Dr. Craig Ellsworth - Skilled, Modern, and Patient-Focused Care
A graduate of the UCLA School of Dentistry and the Northwestern University dental residency program, Dr. Craig Ellsworth has built his Spokane Valley practice around a simple principle: treat every patient the way he would want to be treated himself. That means clear communication, comfortable visits, and treatment plans patients fully understand before any work begins.
To deliver on that promise, Dr. Ellsworth has invested in some of the most advanced tools in modern dentistry. CO2 dental lasers allow for painless, nonsurgical treatment of gum disease and precise gum reshaping, while a CT radiographic scanner provides 3D imaging for highly accurate diagnosis and planning. The result is a more collaborative experience — patients can see exactly what he sees and make confident, well-informed decisions about their care.
His clinical skill and commitment to innovation have earned him a place on Inland Empire Magazine's "Best Dentists" list and helped Family Dental of Spokane Valley win Clifton & Associates' Practice of the Year. Outside the office, Dr. Ellsworth enjoys life in the Pacific Northwest with his family.
Dr. Ben Hill Provides Quality Dental Care
Some people find dentistry. Dr. Hill was born into it.
Growing up the son of a dentist in a small farming town in Northern California, Dr. Hill is the eighth dentist in his family — a lineage that stretches back generations and shapes everything about how he thinks about the profession. Dentistry, in his family, was never just a career. It was a way of taking care of people you knew.
That foundation sent him north to Washington State University, where he studied Microbiology before heading to the University of Southern California School of Dentistry, where he earned his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree in 2009.
After dental school, Dr. Hill built something impressive: Smart Mouth Family Dental, a multi-location group practice serving communities across the Texas-Oklahoma border. He grew it from a single office into a regional group, developing the systems, technology, and clinical protocols that made it run.
And then he walked away from it.
Not because it failed — because it succeeded in the wrong direction. The bigger Smart Mouth grew, the further Dr. Hill felt from what his family had always understood dentistry to be: knowing the person in the chair. Remembering their kids' names. Being the doctor they called when something was wrong, not just a provider in a network.
"I built something that worked operationally," Dr. Hill says. "But I realized I'd traded the relationship side of practice for the business side. I didn't want that to be the trade."
He'd known Dr. Ellsworth for 26 years — a friendship that started long before either of them imagined practicing together. When the opportunity came to join Family Dental of Spokane Valley, Dr. Hill recognized something immediately: a practice where the relationship had never been traded away. He moved his family to Spokane Valley and came home to the kind of dentistry he'd always known.
Patients who see Dr. Hill describe him as thorough, direct, and genuinely invested. He brings the clinical depth of someone who's built and run a complex practice, with the focus of someone who chose to step back from all of it to spend more time with patients — which, for the eighth dentist in his family, was never really a surprising choice.
Outside the office, Dr. Hill is a husband and father of six. A Coug through and through, he stays active outdoors and is glad to be back in the Pacific Northwest.
Dr. Hill is welcoming new patients. Give us a call or book online to schedule your first visit.
