Chaffee Crossing, without the cross-town drive.
Valley Family Dental is a short drive from Chaffee Crossing at 5901 Riley Park Dr. in Rye Hill. Cleanings, same-visit crowns, implants and braces without the trip back across town.
You Don't Have to Drive to Rogers Avenue for a Cleaning
To be straight with you about geography: our office is not inside Chaffee Crossing. We are at 5901 Riley Park Dr., Suite A, in the Rye Hill and Riley Farm area on the south side of Fort Smith, with our own entrance and parking at the door. Chaffee Crossing is a few minutes up the road, not across town.
That distinction matters, because the alternative is a genuinely long trip. Almost every established dental office in this city sits along the Rogers Avenue and Waldron Road corridor, back toward the middle of town. Chaffee Crossing added thousands of residents, a health education campus and a long list of employers well before it added dentists. If you live off Chad Colley Boulevard, near the roundabouts, or in one of the neighborhoods that filled in behind the college campus, we are very likely the shorter drive.
Old Army Land, New Everything Else
Chaffee Crossing is former Fort Chaffee property. When the post downsized, the Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority took over the land and started planning streets, utilities and lots, and what used to be barracks and training ground is now subdivisions, medical education, restaurants and light industry. It is the fastest-growing residential and commercial area in the metro, and it did not get that way slowly.
Pieces of the old post are still standing. The Chaffee Barbershop Museum preserves the shop where Elvis Presley got his Army haircut in 1958. The Arkansas National Guard still trains on the land that stayed military. Ben Geren Regional Park sits just west of us, so if your family's weekend already involves the ball fields, the golf course or the aquatics center, you're passing near our door on the way.
The 72916 zip has been absorbing new construction for years, and a lot of our newest patients are people who closed on a house out here and then realized their old dentist was now a project rather than an errand.
None of that is dental information. It's the reason a neighborhood this size was underserved for this long.
Who You'll See on Riley Park Drive
Dr. Beau Sparkman, DDS owns the practice and works both offices. University of Oklahoma College of Dentistry, 2011. He handles the orthodontics — braces, Invisalign and Myobrace — and the sleep apnea side, and he's a member of the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine.
Dr. Joseph Farmer, DDS was born and raised in Fort Smith, took his biochemistry degree at the University of Arkansas–Fort Smith, and finished at the University of Oklahoma. General and restorative care.
Dr. Blain VanNice, DDS practices here. He studied computer science and design engineering at Colorado Boulder before dental school at the University of Colorado Anschutz, and he brings that engineering habit to the way a crown or a filling gets designed.
On hygiene, Cindy Saulsberry, RDH has been practicing since 2011 and is based at this office. Laura Williams, RDH works both locations and is a practicing myofunctional therapist with more than ten years in that specialty.
What You'd Otherwise Leave the District For
Crowns finished in one visit. We scan the tooth, design the crown and mill it here. For many teeth that means no impression tray, no temporary crown, and no second appointment. Not every tooth qualifies, and we say so before we start.
Implants placed with 3D guidance. Image Guided Implantology uses a CBCT scan and a printed surgical guide, which typically brings placement down from around 50 minutes to 10 to 15. Single teeth, bridges and full-arch All-on-4 cases.
Sleep and airway care. 3D airway imaging, custom EMA and ProSomnus appliances, and myofunctional therapy for patients whose snoring, clenching or exhaustion has a breathing cause underneath it.
No insurance? Smile Savers starts at $36.67 a month for one person and covers exams, cleanings, X-rays and fluoride, with 20% off comprehensive treatment. No deductibles, no waiting periods, no annual maximum. Implants, CT scans and orthodontics are excluded.
What the First Appointment Actually Involves
Plan on about an hour. X-rays, a full exam, and a look at more than the teeth — how you breathe, how the jaw moves, whether there's wear that says you're clenching at night. Then we tell you what we found, what needs doing now, what can wait, and what it costs, before anything gets scheduled.
If it's been years since your last cleaning, say so when you call. It changes how we plan the visit. It doesn't change how you get treated.
Find us.
Fort Smith, Arkansas
5901 Riley Park Dr., Suite A
Fort Smith, AR 72916
Common questions.
Is your office actually inside Chaffee Crossing, or just near it?
Near it, and we would rather tell you that than have you find out from your GPS. We are at 5901 Riley Park Dr., Suite A, Fort Smith, AR 72916, in the Rye Hill and Riley Farm area. It is a short drive from Chaffee Crossing — considerably shorter than the trip to the Rogers Avenue corridor, where most Fort Smith practices sit.
I work at the health education campus. Can I come before work or at lunch?
That's a large part of why the 8:00 a.m. slots exist. We're open Monday through Thursday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and early-morning and midday appointments book fastest, so ask for one when you call.
We just moved into a new build out here and need a whole family started. Can you do that?
Yes, and it's routine for us. Tell us how many people and roughly what ages when you call and we'll stack the appointments so you're not making four separate trips.
Do you see kids?
Yes. Cleanings, sealants, first visits, and an honest look at how a child is breathing and how the jaw is growing, which is the part most checkups skip.
What if I need something on a Friday?
Our hours are Monday through Thursday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. For emergencies, call as early in the day as you can and we'll see you the same day when we're able to.
Request your appointment.
Four questions. Our care team calls you back within one business day. If you are in pain right now, call the office directly and we will get you seen.