Born and raised in Whatcom County, Dr. Will Nichols is a true treasure — not just in Whatcom, but in countries halfway across the world, as well.
“I am a general dentist along with my wonderful wife, who is also a dentist,” Dr. Nichols says. “We met in dental school and about three years ago took over for Dr. Hoofnagle, who is a prominent figure in the community — he had a long-standing practice for the better part of the last 40 years in downtown Bellingham.”
Before taking over the practice during the uncertain pandemic years, Nichols and his wife were working through dental school outside of Chicago. “Brittany and I were lucky enough to have the opportunity to build on Dr. Hoofnagle’s legacy” he says. “Brittany actually holds 51 percent of the shares in the practice and is the driving force; I’m just the one who’s more comfortable talking in front of crowds.”
For the past three years, the doctors have been continuing to establish their practice and solidify their place in the dentistry community of Whatcom County. “The last three years has been this awesome journey,” says Dr. Nichols. “We’re able to see more patients and have the opportunity to work together every day, treating patients and being part of the community. It’s a dream come true.”
Dr. Nichols began his career path to dentistry back in high school after realizing his love for the relationship-centric atmosphere of a dental office. “I had a really fantastic dentist and loved going there,” he says. “With a doctor, you mostly go in when you’re not feeling well or something’s wrong. With a dentist, you have that appointment every six months or a year and you develop that rapport, that relationship. I was really drawn to that.”
Nichols attended Western Washington University for his undergrad, and then headed east to Chicagoland after getting accepted into dental school at Midwestern University in Downers Grove.
“That was really fun, and I met a lot of lifelong friends and my wife,” Dr. Nichols says. “I convinced her, somehow, to move back to Bellingham with me. I graduated dental school and the next day we were on a plane back to Bellingham. We got married two weeks later and we’ve been in Bellingham ever since.”
Dentistry is Nichols’ purpose, and he has enjoyed building lasting relationships through his and his wife Brittany’s business. “Dentistry is everything I was hoping it would be,” he says. “My favorite part is that I get to grow these long-term relationships with patients and check in on them. I’ve seen patients get married, retire, graduate college — that part I always find really cool. My wife and I are our own on-call doctors.”
Alongside their successful dentistry, the Nichols are completely devoted to worthy, inspiring calls to service. “In general, we try to get out and make as much of an impact as possible,” he says. “My wife and I are in the local dentist society. I just finished up a tenure as president and our main focus was about what we could do to get funding from the legislature and the bigger societies to put back into the Boys & Girls Club, for kids supplies and healthcare.”
Their main endeavor is a nonprofit called the Health & Hope Foundation, based out of Edmonds. “I started with them when I was at Western and the whole focus is on women’s health, women’s empowerment, medical and dental care focused in East Africa and the Philippines,” says Dr. Nichols. “We do a lot of outreach to Tanzania and Brittany and I have been over there a few times. We do mobile health and dental clinics along with OB screenings, as we usually have an OBGYN that comes with us to do cervical cancer screenings. We also bring over water testing kits to help the leaders in these places learn how to test their water. We do microloans to women, exclusively, to help them break the cycle of poverty.”
The couple has been on the Health & Hope board of directors for several years.
Being named one of the Top 7 Under 40 is an incredible feeling for Dr. Nichols and he will continue to foster positive change and growth in the community.
“The biggest thing Brittany and I are doing right now is trying to figure out the best way to reach out to small businesses and small business owners to help facilitate healthcare and dentalcare,” he says. “We want to figure out a program where we can open up our practice for a day and get employees in for at least a cleaning and an exam. And we don’t want to get big; we really appreciate being a small family practice.”
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