After 36 Years in Dentistry, Dr. Todd Martin Is Still Choosing What Comes Next

The Marquette University educator and locum tenens dentist has owned practices, served in the military and cared for patients across the Midwest. His career shows how a dentist’s work can change shape without changing its purpose.

At a dental practice in Woodruff, Wisconsin, Dr. Todd Martin sometimes walked older patients to their cars. He called others to check on them after treatment. He was there on a locum tenens dental assignment — but he cared for patients the way he would in a practice of his own.

“I don’t go in there under the assumption that I’m going to be a temp,” he says. “I go in there with the assumption that I own the practice and my name is on the door.”

Martin is in his 36th year of dentistry. He has owned nine practices, taught future dentists and served as a senior military officer. Today, he teaches full time at Marquette University, keeps a part-time practice and takes dental locum tenens assignments when they fit his schedule.

Across every one of those roles, one idea has stayed constant: patients deserve his full commitment, however long he’s scheduled to be there.

A Dental Career Built to Change

Martin graduated from the University of Missouri in 1990, drawn to dentistry for its blend of medicine, engineering and cosmetic work, and to the freedom it offered to shape his own working life.

For much of his career, that meant ownership. He ran practices in rural communities and in suburban Chicago. Even while running full-time practices, he began taking occasional shifts at Wisconsin Department of Corrections facilities through a staffing company, squeezing them into a Friday or fitting them in with enough notice.

He also knew, even then, that a day might come when he’d want to keep practicing without carrying the weight of ownership. Locum tenens gave him that option. Now, alongside teaching and his part-time practice, he takes assignments on his own terms, built around the time he actually has.

What Does Locum Tenens Offer a Dentist?

When Martin talks with dental students about locum tenens dentistry, he calls it a chance to “test drive different opportunities.” It’s an opportunity to experience another practice, another community, while still building clinical skills.

He brings the rest of his career into the classroom, too. At Marquette, he shares what he’s learned from owning practices, including what happened when plans didn’t go as expected. In a weekly meeting open to students, he talks through managed care, insurance networks and how to choose where to practice.

His advice on patient care for 36 years is this: “Treat every patient as if it’s your mom, and provide Mayo-quality care.”

Joining a Dental Practice as a Guest

Martin’s assignments with Barton Associates Dental have taken him to Baraga, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and to Woodruff in northern Wisconsin. Before the Woodruff assignment even began, he drove out to introduce himself and learn how he could help.

That visit says a lot about how he walks into every new office: taking full ownership of his work while respecting the team and routines already there.

“With a locum tenens assignment, you’re a guest in their house,” he says. “But I treat it as if it were my own practice.”

He makes a point of getting to know the front desk staff. With patients, he introduces himself and explains why he’s filling in. After an extraction, he’ll sometimes give a patient his cell number so they can reach him directly if something feels off. Walking someone to their car, calling to check in later — it’s all part of the same instinct.

He also looks for ways to pass on what he’s learned. Near the end of his Woodruff assignment, the practice owner asked him to stay four extra weeks to help a newer dentist get settled. Martin said yes.

Making the Locum Dentistry Assignment Work

Martin credits his Barton recruiter, Katy Gorham, with helping assignments fit around the rest of his life. She understands that full-time teaching limits his availability, and the two stay in close contact about opportunities and scheduling.

That coordination matters, but the relationship he cares most about is the one with the office and its patients. Martin hopes a practice will want him back not because he filled a gap, but because of the care he gave while he was there. In his view, the length of an assignment never lowers the standard a dentist should bring to it.

What Kind of Work Fits Your Life Now?

After 36 years, Martin still has more than one way to contribute to dentistry. He cares for patients. He teaches students. He supports a newer colleague. He steps into a practice that needs him. For dentists weighing the next stage of their own careers, his story leaves behind a simple, worthwhile question:

What kind of work would let you keep practicing in a way that fits your life now?

Dentists curious about that possibility can explore locum tenens dentist jobs with Barton Associates Dental and consider where an assignment might fit into their own careers.