A new Chapin dentistry is hoping its highly modern space and education efforts in local schools will put kids and their parents at ease — and help it build a client base.

Dr. Charlton Conner zeroed in on the Chapin area for his second practice, having already established a dental practice in his hometown of Florence. He was enthusiastic about both the community-forward feel of the lakeside town and the strong economic standing of much of its community.

“When I decided I wanted to build in Columbia, I did research on zip codes and real estate taxes,” the dentist and owner of the new Chapin Pediatric and Teen Dentistry at 192 Broomstraw Rd. told the Chronicle. “You look at Chapin, and Chapin has real estate taxes that are the highest.”

Targeting such an affluent area for the practice makes sense when you consider all the bells and whistles Conner has included in his new-construction Chapin facility. The office features a drawing area where kids can create a sea creature and then scan the page in to see it swimming around in a virtual aquarium formed by four huge TVs in the lobby. It features a movie theater with surprisingly high-quality sound for such a small room, and speaking of things to watch, there’s a flat screen TV hanging over each dental chair, another measure aimed at putting kids at ease.

There’s also a room with massage chairs for parents to chill out while their kids are in their appointments.

Conner has another plan in place to connect with and put potential kid clients at ease come February, which is Dental Health Awareness Month.

He’s working on times to visit Chapin-area schools to offer dental education to students.

“Typically, what we've done in the past five years, we’ve gone to the schools, we do presentations, we've even done like Muppet animations, things like that,” Conner said. “We give them information about dental, routines, dental hygiene, and we even give them things like a toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, things like that.”

The effort isn’t purely altruistic. Conner explained that knowledge breeds comfort, so educating kids about dental health makes them more comfortable going to the dentist, which should expand his client base as he looks to get the Chapin practice going.

During a Jan. 18 ribbon cutting at the new dental office, Chapin Mayor Al Koon was enthusiastic about how well the new business fits into the town’s vision plan, right down to the style of architecture Conner chose.

“We can't exactly tell people what to build and in town, but we do promote the craftsman style architecture,” he said, calling locally owned businesses the backbone of the Chapin community. “This just knocks it out of the park.”