A new face has recently come to Niles to help residents improve their smiles.

Dr. Richard Beckermeyer recently welcomed Dr. Andrea Beckford as a new associate. With Beckford’s placement on the Beckermeyer team, the dental office now offers orthodontic services, including Invisalign, a brand of clear, removable braces.

Beckford is the only dentist in the greater Niles area to be authorized by the makers of Invisalign to offer the braces, she said.

Beckford said that she is excited to bring her orthodontic skills to the Beckermeyer office.

“It’s just a great feeling when someone comes in frowning and leaves with a smile,” Beckford said. “I’m excited to do that here.”

While Beckford is excited to start working again in mid-Michigan, where she is originally from, she is leaving behind a life of “interesting” life of traveling dentist work.

Beckford has gone on mission trips to nearly every continent, excluding Australia and Antarctica.

Most recently, she was stationed in Guam, from 2015 to March of this year, doing dental work.

Beckford said her many trips overseas are rewarding to her, not only on professional level, but a personal one as well.

“A lot of people that we do work with on these trips are not able to have access to care or they have limited access or they cannot afford it,” Beckford said. “It’s nice to be able to help people when otherwise they wouldn’t be able to get care at all.”

Her time in Guam especially has given the mother of two and her family perspective on what they have in the mainland of the United States.

“It was definitely a challenge and a change. We never expected to go to a place like that,” Beckford said of her time in Guam. “Even though it’s in America, it definitely felt semi third World, in that a lot of conveniences you have here, they don’t have there or you pay a lot more for it.”

Seeing many people go without much that many in the mainland of the United States take for granted strengthened Beckford’s resolve to help other whenever she can, she said.

“I really learned a lot [in Guam],” Beckford said. “It was a really great experience.”

Beckford said that, though she misses her friends from her many overseas adventures, she and her family are excited to venture out in Dr. Beckermeyer’s Niles office.

Her future plans for the area involve growing her orthodontic practice in Niles and getting her children in a good school.

“I’m really grateful to be here and get to know people in the community,” she said. “I really hope people will come out here to see me and leave with a great smile.”