Sweet Tooth

The fifth-floor Toronto dental office walls are hung with vivid Jamaican folk paintings, and the gentle background music is Caribbean. Kenneth Montague, 37, steps into the waiting room with a cool dance step and a warm smile.

The Windsor-born and -raised dentist eschews the factory method of treatment. “You have to listen to people,” he says, speaking softly, thoughtfully, slowly. “The number-one complaint I hear from new patients is that the previous dentist didn’t listen.”

Montague (DDS 1987) has a wide mix of patients: Caribbean Canadians, travelling musicians, ex-Raptors players, U of T grads. But he has a list of accomplishments and interests even broader than his patient base. A guitar and trombone player, he moonlighted in a reggae band until he decided, “I needed to get my life back.” He runs a photography gallery called The Wedge (named for its shape), adjoining his elegant apartment. He is a man who knows the “things we really need for our soul.”