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8A I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I dawsonnews.com
Wednesday, May 17,2023
Medical practices bring orthodontics,
pediatric therapy to Dawson County
Photos by Erica Jones Dawson County News
Lanier Orthodontics is owned and operated by Wesley Gass, center, and his
wife Kelsey Gass, right.
BehaviorLink BCBA and Clinical Director Mallory Brown, left, ProsperTherapy
Services co-owner and chief clinical officer Stephanie Burns, center, and
ProsperTherapy Services co-owner and executive director Westley Green,
right, stand in their office in the newly renovated medical building at 477
Prominence Court in Dawson County.
By Erica Jones
ejones@dawsonnews.com
Three new medical prac
tices have recently opened
in a building near Highway
400 in Dawson County and
are set to bring orthodon
tics and pediatric therapy to
the North Georgia area.
Lanier Orthodontics,
Prosper Therapy Services
and BehaviorLink are
located in a newly renovat
ed building located at 477
Prominence Court, and
these three businesses will
bring several new services
to the Dawson County area.
Lanier Orthodontics
Husband and wife duo
Wesley and Kelsey Gass
first bought the building
back in March of 2022 and
have been working hard to
renovate it for their orth
odontic business and for
their tenants who would
move into the other offices
in the building. According
to Kelsey Gass, seeing the
building finally ready to
open is a huge payoff for
the over a year’s worth of
work that they put into it.
“It really came together;
it was a year of planning
and then all of a sudden it
just all came together,”
Kelsey Gass said. “It was
just so great to finally see
that vision that we had
been planning for so long
— we’re so excited to
finally have our doors open
and be able to see people.”
Lanier Orthodontics offi
cially opened on May 1,
and Wesley Gass said that
they are committed to pro
viding quality, customized
service to their patients for
an affordable price.
“We’re just so excited to
get to serve the communi
ty,” Wesley Gass said.
“We’re the only private
practice orthodontic group
here in Dawsonville, and I
think the biggest thing
we’re excited about is
being able to provide
hometown, private practice
care but making it very
affordable — I think it’s
just a service that the com
munity needed.”
Lanier Orthodontics
serves patients of an aver
age age of about seven
years and older, and the
practice offers growth
intervention checks, tradi
tional metal braces, clear
braces, Invisalign, expand
ers and other orthodontic
services. The practice also
utilizes several types of
modern technology to
make patient care even eas
ier and more convenient,
including being able to 3D
print models to make
retainers.
“No more are the days of
having to get the ooey
gooey impressions; we
have a digital scanner so if
you came you me and you
lost or broke your retainer I
can do a digital scan of
your teeth, send it to my
digital printer to print your
model and then make your
retainer right here,” Wesley
Gass said.
While both Wesley and
Kelsey are orthodontists,
Wesley will be the main
orthodontist at Lanier
Orthodontics. He said that
he and his wife are both
very excited to build their
base of patients and to
become a part of the com
munity.
“We’re excited to be here
and we’re looking forward
to getting involved in the
community, getting our
brand out there and provid
ing affordable care to
patients,” Wesley Gass said.
To learn more about
Lanier Orthodontics or to
set up an appointment, go
to https://lanierorthodon-
tics.com/.
Once Wesley and Kelsey
started to look for leasing
tenants to fill the other
offices in their newly reno
vated building, they were
excited to find the two
other practices that are also
now open on the lower
floor: Prosper Therapy
Services and BehaviorLink.
Prosper Therapy
Services and
BehaviorLink
Two medical businesses
specializing in pediatric
therapy, Prosper Therapy
Services and
BehaviorLink, work close
ly with one another on the
lower floor of the new
medical building.
Prosper Therapy
Services opened on March
6 and specializes in provid
ing several types of therapy
to pediatric patients,
including occupational
therapy, physical therapy,
speech therapy, family sup
port services and help with
Katie Beckett applications.
In addition to therapy
services, the practice also
helps to design and build
custom sensory gyms and
sensory equipment for their
patients’ homes.
“We design, fabricate
and install custom sensory
equipment, and that’s both
residential and commer
cial,” Prosper Therapy
Services co-owner, occupa
tional therapist and execu
tive director Westley Green
said. “I was a home-builder
in South Carolina before I
became an occupational
therapist, so I just kind of
melded those two things
into one.”
