Pleasant Home graduate Samuel Bush is excited about the upcoming opening of his pediatric dentistry practice in Montgomery.

Bush’s practice will open in mid-July and will serve the Montgomery area.

“I’m very excited about all of this,” Bush said. “It’s something I’ve been working toward for around 10 years, so it’s definitely a dream being realized.”

Following graduation from Pleasant Home, Bush attended LBW in Andalusia and then both the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and University of Alabama-Birmingham, where he graduated in 2015.

The Pleasant Home native said that since high school he has always known he wanted to work with children in some capacity.

“I did some tutoring when I went to LBW and I also worked at the Children’s Hands-On Museum in Tuscaloosa,” Bush said. “When I moved on to dental school, it just made sense for me to go into the pediatrics part of it.”

For the past two years, Bush has been serving as a resident at the Children’s Hospital in Birmingham.

“It’s been great, we see kids from all over the state with different backgrounds and situations, but all of them have some type of need,” Bush said. “It’s really great to be able to help kids that are in need.”

One trick that Bush picked up in his time at the Children’s Hospital is the use of a therapy dog, which he will be using at his own practice.

Therapy dogs are used to help calm and sooth kids that either have special needs or are just stressed about a doctor’s trip.

“It really serves as a distraction more than anything else, so that they don’t worry as much,” Bush said. “Besides, who doesn’t like a happy dog?”

During his education at Alabama and residency in Birmingham, Bush has not had a chance to come back to his hometown as much as he would like, but hopes that will change with the move to Montgomery.

“Pleasant Home is such a great community. It’s very close knit,” he said. “That’s something I’ve definitely missed since leaving.”