This practice grew up in Fort Myers too.

A Fort Myers practice, two generations in

Plenty of dental offices arrive in a town. This one grew up in it.

Dr. Verwest has been making Southwest Florida kids smile since he opened the practice in 1992, and he was not the first Verwest to look after this city's children. His father was the first pediatric dentist in Fort Myers. Dr. Tim followed the family current: University of Florida trained, then Chief Resident in Pediatric Dentistry at UF Gainesville, then home to open his own doors.

Time does something particular to a practice that stays put. Second generation families come with the territory here, the parent in the room having once been the kid in the chair. If you grew up in this town and the pediatric dentist in your memory was a Verwest, you are not misremembering.

None of that is a reason to pick a dentist, and we would not pretend otherwise. It is simply the reason we know the place. When our front desk talks a parent in, it is with Summerlin Road, US 41, Colonial Blvd and McGregor Blvd, the way anyone from here would give directions.

Staying put also means this is all we have ever done here. Not general dentistry with a children's corner, but pediatric dentistry and orthodontics, in this city, since 1992. Children's mouths change fast, and a practice that has only ever watched children's mouths change gets good at telling what is ordinary for a five-year-old from what deserves a second look.

Your office, just off Summerlin Road

The Fort Myers office is at 8016 Summerlin Lakes Dr, Fort Myers, FL 33907, just off Summerlin Road. Coming from US 41 or Colonial Blvd, Summerlin Road is the one to aim for, and there is parking right outside the door.

Inside, the theme takes over. There is a shipwreck to explore, a mermaid keeping watch, video games built into surfboards, and a friendly gator in sunglasses standing guard at Kids Korner. It is not decoration for its own sake. A child who walks in curious is not bracing for anything, and the rest of the appointment inherits that. Walk through our office tour with your child before the visit, then arrive a few minutes early so the exploring is unhurried. Shades, our dog in sunglasses, is around for photos, and Kids Korner gives the smallest visitors somewhere to be while you talk with the team.

This is also our comprehensive location. Comprehensive orthodontic care with Dr. Whitesides, our orthodontist, is offered here, which means the braces conversation, when it comes, happens down the hall from the team your child already knows.

What a visit here looks like

Check in, explore, then a gentle exam. Teeth counted out loud, gums and bite looked over, every instrument introduced by name before it appears. A cleaning, a polish most kids call ticklish, and a few minutes of coaching about the corners that keep getting missed. Digital X-rays only when there is a real question for one to answer.

The whole appointment, stop by stop, is charted on our what to expect page. The short version: nothing is a surprise, and you stay close the entire time.

The care your child will actually need

Most of what happens in this building is prevention, which is exactly the goal. Checkups every six months keep little problems little, and a routine visit means a comprehensive exam, a professional cleaning and a growth check, plus fluoride to strengthen enamel while it is still forming and BPA-free sealants for the deep grooves where childhood cavities like to begin. Twice a year sounds like a lot until you see how much can happen in a growing mouth between one appointment and the next. That whole family of care has its own page: preventative care.

When something does need fixing, it gets fixed here too, and it gets matched to the tooth and to the child. Tooth-colored composite fillings preserve healthy tooth structure. Crowns take over when a tooth is too far gone for a filling, durable stainless steel on back molars and natural-looking resin up front. A hurting tooth with an inflamed nerve can often be saved with a pulpotomy, and when a baby tooth truly has to go, a gentle extraction is followed by a space maintainer that holds the spot until the adult tooth is ready for it.

The full range of services sits one page over, written in plain language for parents rather than for dentists.

Built to keep a whole childhood

The quiet advantage of a hometown practice is continuity. The office that saw a first tooth is the one watching the bite develop years later, and growth gets checked at every routine visit, so nothing about braces ever arrives as news.

Children who need the volume turned down get it: more time, a quieter room, the same faces at each appointment. Children who need help tolerating care have a comfort menu that runs from topical numbing cream and gentle local anesthetics through laughing gas, up to IV sedation with a highly trained pediatric anesthesiologist for bigger treatment plans. You will always discuss the options with your pediatric dentist first. Nothing happens without you.

For children with special healthcare needs, care is built around the child rather than around a standard appointment, and getting an early start on prevention matters even more, because unlike a lot of health conditions, dental disease is largely preventable. Tell us what works at home when you book, and the team prepares before you walk in.

And if Spanish is the easier language for your family, Dr. Torres speaks it fluently.

When to make the first call

The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry recommends a first dental visit by the first birthday, or within six months of the first tooth coming in. That is earlier than most parents expect, and the timing is the whole point: it begins while there is nothing to fix and nothing to dread. Under age three, most visits are a gentle lap exam with your child facing you the entire time.

Booking happens by phone on purpose. Your child's health details stay in a conversation with our front desk, never typed into a website, and new patient forms arrive ahead of time so the lobby stays about the shipwreck. Tell whoever answers what would help: first visit ever, nervous child, sensory sensitivities, a parent staying in the room, prefiere español.

One number reaches both our Fort Myers and Naples offices, Monday to Friday, 8 to 5, and a real human answers: (239) 482-2722. If you would rather read first, our new patients page covers everything before the appointment, and our reviews page is where other parents describe the visit in their own words.