These types of pediatric
therapies are some that
were needed in the Dawson
County area, Green’s wife
and Prosper Therapy
Services co-owner, occupa
tional therapist and chief
clinical officer Stephanie
Bums said.
“There’s one small clinic
that just has OT but she can
only take so many kids
being only one person,”
Burns said. “So there
weren’t any multi-disci
pline therapy clinics in
Dawsonville when we
decided to come up this
way.”
Prosper Therapy
Services works very close
ly with the third new prac
tice located in the building,
BehaviorLink.
BehaviorLink provides
Applied Behavior Analysis
(ABA) therapy to pediatric
patients
“With ABA therapy we
work on anything consid
ered socially significant, so
anything you need to be
successful in life,”
BehaviorLink BCBA and
clinical director Mallory
Brown said. “It could be
functional communication,
social skills, play skills,
working on behavior
reduction and being able to
generalize those skills out
in the world.”
Brown said that partner
ing with other therapy ser
vices like Prosper is incred
ibly beneficial for the
patients and their parents.
“We partner with OT,
speech, physical therapy, as
well as the schools to be
able to make sure we’re all
on the same page to help
make sure these kids are
successful,” Brown said. “I
want to know what they’re
learning in OT so that I can
make sure in our sessions
that we’re incorporating
those same things.”
“We just work really
hard to understand the bal
ance between sensory and
behavior, so that way we
can make sure that we’re
addressing any of the areas
of concern appropriately,”
Bums added.
“It’s good to collaborate
with a BCBA and an OT;
sometimes Mallory will
find something that works
with a kid so we can imple
ment it in our sessions and
it just works really nicely
for us.”
Clinic-based ABA ser
vices are something that
the Dawson County area
didn’t already have, Brown
said, so she and her team
are excited to bring a whole
new range of services to
pediatric patients in not
only Dawson but the sur
rounding counties too.
“There’s no other clinic-
based ABA services up
here; there’s in-home pro
viders but in terms of actual
clinics there’s nobody
else,” Brown said. “Even in
Lumpkin County and
White County there’s no
one up there either, so
we’re hoping to be able to
provide services to those
communities as well.”
Bums, who has her own
child who uses the services
that Prosper and
BehaviorLink offer, added
that having all of the ser
vices in one building is
incredibly helpful for par
ents as far as convenience
goes too.
“As a special-needs par
ent myself, I bum myself
out getting him to every
therapy that he requires; he
requires a lot of support,”
Bums said, “so the idea of
parents not having to do
that is super meaningful to
us and that’s really impor
tant. I think that us all
being under one roof and
just in closer proximity not
only improves our quality
of care but also the quality
of life for our parents.”
“And parents will com
mute, so just being able to
expand is key,” Brown
added, “even if it’s just 15
minutes closer to them
that’s 30 minutes saved out
of their day.”
Both practices also do
parent education, allowing
the parents to meet with the
providers and to learn what
their children are working
on in their sessions so they
can continue that work at
home.
BehaviorLink will offi
cially open in its new
Dawsonville location on
May 30.
For more information
about Prosper Therapy
Services, go to https://
www.prospertherapyser-
vices.com/.
For more information
about BehaviorFink, go to
https ://thebehaviorlink.
com/.
Dawson Rotary Club to hold annual
'Rotary Day' community event May 20
By Erica Jones
ejones@dawsonnews.com
This weekend, the Rotary Club of
Dawson County will hold its annual
“Rotary Day” event, offering free activi
ties and fun for the whole community.
According to information provided by
the club, the event is set to take place at
the “Rotary Island” splash pad at Rock
Creek Park, located at 445 Martin Road in
Dawson County.
The event is set to take place on
Saturday May 20 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
and will celebrate the opening of the
splash park for the season.
During Rotary Day, community mem
bers are invited to enjoy a range of free
activities, food and entertainment. This
will include balloon making, a dunk tank,
face painting, a water slide, music by the
Dawson County High School marching
band and Adopt-a-Pet with the Dawson
Erica Jones DCN file photo
County Humane Society.
There will also be free food courtesy of
the Rotary Club, including cotton candy,
hot dogs, popcorn and snow cones.
For more information about the Rotary
Club of Dawson County, go to https://
dawsoncountyrotary.org/.
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