There’s a new face at David L. Johnson’s dental practice in Niles.

Mike Flewelling, a Niles native and Buchanan graduate, began work as an associate there in June.

Flewelling, who previously worked at a dental practice in Chicago, said his plan is to make a long-term commitment to Johnson’s practice and eventually take it over.

“We (my wife, Tracy, and I) are excited to be back home. We are meeting up with friends we hadn’t seen in a long time and trying to get as involved in the community as we can.”

Born in Niles, Flewelling later moved to Buchanan and graduated from there in 1997. He joined the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves out of high school and spent 10 months in Iraq with Charlie 1/24 Company out of Lansing during the 2003 invasion.

“I was in Iraq while President Bush was giving his announcement saying we are going,” Flewelling said. “We were already there waiting for that (his announcement) to take off. They played that on the radio for us. It was really nice.”

After returning from Iraq, Flewelling decided to pursue a career in dentistry. He got his undergraduate at Andrews University and graduated from Loma Linda University’s dental school in 2012.

One of the top clinical schools in the country, Loma Linda is located in an impoverished area of Southern California where many are in need of inexpensive medical care.

Flewelling said he got to work on a lot of those cases.

“The things I run into in this community pale in comparison to what I was doing in dental schools. There were bad teeth there,” he said.

Flewelling said David Johnson is still seeing patients on a limited basis as he transitions into retirement. Johnson has had the practice for the past eight years.

The practice is located at 24 N. St. Joseph Ave., near Lakeland Hospital and across the street from Dairy Queen.

They run a general dental office, offering basic dental services, Invisalign, traditional crown and bridge treatments, root canals, Cerek machine one-day crowns and more.

Mike and Tracy will celebrate their fifth anniversary in September. They met at Andrews University. Tracy is from Berrien Springs.