about the practice
The Fishersville office where the whole group began.
This practice has been treating Augusta County families for longer than most of its patients have been driving, and its story runs through three dentists: the one who built it, the one who rebuilt it, and the one who leads it today.
It sits at 41 S Medical Park Dr, Suite #100, Fishersville, VA 22939 — on the Augusta Health campus, an independent practice with its own front door and its own parking. If you've been to the hospital for anything, you already know the way.
The Schroeder decades
Dr. Richard Schroeder founded this practice and ran it for decades, and for much of that time he was a fixture of Augusta County dentistry — the dentist whose patients' children became patients, in the way that only happens when the work holds up. The habits a practice earns over decades like that — plain talk, careful work, no surprises — became the house standard, and they still are.
Dr. Schroeder passed away in 2009. What he left wasn't just a patient base; it was a way of running a dental office that the next two dentists chose to keep.
2009–2014: a young dentist, then a group
Dr. James Willis arrived that August, fresh out of the West Virginia University School of Dentistry, and spent the next five years chairside here full time — the formative years of his career, in the operatories of this office. In 2012, while still practicing on Medical Park Drive, he founded Willis & Associates Family Dentistry. The group grew from this room outward into a family of practices across Virginia, and this office is where the map starts.
In 2014, Dr. Willis asked Dr. Brian Podbesek — his close friend and dental-school classmate — to take over daily care in Fishersville. Not a corporate placement; a handoff between two people who trained together and trust each other's work.
Today
Dr. Podbesek has led the office since 2014 — general, family, cosmetic, restorative, and implant dentistry, with a long-tenured team around him and Dr. Willis still setting clinical standards across the group. What that ownership structure means for you is concrete: your treatment plan is written by a dentist who answers to patients, not to a fund, and nobody in the building carries a sales quota.
What you can expect at a visit: a written plan with costs up front, an iTero scan instead of impression goop, and appointments that aren't double-booked. Monday–Friday, 8:00am–5:00pm, at I-81 Exit 222, minutes from Staunton and Waynesboro.
Questions we hear in the chair
- Is Willis Family Dentistry doctor-owned?
- Yes — it's part of Willis & Associates Family Dentistry, the doctor-owned dental group Dr. Willis founded in 2012. Clinical decisions here are made by the dentists who treat you.
- Is the practice part of Augusta Health?
- No. We're on the Augusta Health campus, which makes us easy to find and easy to park at, but Willis Family Dentistry is an independent practice and is not affiliated with Augusta Health.
- Who will I actually see?
- Dr. Brian Podbesek leads day-to-day care and is accepting new patients. Dr. Willis limits his practice to select cosmetic cases, arranged through a consult with Dr. Podbesek.
- How long has the practice been here?
- Decades — Dr. Schroeder founded it and ran it for most of his career, Dr. Willis carried it forward from 2009, and Dr. Podbesek has led it on Medical Park Drive since 2014.
On Medical Park Drive since 2014. .