DR. BILL MILNER: A Texan-born dentist devotes his life to providing traveling dental care in central North Carolina.

• Date: 01 October 2023
• Author: Infanzon, Vanessa
• Published date: 01 October 2023
• Author: Infanzon, Vanessa

Dr. Bill Milner knew as a teenager volunteering at a Fort Worth, Texas, hospital that he wanted to pursue dentistry. The work of oral surgeons fascinated him, leading to biology and dentistry degrees at Baylor University.

Most of his dental school classmates headed to private practice after graduation in 1975, but Milner saw gaps in care within communities. More people with disabilities were being dismissed from institutions, and lots of stigmas existed for elderly patients and those with intellectual and developmental disabilities and HIV. The newly trained dentist was impressed by barefoot doctors in China who traveled from village to village and Dr. Paul Farmer's work among Haiti's impoverished population.

He and his wife, Susan Milner, moved to Asheboro in 1975 for a staff dentist position with the state of North Carolina. He was an itinerant dentist for five years, moving among public schools, with antiquated equipment and no X-rays.

For the next 20 years, he worked four days a week as the director of Randolph County's dental program. On Fridays, Milner and his hygienist, Betsy White, carried portable equipment in the trunk of his Ford Taurus and provided dental care for residents at six facilities in Guilford and Randolph counties through their own private practice.

In 2000, Milner...