Road to recovery: dentist adjusting to life after accident

Despite experiencing a life altering accident last summer, there is a lot that longtime Tecumseh dentist Scott Doman said he is thankful for in life.

He’s especially grateful, he said, for all of his dental customers through the years, dating back to the early- and mid-1990s when he arrived in Tecumseh and opened Scott Doman, D.D.S., Family Dentistry.

“Some of my (patients) were probably there for thirty years from the get-go,” Doman said June 10 while recuperating inside his Tecumseh residence. “It’s funny how people are. They are used to – especially as you get older or age – going to that same building. We’re creatures of habit. Some of them have been with me for thirty years, some twenty (years), some ten and some new.”

Until last August, Doman and his dental clinic at 102 S. Pearl St. provided patients with professional service, modern technology and comprehensive family dental care ranging from general teeth cleaning and routine examinations to teeth whitening, bonding crowns and veneers.

And while many of Doman’s staff remain on board, the dental clinic has seen many changes within the past 10 months. The same can definitely be said for Doman and his immediate family.

In August 2024 while visiting the Pacific Ocean side of Mexico, Doman experienced what he called a “freak bodyboarding” accident, which has since left him to deal with a cervical 5 (C5) spinal cord injury, which causes paralysis – in some cases permanent.

Such an injury refers to damage to the spinal cord at the fifth cervical vertebra. Varying degrees of paralysis can accompany the injury, as can loss of sensation in the arms, hands and legs depending on whether the injury is complete or incomplete.

In Doman’s case, he remains disabled and uses a wheelchair, with a limited range of motion in his hands and arms.

“I just got thrown around and slammed into the surf,” Doman recalled of the accident. “I was hospitalized for a couple of months and have been rehabilitating ever since.

“…It’s been a travesty and very challenging,” he added. “With good faith and good family support I’ve been comfortable. Fortunately, we didn’t need to do too much inside the house in terms of remodeling.”

The accident set into motion a whirlwind of changes, including forcing Doman into a sooner-than-planned retirement and relinquishing ownership of his dental clinic.

The Pearl Street building that housed Doman’s clinic – and now houses Dr. Fatima Taher’s Daffodil Smiles: Aesthetic and Oral Wellness – is 98 years old, Doman said, and has only been the home to medical services during its lifetime.

Taher, who purchased the clinic from Doman this spring, is now the fifth-generation business owner of the building on Pearl Street. If things had unraveled on their own terms, Doman said he expected to retire within the next two to four years.

“My goal was to keep (the building) at 100 (years old) and then retire. I didn’t quite make it there,” he said.

The transition of ownership to Taher has been exciting, Doman said. There were a number of parties interested in purchasing the clinic but Taher was ultimately given the keys.

Among offering several helpful business lessons, Doman shared these words with Taher as she embarked on her own chapter in Tecumseh’s dental history: “Take care of people and they’ll take care of you.” Those same words were delivered to Doman in the early 1990s when he purchased the clinic from Dr. Graham Foster.

“Her philosophy is very similar,” Doman said of Taher. “…She was always very professional and I liked her demeanor. I thought it was very similar to mine.”

Doman grew up in Dearborn Heights, completed his undergraduate studies in biological sciences at Wayne State University, and continued on to his postgraduate studies in dentistry, graduating from the University of Detroit School of Dentistry in 1991. He worked as an associate in Dearborn for 2 1/2 years.

The opportunity to practice dentistry became available in Tecumseh. Doman said he purchased the clinic from Foster in January 1994, and joined his brother, physician Dan Doman, in helping patients of all kinds in the Tecumseh community.

“I pretty much put probably 110% of my time and effort into that (dental) office,” Doman said. “Over the thirty years, the relationships – whether they were personal or professional – I developed with the patients or the business owners, were very special.

“…When I look back, I’ve had friends who have practiced all over. I was really happy with the decision I made to come out to a smaller, rural type setting,” he continued. “It gave me a lot more control of my destiny.”

In the months since his injury, Doman said he’s received hundreds of cards and well-wishes.

“It’s very special,” he said of people reaching out. “…I still get cards and sometimes texts.”

Doman said he is able to get out of the house “here and there,” but most of his days are full with physical and occupational therapy. His hands are improving, and regaining movement in his arms is also coming along with the help of Botox treatment to help loosen the muscle, he said.

“It’s like climbing a wall or something,” Doman said of his recovery, “you just do a little at a time.”

In addition to people reaching out and offering their get-well wishes, Doman gave a lot of credit to his family who have had to become his primary caregivers: wife, Maria, and his children, Elaine, Leslie and Josh. His siblings who live in the area have also provided a strong system of support.

Doman also praised the adaptability of his dental clinic staff and the patients who have adjusted to the changes within the past year.

“It’s been very challenging since August, working with (two) different doctors and maintaining the relationships with many people,” he said. “…I think they’ve done a really wonderful job doing that for myself and the practice.”