Dr. Wil Waninger
A Practice with Purpose
story by HEATHER STEINBERGER photos by JENNY PHILLIPS
Nestled among oak-lined streets and Lowcountry porches, Habersham feels less like a subdivision and more like a small Southern village, where neighbors wave and business owners greet regulars by name. At the corner of Market Street and Cherokee Farms Road, one of those business owners is Dr. Mark W. “Wil” Waninger Jr., whose Dentistry at Habersham practice captures the spirit of genuine community care.
A South Carolina native, Wil grew up in Georgetown. His career path revealed itself early on, when he was a teenager.
“I had braces as a kid, and I really liked my orthodontist,” Wil remembers. “I asked him how I could do what he did, and from that moment on, I was dedicated.”
Wil graduated from the University of South Carolina Honors College in 2010 with a Bachelor of Science degree in biomedical engineering. While he was busy applying to dental schools, an unexpected route to his chosen profession appeared when an acquaintance told him about the military’s Health Professions Scholarship Program, which would pay 100 percent of tuition, fees, and books for dental school in exchange for a service commitment.
“I didn’t know anything about it, but I applied,” Wil says. “I just knew it would drastically reduce my dental school costs, I was physically fit, and I wanted to give back to my country. I ended up getting the scholarship.”
In 2011, he enrolled at the Medical University of South Carolina’s James B. Edwards College of Dental Medicine. Four years later, he graduated first in his class with a Doctor of Dental Medicine degree and served five years in the U.S. Navy.
“I spent my first-year residency at Naval Station Great Lakes, just north of Chicago,” he says. “After that, I thought I was going other places, maybe even on a ship. Nope. Instead, I went home to South Carolina.”
Wil was assigned to Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island for two years and then to Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort for two years as the clinic director.
“I visited Beaufort as a kid when I played sports,” he reflects. “In those days, it took four hours to get here! It has grown exponentially, and Bluffton is a whole other world.”
Smiling at the memory, he adds, “Back then, it was just a village in the woods.”
When asked if he was disappointed to not travel the world after leaving the Great Lakes, Wil says the timing was right to return to his home state. He and his wife, Stephanie, were ready to start a family, which now includes their 7-year-old daughter, Leah, and 4-year-old son, Mark.
He also was ready to build a career, but circumstances determined that path would lie outside the military. In 2019, when reductions in military medical staffing limited advancement opportunities, Wil decided to continue serving others in civilian life.
“I saw on Dentaltown, an online dental community for professionals, that a local dentist was looking to sell his practice,” Wil recalls. “We interviewed each other, and we discovered we shared similar ideas and philosophies.
“I also decided to buy the real estate and dental practice together,” he continues. “I knew that it was important for me to be invested in the community where I was going to be working.”
That office was in Habersham, a master-planned residential community roughly seven miles from downtown Beaufort. Celebrated for its coastal Southern architecture and New Urbanist design principles, Habersham incorporates a thriving, walkable town center filled with family-friendly businesses of all types.
The practice occupied a bright end unit at Market Street and Cherokee Farms Road, and its previous owner had pushed out the end wall to create more space. Yet when Wil took over the business in 2020, he knew the growing patient base would soon outgrow the space.
“I didn’t want to make changes too fast, though,” Wil says. “First, I wanted to get to know our great staff and our great patients.”
Over the first couple of years, Wil wasn’t sure if he should expand the office, build a new facility, or work within the existing footprint. He says he was reluctant to go too big, because he had a very specific vision for what he wanted his practice to be.
“I grew up in a small, family-style practice, so that’s what I want to have,” he explains. “A homey, individualized feel—not a corporate one.”
In the last five to ten years, there has been a trend in the dentistry world to sell practices to private equity groups or large corporations. They are willing to pay high prices for those practices, but they also demand return on investment.
“For me, it’s important that my practice is my practice,” Wil says. “I want to determine the best treatment for my patients and not be told by someone else how to practice dentistry.
