After more than five decades in dentistry, Dr. Plous could have stepped away from the profession for good when he retired from his private practice in 2016. Instead, he found a new way to put his experience to work.

Today, at 78, Dr. Plous is one of the dentists at the Worthmore Clinic, where he provides care to Project Worthmore clients and works alongside dental students. He first found Project Worthmore through Dr. Michael Schwab; co-founder of Worthmore clinic and first dental director, who invited him to volunteer one day a week. What began as an invitation to join a colleague has become a meaningful part of his life.

We’re lucky to have him here. And after talking with Dr. Plous about what keeps him coming back, it’s easy to understand why he feels the same way about Project Worthmore.

“I want to make a difference.”

That was the powerful statement Dr. Plous made to himself during his years in private practice, and it is a philosophy that continues to guide him today.

“I think that idea of making a difference transfers to Project Worthmore,” he says. “I feel like I’m making a difference in what I do in the dental clinic.”

For Dr. Plous, the work is about much more than dentistry. Throughout his career, he has valued the relationships he builds with patients and colleagues. At Project Worthmore, those relationships have continued to be one of the things that keeps him coming back.

“I think the most important part of my practice was my relationships with my patients,” he says. “When people ask what I miss about it, I think it’s the relationships with my staff and my patients.”

He has also found a new opportunity to share what he has learned throughout his career. One of the parts of working at Project Worthmore he is most proud of is teaching dental students who rotate through the clinic from The University of Colorado School of Dental Medicine.

“The school can’t teach them everything,” he says. “I can teach them things like, ‘Here’s what’s going to happen when you’re out in the real world.”

But while he is teaching the next generation of dentists, Dr. Plous says he is learning, too. One of his favorite parts of Project Worthmore is getting to know people from different cultures and learning from their experiences.

“I love learning about the different cultures,” he says. “I find it fascinating.”

Over the years, his experiences at Project Worthmore have also given him a deeper appreciation for the resilience of the people who walk through our doors. He recalls asking a patient how long they had been in the United States and hearing the answer: two months.

“You think about everything it took for them to come here and what they’re going through,” he says. “That makes me feel even luckier, but it also makes me really appreciate the resilience of humankind.”

That sense of connection shapes how Dr. Plous approaches every person he encounters at Project Worthmore. His hope is simple: that everyone who walks through our doors feels welcome.

“When you’re from another country, everything is new,” he says. “I think the most important thing that comes to mind for me is just to make people feel welcome.”

For Dr. Plous, that can be as simple as saying good morning to everyone in the waiting room or acknowledging the people he passes on his way into the clinic.

And when asked what community means to him, he describes something that feels central to Project Worthmore:

“We can ask anybody for help and they will be there. It’s truly a community.”

He sees that community every day in the Worthmore Clinic and throughout The Roots, where families can access dental, medical and legal services, Food Share, English classes and opportunities to gather in one place.

When asked how working at Project Worthmore has changed him, Dr. Plous comes back to one feeling. “I would say it in one word, one concept. It makes me feel very lucky.”

And if you ask him why he continues to show up, his answer comes back to the same idea that has guided him throughout his life:

“I work at Project Worthmore because I want to make a difference.”

For Dr. Plous, having a purpose does not have an expiration date. “No matter what age you are or where you are in your life, having that gives you a purpose for being here.”

We’re grateful that Dr. Plous continues to make that difference at Project Worthmore, one patient, student, joke, and conversation at a time.