The Making of a Dental Oasis

Dr. Tara Littlefield’s Oklahoma Remodel with Burkhart

Picture a relaxing spa appointment you’ve booked for yourself. The atmosphere is serene, with calm music. A soft, relaxing scent fills the air. You’re given warm blankets and maybe headphones. You may have a few small cosmetic procedures scheduled, and the experience is stress and pain-free. Now imagine you also get your dental maintenance done while you’re there. This is the idea behind spa dentistry, or relaxed dentistry.

This concept has been around for a few decades now, born out of the desire to improve the patient experience and reduce dental anxiety, making a dental appointment a welcoming place where a person can receive general dentistry service along with cosmetic dentistry procedures like teeth whitening or veneers, as well as additional luxury spa services like aromatherapy, facial massages, Botox treatments, and more.

Dr. Tara Littlefield, whose warmth is immediately evident over the video call, seems like the perfect dentist to create such an atmosphere. She is friendly and engaging, describing herself as a people person and someone who likes working with her hands. She loves art and enjoys painting, sculpting, and any hands-on work, so to her, the dentistry she performs is a natural extension of her art. She is a general dentist and has focused much of her CE on cosmetic dentistry. She owns and operates Littlefield Dentistry in Tulsa Oklahoma, where she has created a spa-inspired dental practice.

“I love my Littlefield crew!” says Burkhart Account Manager Jason Corbin. “Such an enjoyable team to work with.”

Dr. Littlefield knew since middle school that she wanted to be a dentist. She credits a line of great mentors for guiding her on her path to where she is today, and it started with her first orthodontist.

She grew up with a single mother, so she did not have the opportunity to visit a dentist regularly until she, in her words, ‘begged her mother’ to get braces. The visits with her orthodontist were her first impactful experiences with dentistry.

She still remembers how sweet he was to her and her mother and how he would ask about her and remember details about her life. “Now, I know those are hidden in chart notes, like, Hey, how’s your dog Peanut doing? But it was really impactful on me at that age,” she recalls.

The next mentor was her uncle, an oral surgeon. He let her shadow him often, where she learned very quickly that she did not want to do oral surgery.

Dr. Littlefield is originally from Colorado, and one of her mentor dentists had a dental spa-like practice. Her original plan was to join him after dental school, but then she met her husband, and he lived in Oklahoma.

After two dispiriting years in corporate dentistry, where packed schedules and rigid policies left little room for passion or family, Dr. Littlefield knew she needed to leave and find a practice that aligned more closely with her values.

She originally wanted to join a practice, not become a solo dentist. Then a dentist with a small, 3-operatory practice suffered a stroke and was forced to retire and sell the business. At the same time, Dr. Littlefield had recently had another dentist withdraw from an offer.

Despite the situation not panning out, that office introduced her to Burkhart and her current Account Manager, Jason Corbin. As part of the bid to get her to join the practice, this dentist had his Burkhart Account Manager, Jason, call her to share a third-party perspective on the practice.

“Obviously, I wasn’t a client of his at the time, and he was just so kind and so friendly. And then fast forward, my practice fell into my lap. We’re starting to transition everything, and I’m like, ‘Well, what dental company do you use?’ And she’s like, ‘Oh, we use Burkhart, and we have an amazing rep; his name is Jason.’ And I was like, oh, I wonder if this is the same Jason. And it was.”

That transition to her new practice began in August of 2022. At first, she didn’t want to change too much. She had just taken over the practice, was seeing 60 patients a day, was a new dentist, and was still learning a lot.

However, it soon became apparent that change was needed. The cabinets and chairs needed an upgrade. The carpet was very old; the walls were dark.

“Jason comes to my office every two weeks, and essentially holding my hand through this process was amazing and not something I expected. I had no idea how helpful they would be, and I am so appreciative for that.”

Burkhart provided floor plans for the expansion from 3 to 4 operatories, plus a consult room, staff room, and a real office. The project became a full expansion and remodel, doubling the space from 1,000 to nearly 2,000 square feet. Her goals included creating a modern, spa‑like environment, improving staff workflow and amenities, and updating the space to meet current clinical and OSHA standards.

