THE TRAUMA OF the initial weeks and months following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, reverberated nationwide, as individuals and companies alike were thrust overnight into an unsettling new reality that was a sudden, stark contrast to the relative calm of the preceding decade.

One overlooked aspect of those first discomfiting weeks: the U.S. military’s need to get thousands of soldiers ready for deployment, very far afield, in a short amount of time. That of course included dental exams and, when necessary, oral treatment for GIs who knew they’d soon be sent to Afghanistan. The National Guard connected with Onsite Dental, a small California firm that had been founded in 1997 to deliver on-location dentistry in Silicon Valley to the burgeoning high-tech companies of the first Internet boom.

“After 9/11, Onsite learned that the National Guard needed help doing dental exams and treatment for soldiers before they deployed,” says Ern Blackwelder, Onsite’s CEO. “That’s what fueled the growth of the company from California across the country.”

Today, Onsite Dental — a division of Onsite Health, whose military services also encompass optometry, immunizations and much else — is active in 25 states and has become a pioneer in a new kind of dental-practice design and implementation: Think of what it offers as bespoke practices, full-service operations that can be customized as much, or as little, as a company desires.

Businesses are responding. Onsite’s client list includes the kinds of major technology firms in Silicon Valley on which it first built its reputation, as well as Fortune 500 and large manufacturing companies across the country. Once contracted, Onsite can deliver, in under 90 days, a cutting-edge facility that combines all the accoutrements of a permanent practice with the convenience of self-contained equipment for which no additional plumbing is necessary.

How did a Menlo Park social media company, want to  “hack it up themselves” in terms of practice look and feel? Find out in the full Incisal Edge story: https://viewer.zmags.com/publication/2bc2b9ad#/2bc2b9ad/68