Dentistry as a career was never on Evon Heaser’s radar until she got a tooth of wisdom from a mentor. 

Growing up in a small Minnesota town, Heaser never thought she would go to college. But a good high school career led to scholarship money, so she decided to study hotel and restaurant management at a smaller school in Wisconsin. She graduated in 1999, worked in the hospitality industry for a year and “hated it,” she said.  

After a short stint as a stockbroker in Milwaukee, Heaser began exploring different careers, landing a position as a dental assistant for Dr. Robert Saur in Milwaukee in 2005.  

It didn’t take long before Saur encouraged Heaser to pursue a dentistry career, noting her incredible work ethic and clinical skills. She started taking the prerequisites to be admitted, all while working 60-hour weeks at the clinic.  

“I truly owe him my career,” Heaser said of Saur. “He had more faith in me than I did.” 

Today, she is the owner of Three Rivers Dental in Columbia Falls, where she strives to be known for quality dental care.  

Heaser started dental school at Marquette University in Wisconsin in 2008 while still working at the clinic in the afternoons and on the weekends. Her experience as a dental assistant became a huge advantage because of her ability to visualize what she was learning in school.  

“To physically see it, even though I wasn’t the one that was cutting the teeth and doing the procedures, was so nice [going into dental school]. It allowed me to find out if it’s something I wanted to do for the rest of my life,” Heaser reflected.  

Heaser graduated in 2012, and she and her husband moved to Eugene, Oregon, working at various practices during that time. Her husband, a traveling physical therapist, previously worked in the Libby and Troy area. Looking for a change and a smaller city, Northwest Montana sparked their interest.  

In 2016, Heaser found two practices that were for sale in the Flathead Valley. She ended up purchasing one in Columbia Falls, previously owned by Dr. Roger Newman. By May 27, 2016, Heaser was ready to see patients.  

“He was the best guy you could’ve bought from,” Heaser said of her predecessor. “It was never about the dollar amount for him. It’s about how his patients were going to be cared for.”  

Education is incredibly important to Heaser. Licensed dentists in Montana are required to take 40 hours of continuing education every two years to maintain their license. Heaser takes over 100 hours of classes a year, specifically at the Kois Center in Seattle, a continuing education clinical program based on research.  

It’s the place that cemented her approach to dentistry, she said. Heaser chooses a whole-body mindset, she said. It’s important to find out the “why” behind an issue, not just identify and fix it.  

Many people separate oral care from medical care, maybe because of how the American insurance system operates, she said. But dentistry is 100% medical, and people’s concerns are just as important in their mouth as they are in other parts of the body. 

“There’s a lot of different ways to do dentistry; none are necessarily right or wrong,” Heaser said. “My whole focus is on the patient... making a patient feel like they’re the only one in the chair, that we know them, their story, what goal we’re trying to accomplish with their mouth.” 

Heaser is one of a few dentists in the state who perform All-On-X and All-On-4 implant density procedures, each including meticulous education and preparation. She is also one of the few dentists in the state who is a Fellow of the International Congress of Oral Implantologists, a prestigious mark awarded for exceptional expertise in dental implants. 

She cares about form, function and aesthetics. Starting mid-December, she plans to offer certain Botox treatments to assist in smile aesthetics.  

A beautiful smile exudes confidence, a feat that Heaser has seen come to life in her office over and over again. She remembers one patient, who before implant surgery would talk with his lips covering his teeth. Now he talks with confidence, she said.  

"Once the teeth are done, the smile shows,” she said, smiling herself.  

Three Rivers Dental is located at 160 Nucleus Ave. in Columbia Falls. It is open Monday through Wednesday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Thursdays from 7 a.m. to noon. To learn more, call 406-892-2085 or visit threeriversdentalmt.com. 

Reporter Kate Heston may be reached at 758-4450 or [email protected].  

    Dr. Evon Heaser, the dentist behind Three Rivers Dental in Columbia Falls, at her office. (Kate Heston/Daily Inter Lake)