New dentist and physical therapist move to Charles City

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

There is a new young professional couple now calling Charles City Home.

And this winter they’ll add one more to the city’s population.

Dr. Michael Hemming is the new dentist at Central Park Dentistry, and Nicole Hemming is the new physical therapist at Special Medical Services at Floyd County Medical Center.

They’re busy making their home, finding out where everything is in Charles City, playing with their year-old goldendoodle, Charlie, and getting ready for an addition to their family expected in December.

The couple met at Western Illinois University in Macomb, where they both had track scholarships. He was a runner, she a pole vaulter. Nicole Hemming — then Nicole Manning — still holds the indoor and outdoor university vault records.

Michael went to dental school at the University of Iowa. Nicole got her doctorate in physical therapy from Midwestern University in Downers Grove, Ill., then worked two years in Iowa City while Michael finished school.

Michael Hemming said he was recruited to Central Park Dentistry by Dr. Scott Hansen and his wife, Jeanne, after Jeanne and another staff member met Hemming at a University of Iowa job fair. Scott Hansen is also a graduate of the U of I College of Dentistry.

“We started talking on the phone throughout my senior year at the University of Iowa, and decided to come down for a visit,” Michael said. “One thing led to another and I happened to get a job offer here and it worked out well.”

Nicole said, “Scott and Jeanne did a really good job making sure the community would be a place that we would be successful and that we would enjoy and be able to stay here long-term. They made sure to invite both of us down, welcomed us into their home, had us meet some of their friends.

“We’re both from big cities so going to a smaller town for us is a big jump, a big change,” Nicole said. She is from Kansas City, Mo., and he is from Bettendorf, part of the Quad Cities metro area.

“We made a pros and cons list when we got home from our visits, and the pros very much outweighed the cons and we said ‘let’s do it,’” Nicole said.

Michael said he was drawn to dentistry through an interest in the health field.

He started at Midwestern University as a history major, but then met Nicole and she encouraged him to try science.

“It turned out I was pretty good at the science classes, the chemistry classes, and it kind of went from there. I did some job-shadowing in different professions in the health field and landed on dentistry as the one I liked best,” he said.

“Working with your hands every day, building lifelong relationships with patients — I really like the continuity of seeing your patients over and over again and tracking their oral health,” Michael said.

“I enjoy meeting new people every single day, providing them the treatment they need and helping them achieve the smile that they’ve always wanted,” he said. “I would say I’m a conservative dentist. I’ll only recommend treatments to them that I’d recommend to family members or to myself.

“I like to build trust with my patients,” he said. “It’s kind of a two-way street here.”

Nicole, also being a health professional, said “it worked out really well” for her to get her position.

“Scott (Hansen) did a really nice job of having me meet the owner, one of the partners, of Special Medical Services,” she said. “It just kind of took off from there. They’re always busy and they’re always looking for help. … When they found out I was coming they were willing to do anything to get me to stay with them.”

She said her focus is on inpatient acute care in geriatrics.

About the time they were accepting the jobs in Charles City they discovered Nicole is pregnant, expecting their first child in December.

“We’re excited,” Nicole said, laughing. “Might as well throw a new baby in the mix. New house, new city, new job — let’s just do it all.”

Michael added, “We thought Charles City would be a good place to start a family, a good place to raise a family.”