“Retaining control also gives me the freedom to give back in certain ways,” he continues. “If someone is struggling, it gives us an opportunity to help.”
To steer his practice on the right course for the future, Wil ultimately decided that renovation of the existing Dentistry at Habersham space would be the best solution.
“I could see the need locally,” he says. “With Beaufort growing so fast, people told me they were waiting 12 to 14 months to get an appointment. If we increased our capacity, we could get patients in more quickly and be better able to handle emergencies. People wouldn’t have to go out of town.”
So, in 2024, Dentistry at Habersham added a 750-square-foot addition at the rear of the office, maintaining the high ceilings and flood of natural light throughout the new space. This addition allowed the practice to add three additional treatment chairs as well as a much-appreciated staff break room.
The renovation also allowed Wil to welcome a second dentist, Dr. Scott Kooistra. In a serendipitous twist, Scott had been Wil’s boss for a short time while both were serving in the Navy.
“He was a commanding officer, the dental chief for all Beaufort, and he was ready to retire from the Navy after 30 years,” Wil says. “He was still looking to practice dentistry, and we shared similar philosophies on how we work with our patients. The stars aligned—he was my boss for a year or so, and now I’m his boss!”
Scott’s retirement coincided with the completion of Wil’s office renovation, and Wil received the Certificate of Occupancy the day Scott was scheduled to start work. The timing couldn’t have been tighter.
“It was July 7, 2025,” Wil says. “I’ll remember that date for the rest of my life, because it was down to the wire. If we didn’t get it, we would only have room for one of us to work.”
Also at the practice are two office administrators, two dental assistants, and three dental hygienists, including Scott’s wife. The office also has another Navy veteran, Dr. Jennifer Ferreira, who is a periodontist offering specialty care.
“We’ve made big investments, so we can better serve patients with high-quality care,” Wil says. “For example, our periodontist uses laser dentistry, which has the highest success rates for gum treatment; the military uses it extensively. It’s more effective, less painful, and safer. It’s a game-changer for patients.”
The practice also utilizes digital radiograph technology and state-of-the-art equipment, like a three-dimensional CBCT machine. As Wil says, dentistry has come a long way from the paper charts era.
“We’ve really pushed to make the transition to digital, which includes digital scanning, so no more goopy impression material that makes you gag,” he says with a chuckle. “I suppose that’s the advantage to being a younger dentist. I learned the technology in dental school and the military, and I’ve trained others to use it.
“Continuing education is important to me, because that means we’ll be able to add even more services down the road,” he adds. “I would like to expand further, so we can do more procedures right here.”
These days, roughly half of Dentistry at Habersham’s clientele is from Habersham. The other 50 percent hail from Beaufort, Sun City, Okatie, Callawassie, and as far away as Hampton, Varnville, and even Richmond Hill, Georgia.
“We also see a lot of veterans through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Community Care Network,” Wil says. “Vets have no access to dental care through the VA here; they would have to go up to Charleston. So they come to us instead, and the VA helps pay for their treatment. We have three Navy veterans and one Marine Corps veteran in our practice, so it’s really important to me that we can give back.”
Dentistry at Habersham files claims with all insurance plans, although the practice is not currently in-network with specific providers.
“As an independent family practice, we determine how we care for people, and we can spend as much time with each patient as we see fit,” Wil says.
For Dentistry at Habersham, community care also means involvement with other community organizations and events. The business has participated in numerous local events, and Wil sits on the board for the Habersham Townhome Association.
“We’ve also sponsored events for Riverview Charter School, Holy Trinity Classical Christian School, the YMCA, Friends of Callawassie, and Thumps Up,” Wil says. “We try to build relationships with other businesses as well, like CrossFit Humidity and Egret & Iron. It’s important when you’re part of a community that you get to know people. And you support them.”
As Beaufort continues to grow, Dentistry at Habersham remains grounded in the values that drew Wil to his profession: service, integrity, and connection. For him, it’s about so much more than dentistry. It’s about taking care of others.
