Dowagiac’s Charles Burling can still remember the advice one of his instructors at dental school shared with he and his classmates many years ago.

“Never open a practice in your hometown. You will be doomed to fail.”

After four decades serving his friends and neighbors from the clinic on Riverside Drive he literally built from the ground up, Burling can comfortably say his old teacher has egg on his face.

“I proved him so wrong that I should get my money back for that lecture,” Burling said from the inside of his maize and blue adorned office Friday morning.

Last week, the local dentist officially called it a career, stepping away from the profession after 41 years of practice — all in Dowagiac, the town he was born and raised.

Burling informed his clients of his impending retirement in a letter mailed to them last month, informing them he planned to step away “while I’m still healthy and the doctors haven’t replaced all my parts.” The dentist said that more than 40 years of practice has taken its toll on him, as the constant twisting and contorting his neck while caring for patients is beginning to catch up with him, he said.

Burling will leave his practice in the hands of his longtime business partner, fellow Dowagiac-native Jon Gillesby, who will continue to operate the practice as before. A new associate dentist, Alex Burau, will join Gillesby later this month.

“I’m very confident with Jon taking over the practice,” Burling said. “Like I said in my letter, I don’t treat patients — I treat family and friends. I wanted to make sure they are being taken care of, and I know they will with Jon.”

Burling, a 1968 graduate of Dowagiac Union High School, became interested in dentistry through a rather unexpected source.

Burling’s high school shop teacher, Lee Neidlinger, pulled the student aside in class one day and asked him what he planned to do after high school. When Burling responded that he wanted to become a history teacher and coach football, Neidlinger told him he should instead consider dentistry, as he was intelligent and quite dexterous, Burling recalled.

While he initially attended Kalamazoo College to pursue his initial career path, the shop teacher’s advice continued to resonate with him. After one of his college instructors offered him similar guidance, Burling decided to change course.

He later enrolled at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry, where he graduated in 1976. Burling returned to Dowagiac later in the year, and joined as an associate with Bob Neff.

A year later, Burling decided to open his own practice. He purchased some old Sorghum-covered farmland from his wife’s grandmother, and set out to build his office with the help of family and friends.

A year later, in 1978, the offices of Charles Burling D.D.S. were open to the public.

In the years that followed, Burling has treated hundreds of patients, mainly from Dowagiac and Sister Lakes, developing close friendships with many in the process. There was hardly a detail in the lives of the patients who sat down in his chair the dentist was not interested in, from how their children were doing in school to what they planned to do in the upcoming weekend.

“I probably have more expertise in BS’ing than I do in dentistry, at this point,” Burling said.

In 2000, Gillesby came aboard the practice as an associate, and became a 50/50 partner with Burling two years later.

Ultimately, at the heart of Burling’s success is a simple philosophy: treating his patients the way he would want to be treated.

While he may have left dentistry professionally, Burling said he is considering still doing volunteer work for veterans.

In the meantime, he and his wife of 42 years, Kathy, will continue to call Dowagiac home, though they may do some traveling across the state in the years to come. Burling will continue to serve the community as well, both as a member of the city council as well as a trustee on the Borgess Board of Directors.

“There have been some bumps on the road, but it has been an incredible ride,” he said about his career. “The people of Dowagiac have made that ride worthwhile.”