loves the area, loves the people and who wants to carry on the ministry that we started more than 30 years ago.”
Contrary to rumors, Dr. Kelley – who is 63 years old – is not retiring … for now.
“There were rumors that I was retiring, that I was going to California — no,” said Dr. Kelley, a California native.
“A lot of these rumors started when you started working here,” Dr. Kelley said, speaking to Dr. Cody, who is 29 years old, during a Christmas Eve interview with The Graham Star.
It may be easy to see why people would think Dr. Cody would take over the practice. People were eventually right, after all.
It was also something the staff at the clinic prayed for.
“It was always something that I wanted to happen,” Dr. Cody said.
Dr. Cody was born and raised in Robbinsville. Her husband, Brady, with whom they have 7-month-old young daughter Nora, is a lawyer in Robbinsville. They’ve known each other since they were children and dated off and on through high school; they went to the prom together.
Both left to get their educations and a little experience in Knoxville before returning to their roots in Robbinsville.
“It was important for us to raise our daughter here,” Dr. Cody said. “This is a very small place to grow up, but it is also a very awesome place.”
Talks for Dr. Cody to buy the practice began over the summer and the staff was notified at the annual Christmas Party.
The practice has patients from surrounding counties as well as snowbirds from all over, many of whom time their dental appointments with their vacations in Graham County.
When necessary, some even return in the winter to get needed dental work.
Ten people work at the facility, some full-time, some part-time. Some, like dental hygienist Janie Haney, have been there since the start. Over the past three decades, Dr. Kelley has employed somewhere around 60 people at his practice.
The practice provides a wide range of services – 102 to be precise – from cleanings and fillings to root canals and extractions to Invisalign, an alternative to traditional braces.
Dr. Cody has no intention to change things up at the practice, except for one thing; there will be new branding as the practice gets a formal name: Smoky Mountain Smiles.