Meet Dr. Rainey
Dr. Rainey is a research scientist who makes his living as a dentist in the small South Texas town of Refugio. He received his dental degree from the University of Texas, Houston. He is the director of the Texas Institute for Advanced Dental Studies® and is a past president of the Corpus Christi chapter of the Academy of General Dentistry. He is a past adjunct associate professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center School of Dentistry at San Antonio. As an innovator of modern Minimally Invasive and Air-Abrasive Micro-Dentistry®, he has contributed to developing a scientific approach to operative dentistry. He also has the only FDA-cleared-to-market and patented dental units in the profession. His innovations in microdentistry have resulted in six patents granted to date. In addition to lecturing world wide, he has authored numerous publications, focusing on microdentistry and previously undocumented tooth structures. A descendant of the original pioneering families who fearlessly fought for and settled Texas, Dr. Rainey maintains a private practice in Refugio, Texas.
Dr. Rainey at section 8.3.2 in the Lawrence Berkeley Advanced Light Source Laboratory, University of California @ Berkeley, Berkeley, California. Google Lawrence Berkeley Advanced Light Source laboratory, or lbl.gov
Dina Serrano, Dr. Rainey's chairside assistant of 10 years, gifted with artistic hands necessary for reconstructing damaged teeth, has been inspired to attend dental school. As an assignment in her prerequisites, she chose to interview Dr. Rainey. Here is her summation of her Doctor.
Dina Serrano
Zimmerman
ENG 1301
September 29, 2024
Dentistry according to Tim Rainey
I look at the man that sits before me. His age does not seem to match the man I see. When you think of a seventy-nine-year-old man, you might picture someone that struggles to get around or someone with a not so steady hand. Not Dr Rainey, he is still doing what he loves and is very capable. I am not sure how to describe just how amazing his past fifty-three years in dentistry has been, but I will try. He has had the privilege to change dentistry for the better.
When he was just fourteen years old, he mapped out a life’s plan, knowing that he had to be on his own and that he was the only one he had to depend on. Dr. J Tim Rainey did not have dental school as a number one choice. His first choice was to be a fighter pilot in Vietnam. Then if he would have survived that he would go into commercial airline. All the while he was still doing everything he could to qualify for dental school. At the end of his senior year at the University of Texas in Austin, he received his acceptance letter to dental school. Dentistry was going to give him what he wanted; autonomy and allowed for time to do research so that he could make a difference.
Dr. Rainey was born a scientist. The first week of dental school he realized that dentistry and the way it was practiced needed to change. He was being given information and as a scientist he accepted the information but in turn needed to analyze it. By the end of his first week in dental school he knew that dentistry was dysfunctional. “It wasn’t logical, it didn’t make any scientific sense, and they were telling me to “do this, because I say so.”” He began to read the research and the literature along with peer reviewed articles. While doing so, almost with a sixth sense, he would weed out the ones that were biased. I asked Dr Rainey who his motivation or inspiration was to make dentistry better. His response, “You’re looking at him” he says with a chuckle. He goes on to say, “It was not right, and my family has a history of standing up for what’s right.”
Modern day dentistry has been around since the 1800’s and while there have been some advancements, for the most part it has stayed the same. Why is that medicine has changed by leaps and bounds but dentistry is reluctant to change? Dr. Rainey explains that a profession is acceptance as a standard of care and states that dentistry is a ‘trade,’ “see this, do that.” “They have absolutely no consideration of the consequences to the patient.” He goes on to say that there are far too many dentists and that it is direct result of the men coming back from World War II once the war was over taking advantage of the G.I. bill. If you were to ask Dr. Rainey what the second most useless thing on the planet is, he would say a dental student, the first, well, that would be “tits on a boar hog.” If you think about it, it is a very true statement. You can go to any big city or small town for that matter and there is a dental office on every other corner. All doing the same things they were taught in dental school and not looking for a better way.
Dr. Rainey set out to make a difference in dentistry and I feel that he has done so. Have you ever heard of air abrasion in dentistry? He continued the work of Dr. Robert Black from the 1940’s to bring forth a minimally invasive way for dentistry. Not to get too technical but when you have a cavity, traditional dentistry goes a little something like this. You go into the office, get a shot and the doctor goes and drills the heck out of your tooth cutting off a large portion of healthy tooth structure just to get a small portion of decay out. Why? Now, if you go to a medical doctor and you say, “Hey doc, I have this sore on my arm?” and he responds with, “Oh, I see, let’s just cut your arm off right at the elbow, and that should take care of it.” Would you allow that? NO!! Noone in their right mind would say that is ok. But we do that everyday in dentistry. You allow the dentist to take nearly half your tooth or the entire chewing surface of your tooth for three millimeters of decay. How is that justified? Dr. Rainey uses air abrasion which is very selective in what it removes. No anesthesia required because if you are only removing decay, which is dead tooth structure, and being dead there is no feeling, you do not have to be numbed up. Doesn’t that make sense? So why wouldn’t every dentist want to provide this service for their patients?
Sadly, dentistry has become a predatory sport. I am sure there are some that feel they are truly providing a service for their patients but if you are not giving them every option that is available, that is a disservice. Every where you look now, dentists are quick to offer implants to replace teeth that can easily run you three to five thousand dollars per tooth. PER TOOTH! They are more interested in providing ways to cover their expensive overhead instead of what is most beneficial to the patient. I for one am so very thankful that Dr. Rainey has made it possible to treat teeth in a minimally invasive way. My daughters and my grandson never have to be traumatized by injections or unnecessary dental work.
As a society that is constantly looking for a better way, shouldn’t we expect the same for our dental care. We must be informed and not just accept the status quo. These are our teeth; we are the ones that must live with or without them. Personally, I choose with and for that reason have decided to go to dental school to continue the change and continue the practice of dentistry that is right for the patient. Thank you, Dr. J Tim Rainey, for dedicating your life to change dentistry for the better.