Lakewood smiling over Leix Dental's opening

LAKEWOOD – For Lakewood village officials, the opening of Leix Dental was an indicator of what they hope will become a booming local business community.

For Nirvana Leix, it was a long-time dream fulfilled.

“I always knew that I would do something on my own,” said Leix, who opened her practice on May 20 in a new development at Ackman Road and Redtail Drive.

Before deciding to open the business, Leix considered acquiring or buying into an existing practice, but she said she could not find the right fit.

She wanted both a small family practice – such as the one she worked at in Rockford before attending University of Illinois at Chicago for dental school – and one that had up-to-date equipment and technology, which she said such practices often lacked.

“I had a vision of my own,” Leix said.

She worked at larger clinics in Hoffman Estates and Mount Prospect for five years before opening her own family practice in May with cutting-edge equipment.

Working for herself has allowed Leix the flexibility to accommodate her patients’ schedules and be available for her 2-year-old son, Andrew.

Leix and her husband, Jason, live in Algonquin and wanted to start the practice nearby.

“We liked that Lakewood was a new and growing community,” she said.

In the past five years, the population of Lakewood has grown almost 17 percent to 3,546, Lakewood Village Administrator Catherine Peterson said.

Leix said she received a great response from village officials and chamber of commerce members, who held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the opening and helped spread word of the practice to residents.

“It’s a beautiful facility,” Peterson said of the dental office.

Peterson said she was enthusiastic about the potential for commercial growth in the village, which has only a handful of businesses.

The retail center that holds Leix Dental is the first of five key areas in the village planned for commercial development, Peterson said.

Village officials believe that expanding the business community in Lakewood would generate sales tax revenue, establish an identity for the village, and be convenient for residents, Peterson said.

Indeed, many of Leix’s patients live close to the practice.

“It’s nice to be part of the community and contribute to the community,” Leix said.

She sees about 20 patients a month, and expects that number to grow to 40 or 50.

For Leix, the most important benefit of working close to home in her own practice is forming personal, dependable relationships with her patients.

“If they need me, I’m there for them,” she said.