To help her decide on what equipment to purchase, her Burkhart Equipment Specialist Brandon Saas and Account Manager Jason flew her out to A-dec to view the showroom and discuss her options. It was a big investment to decide to purchase A-dec, but looking long-term, she knew it was ultimately the right decision for her practice.

“Brandon and Jason talked me through that,” says Tara. They reassured her that Burkhart would assist with future moves if needed. Looking 5-10 years in the future, and she is paraphrasing here, “You might be ready to replace some things anyway, but we can literally pick it up and move it to a new place for you. That’s the beauty of this equipment.”

Thanks to the new office’s unique H-shape design, Dr. Littlefield was able to keep seeing patients throughout the expansion.

They built out the new side with 3 operatories first, adding the second vertical of the H, while she continued to see patients in the original 3‑op space. Once the new side was operational, she moved operations there. At the end, there was a two‑week shutdown for the sterilization flip into the new central location – the ‘bar’ of the H, joining the two sides together.

Dr. Littlefield worked with her Burkhart team to time the flip to align with a pre‑planned international trip so she wouldn’t lose any extra weeks. As with all builds, though, there was a snag: the risk that the A‑dec sterilization center wouldn’t arrive in time for the planned shutdown.

Burkhart made it work: Brandon planned a temporary sterilization workaround, and the A-dec rep pushed behind the scenes to get the unit there on time. When she returned from her trip, the sterilization center was already installed, eliminating the need for a temporary setup.

She describes a time when Jason and Brandon stepped in to solve an unexpected issue while she was overseas. Her contractor decided to demo the front desk early because he had the dumpster on site. Her office hadn’t cleared out the supplies from the desk yet because it wasn’t scheduled to be cleared. Jason and Brandon came and cleared out the desk themselves.

“That’s not their job, and it’s not their fault that my construction guy decided to do something that he said he wasn’t going to do. But what did they do? Jason got his khaki pants dirty. They truly went above and beyond, and that was something that I would have never asked or expected of them,” she marvels.

After the flip, she worked out of the new side for the last few months while the old side was finished—separated by tarps. The contractor avoided noisy work while patients were in the building. By mid‑August, the office was effectively fully functional, other than the final punch list.

“Dr Littlefield had a vision, an expectation, and a goal. She communicated those things to us and trusted the process. The result was one of the most amazing offices we have done,” remarked Brandon Saas about the project.

Dr. Littlefield created her spa-like environment with amenities like alkaline water, weighted blankets, warm scented towels, lavender-scented hand sanitizer, Zen instrumental music, and noise-canceling headphones. She does cosmetic bonding and Invisalign.

The office is filled with subtle touches, including natural earth tones, plenty of greenery, and a modern design that feels fresh without ever feeling sterile. Patients often say the space feels warm, welcoming, and instantly calming.

“They truly go above and beyond to bring comfort to every person that walks into the office. Tara, Sam, and the entire team made this one of the most memorable projects I’ve been a part of,” agrees Jason.

She recently added Botox in office and has long-term goals of bringing in other procedures, possibly with dental and facial laser treatments.

In addition, patients specifically seek her out because she is more eco‑conscious and offers “cleaner,” lower‑waste options while still practicing evidence‑based dentistry. She emphasizes she is not a holistic dentist, but “falls in the middle”: eco‑aware, respectful of patient preferences, and focused on reducing unnecessary waste while maintaining high clinical standards. She intentionally reduces plastic where possible: she offers bamboo toothbrushes and works to minimize plastic waste in the practice by eliminating the standard little plastic “goodie bags” for every visit, allowing patients to buy plastic bags if they really want them.

And she plans to stay with Burkhart, appreciating her Burkhart team: “My husband and I live by just a very standard rule: be a good human. It’s very simple. And like Jason and Brandon, they are just good humans. And I love to do business with good humans.”

 

Learn more about Littlefield Dentistry.

 

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Written by Dawn Kahl

Published in Catalyst – Q2 2026.

 

 

Category: Office Planning & Design

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