Sunsets and cups of coffee are among the units the musical Rent suggests measuring a year in the life with. For local orthodontist Dr. Kirk Specht, the amount of patients he’s seen since opening his first office in Santa Maria helps sum up the past three decades.
“It could be 6- to 8,000 maybe,” he told the Sun. “I should probably come up with some kind of calculation on that.”
Specht joked about enforcing a capacity limit on his office’s upcoming 30th anniversary celebration on Aug. 22, since the event is open to both past and present patients.
“Our building is pretty big, but not big enough,” he said with a laugh. “It’s hard to even know who all will come—over a lot of years and everything, but a lot of people still live in Santa Maria of course. It’d just be fun to see some people after all these years and what they’re doing in their lives.”
One potential outcome of the Aug. 22 event (from 5 to 8 p.m.) will be gaining new or future patients for Specht’s practice, Central Coast Orthodontics, as the party welcomes pretty much anyone who’s “interested in seeing who we are and what we’re doing,” he said.
Before putting down roots in Santa Maria in 1995, Specht was familiar with the Central Coast via one of his beloved pastimes, he explained.
“I used to windsurf a lot, so I’d come down here for windsurfing at Lake Lopez, and also out in the ocean,” said Specht, who grew up in the Napa Valley and received both his Doctorate Of Dental Surgery and Master Of Science In Orthodontics at Loma Linda University School of Dentistry.
Specht said he considered a lot of different areas before choosing Santa Maria—where a friend of Specht’s, working as a dentist at the time, told Specht about an office vacancy in town, just across the hall from his own office.
“He said, ‘There’s an open space, and we’ll refer our patients to you. You should come down here,’” Specht recalled. “There’s no place like the Central Coast. … We knew it was a cool place, and we had friends that were here. So, I thought, well that’s a good idea. Let’s do that.”
Specht spent about the first 20 years of running Central Coast Orthodontics in that original space before moving into his current office on South Miller Street. Outside of work hours, Specht can be spotted periodically partnering or volunteering with groups like Central Coast Rescue Mission Alliance, especially during the holiday season for meal services and gift drives.
While oodles of locals in need of braces or other alignment services at one time or another have called Specht their orthodontist, he has also treasured his staffers over the years.
“I’ve been really blessed with great team members,” Specht said.
For many of Specht’s longtime employees and longtime patients alike, the upcoming 30th anniversary celebration won’t be their first rodeo when it comes to office parties.
“We used to do a Halloween party every year, and we had an older couple I treated that never missed a party,” Specht said. “They had a lot of energy and a lot of fun. It’d be fun to see them. … We’ve had some really fun patients.”
Highlights
• St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church in Santa Maria will host its Divine Mercy Retreat on Saturday, Aug. 23, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Focused on topics of prayer and reflection, the event will feature guest speakers, refreshments, door prizes, and more. Call (805) 922-5826 for more details. The church is located at 414 E. Church St., Santa Maria.
• The Best Western Plus Big America in Santa Maria hosts weekly cribbage, every Monday, starting at 12:30 p.m. The group plays nine games per meeting. Attendees are encouraged to arrive by 12:15 p.m. or earlier. The cost to play is $10 per person. The hotel is located at 1725 N. Broadway, Santa Maria.
Reach Senior Staff Writer Caleb Wiseblood at cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Aug 7-17, 2025.