That million-dollar smile

Matthew Wirig borrowed almost a million dollars to find himself. It worked.

So now what?

He thanks his lucky stars every day.

Wirig is 32, married, with three little kids. He had to take a second job to pay his bills.

But -- and this is huge -- he's got tons of potential. So he's not complaining, not by a long shot.

Wirig was in the first graduating class two years ago from UNLV's dental school. Like Wirig, nearly half of that year's 69 grads have stayed in Nevada.

Karen West, who took over as dean of the school last year, said 31 stayed here, 29 left, and nine more continued schooling or are in the military.

One, Bill Dahlke, is a member of the faculty.

The numbers for the class of 2007 were similar.

Perhaps not surprisingly, only one of 10 students caught cheating in that first graduating class is licensed to practice in Nevada.

The school, begun in 2002, has experienced growing pains. There was the cheating scandal and doubts about its purpose, and it has never been self-sustaining, financially.

West said things have improved recently. The school recently received full accreditation with no reporting requirements.

Applications are way up, to 3,000 for 75 slots for new students. She said one out of every four students who apply to dental schools in the United States applies to UNLV.

The school also serves about 40,000 needy patients a year. She said 1,100 people are on a waiting list to be screened as patients. Most are from low-income areas.

That makes the prospect of budget cuts even more difficult. Cuts are expected across state government. They could mean elimination of eight or more faculty positions at the dental school, cutting dental assistants and rationing supplies to students.

There's no way to cut classes, as a dental school's curriculum is pretty much set in stone.

"Our students have no choice in what they take," West said.

The school was founded partly as an effort to address Nevada's then-shortage of dentists.

In 2000, the state had about 34 dentists per 100,000 people, a little more than half of the national average of 63.

Though the school has had only three graduating classes, and hasn't produced all that many dentists yet, the number of dentists here has climbed dramatically.

In 2007, Nevada had 57 dentists per 100,000 people, near the national average. In addition to a few dozen new dentists from UNLV, a rule change on licensing allowed out-of-state dentists to move to Nevada more easily.

That means it's a tough market out there for newbies like Wirig.

He doesn't mind.

Wirig moved to Las Vegas from California with his family a year after graduating high school in 1995.

He studied at the community college, then UNLV. He did a year at Brigham Young University, where his future wife, Janae, was a student, before coming back to UNLV.

Wirig knew he wanted to be in the medical field -- it runs in his family -- but didn't settle on dental school at first.

Then, his brother, Spencer, decided on UNLV's then brand-new dental school.

Wirig applied while still an undergraduate. He applied to other dental schools too, but it made sense to go to UNLV. His family is here, and so is his wife's family.

Tuition runs about $30,000 a year for dental school. Working an outside job is difficult, nearly impossible if you're raising a family.

"It's four years of just intensive, hard work," Wirig said.

He tried working just Saturdays at a golf course, but it became too much.

So, student loans.

He loved dental school. He became the school's first delegate to the American Student Dental Association.

"I really found who I was," he said.

In school, Wirig figured out that although he loved dentistry, he probably would love orthodontics even more.

Plus, he loves working with children. Most of what orthodontists do is braces for children.

And he was in luck; UNLV was just then kicking off its orthodontics program.

"Everywhere I turned," said Wirig, "Nevada has opened up opportunities for me that perfectly coincided with what I wanted to do."

The orthodontics program -- which was two more years of study -- is even harder, he said.

And that meant even more loans. In all, Wirig said, his student loans total somewhere between $400,000 and $500,000.

And he wasn't done borrowing yet.

When he finished the orthodontics program a couple of months ago, he knew he wanted to open up his own practice. He figured he has got a pretty good business sense, so he could make it.

He bought a relatively new practice in Henderson that wasn't doing a booming business. It cost him $300,000, all of it borrowed.

He considers it a steal.

"I have lots of friends who bought million-dollar practices," he said. "You pretty much sign your life away, and you're good to go."

So now, he's got a beautiful office near the Las Vegas Beltway with top-notch equipment and a small customer base in a lousy economy. He said dentists don't get hurt too much by a slowing economy because much of their work is essential.

Orthodontists, however, are different. Braces, while sometimes necessary, often are not. And even if they're needed, people having money trouble are likely to put off getting them for their kids as long as they can.

So he got a second job. Wirig works half of the week at his own practice and half of the week at a strip-mall dental office in Centennial Hills.

"It's crazy," he admitted. "But it's not crazy."

Though the majority of small businesses in general fail within a few years, that's not so for dentists and orthodontists. It's a lucrative business.

West, the dean, said it's typical for students to come out of dental school with mountains of debt. But it's also typical for them to pay it off in a few years.

Long ago, she paid hers off in seven years, she said.

"I thought nothing about it," she said.

Wirig's thinking about it. A lot. Business is kind of slow.

"It's scary," he said. "I spend nights staying awake, worrying about whether I'm going to be able to pay my bills."

But not too many nights. He has always believed that if you work hard enough, you'll get what you're looking for.

"I'll be fine," he said.

Contact reporter Richard Lake at rlake @reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307.