About MDA
Fifty years since 31st Street, the rule hasn't changed.
In the early 1970s, Dr. Thomas J. Morrison opened one dental office on 31st Street in Savannah's Thomas Square neighborhood. His rule was simple: everyone deserves the highest quality dental care at an affordable price. That single office grew into four, spread across Savannah, Bluffton and Brunswick, and instead of referring patients elsewhere for specialty care, the practice built it in house. The rule is still what runs Morrison Dental Associates today.
How one office on 31st Street became four
In the early 1970s, Thomas J. Morrison, D.D.S. opened the first Morrison Dental Associates office on 31st Street in Savannah's Thomas Square neighborhood. He ran it on one line, and the practice has repeated it ever since.
"Everyone deserves the highest quality dental care at an affordable price."
That single office grew, and more than 50 years later the practice describes itself as Savannah's largest dental practice. Dr. Morrison is credited with pioneering multidisciplinary dentistry in the city: instead of sending a patient to a different office for a root canal, a wisdom tooth extraction, gum surgery, or a sleep apnea appliance, he built every one of those specialties into the same practice. That decision, made decades before "everything under one roof" became a marketing line, is still the structure of Morrison Dental Associates today.
Today that means four offices across three coastal communities: two in Savannah (Abercorn Street and Wilmington Island), one in Bluffton, South Carolina, and one in Brunswick, Georgia. The team spans general dentistry, cosmetic dentistry, oral and maxillofacial surgery, periodontics, and sleep dentistry, all under the roof Dr. Morrison started building on 31st Street. His founding rule, quality care at a price patients can actually afford, is still the standard the practice holds itself to.
How We're Different
One roof, five specialties, no referral slip.
Most general dentists don't do oral surgery, gum surgery, or sleep medicine, so when your case gets complicated, you get handed off to a stranger's office, a new patient file, and another co-pay. Dr. Morrison built the alternative back in the 1970s: every specialty a patient is likely to need, in the same practice, on the same chart.
Your whole family, one dental home
Cleanings, checkups, and fillings for your kids, yourself, and your parents, booked at the same office instead of three different ones.
General and preventive dentistry, all ages.
Fix what bothers you about your smile without a referral
Whitening, veneers, bonding, and clear aligners are handled by dentists on the same team that does your cleanings, not a separate cosmetic-only office across town.
Certified Invisalign provider.
Need a tooth pulled or an implant placed? Stay with the team you know
Dr. Daniel Carson performs oral and maxillofacial surgery, including wisdom teeth removal and dental implants, at the practice's Savannah, Bluffton, and Brunswick offices, so a surgical referral doesn't mean starting over with someone new.
Daniel Carson, DMD, oral and maxillofacial surgeon trained at the Medical University of South Carolina.
Gum disease treated by a specialist, and treated gently
Dr. Rutledge Coleman focuses on periodontal care and uses laser treatment that can encourage new bone and gum tissue to grow back, often with less cutting and a faster recovery than traditional gum surgery.
Rutledge Coleman, Jr., DMD, Certificate of Periodontology, Medical College of Georgia.
Snoring or mild sleep apnea? There's an option besides a CPAP mask
Dr. Harold Black fits custom oral appliances that gently reposition your jaw while you sleep, a quieter alternative to a CPAP machine for many patients with snoring or mild to moderate obstructive sleep apnea.
Harold A. Black, DDS, past Chief of Dentistry at two Savannah hospitals.
Professional Affiliations
Held to standards we didn't write ourselves
These are the same organizations that set the training and ethics standards our doctors are held to, plus the clinical systems they're certified to use for treatments like clear aligners and sleep apnea appliances. None of these are awards. They're memberships and certifications, listed here so you can look up what each one means on your own.
Professional associations
Clinical technology and product partners
These are the systems our doctors are specifically trained and certified to use, mostly for cosmetic and sleep dentistry treatments.
Come meet the team keeping that rule
Four offices, five specialties, and the same philosophy Dr. Morrison wrote on 31st Street more than 50 years ago.