The nearest dental home to Barling, Arkansas.

Barling Doesn't Have a Dentist. It Has Neighbors.

Barling is a city of roughly 4,700 people in the 72923 zip, directly east of Chaffee Crossing, and it has no dental practice of any real size inside its own limits. Everyone here drives out for a cleaning. The only question is which direction.

Most Barling families default to driving west across Fort Smith to the Rogers Avenue corridor, because that's where dentists have always been. Our office at 5901 Riley Park Dr., Suite A is on the near side of that trip, in Chaffee Crossing, between you and all of it. For a household here, that's the difference between a lunch-hour cleaning and an afternoon off work.

We Grew Out of the Same Ground You Did

Barling and Chaffee Crossing are two halves of the same story. The city's line runs up against old Fort Chaffee, and Barling's growth has always been tied to the post — the soldiers stationed there, the Vietnamese families housed there in 1975, the Cuban arrivals in 1980, and now the redevelopment that replaced the training ground with neighborhoods.

Highway 22 runs straight through town toward Charleston and Paris, which is why so many Barling patients tell us they'd rather not fight their way back through the middle of Fort Smith for routine care. You're already pointed the other way.

The People You'd Actually Sit With

Three dentists work out of the Fort Smith office. Dr. Beau Sparkman, DDS owns the practice and covers orthodontics and sleep apnea. Dr. Joseph Farmer, DDS grew up in Fort Smith and handles general and restorative work. Dr. Blain VanNice, DDS came to dentistry from an engineering background at Colorado Boulder and practices here full time.

On the hygiene side, Cindy Saulsberry, RDH is based at this office and has been practicing since 2011. Laura Williams, RDH splits time between our two locations; she started in dentistry in 1997 and has practiced as a myofunctional therapist for more than a decade, which is not a credential you'll find elsewhere in this market.

You'll see the same faces at each visit. For a town Barling's size, that's usually the thing people are actually asking about.

What You'd Otherwise Make Three Trips For

The reason to have a dental home instead of a dentist is that most of what goes wrong doesn't stay in one category.

A cracked molar normally means an appointment for the impression, two or three weeks in a temporary, and a second appointment for the real crown. We scan, design and mill crowns in our own office, so many of them are done and cemented before you leave.

A missing tooth normally means a referral to a surgeon in one building and a crown in another. We plan implants in 3D with Image Guided Implantology, which uses a CBCT scan and a surgical guide and typically shortens placement from roughly 50 minutes to 10 to 15 — in the same office that will restore it.

And if you're waking up tired, grinding at night, or your partner has stopped sleeping in the same room, our sleep and airway program screens for it here rather than sending you off to figure it out alone. Screening tools are educational, not a diagnosis, and a sleep test may still be needed.

Without insurance, Smile Savers runs from $36.67 a month and covers exams, X-rays, two cleanings and fluoride, plus 20% off comprehensive treatment. No waiting periods, no annual maximum.

Insurance, Payment and Getting Everyone In

We're in network with Delta Dental Premier, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, Aetna, MetLife, Guardian, United Concordia, Healthchoice, Sun Life, Principal, Assurant and America's. Bring the card to the first visit and we'll verify what your plan pays before treatment starts rather than after.

For larger treatment there's CareCredit, with no-interest terms on purchases over $200, Cherry, which approves in about 30 seconds, and Proceed Finance for longer plans. HSA and FSA funds work here too.

Appointments run Monday through Thursday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. If you need a whole household seen, say so when you call and we'll group the visits, because the point of being close by is that nobody should have to make four separate trips west.