Dr. Les Fina has had a long and distinguished career in academics and dentistry. Early in his career he studied at San Diego State University majoring in Biology with an emphasis in cell biology. In his leisure time he hung out on a surf board and enjoyed the beautiful beaches of Southern California and Baja, Mexico. Next he pursued Masters and PhD degrees at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio in the area of Macromolecular Science and Engineering. In more understandable terms this is the chemistry and physics of plastic materials, synthetic and biological. Dr. Fina met Linda, now his wife of over 30 years, while both were conducting their graduate studies. Dr. Fina accepted a postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Leeds in England following his PhD. He lived in England and studied mechanical and vibrational spectroscopic properties of synthetic polymers for two years. During this period, Dr. Fina widely traveled throughout the British Isles and continental Europe.
The next phase of Dr. Fina’s academic career involved teaching and research in a graduate program at Rutgers University and with pre-med students at the The College of New Jersey. He taught courses in materials and chemistry and did research in polymeric materials. He produced over 50 publications in peer-reviewed journals and books, and gave numerous talks at national and international conferences.
Training Specific to
Dentistry
A mid-career change of passion and desire to help improve people’s lives brought Dr. Fina to dentistry. Dr. Fina was only four years old when he announced to his parents that he would be a dentist when he grew up. This dream was finally realized when he graduated from New York University College of Dentistry. Aside from the thorough training for general dentistry at NYU, Dr. Fina has taken more than two yearlong courses in the surgical placement and prosthetics of implants. The first was under the direction of Dr. Shankar Iyer at Smile USA in Elizabeth, NJ and the second course was under the direction of Dr. Mark Hunt at the Triangle Dental Institute in Durham, NC. At that time Dr. Fina received the distinction of becoming a Fellow of the International Congress of Oral Implantologists (ICOI). Dr. Fina remains current on diverse dental procedures and issues through conferences, on-line courses, periodicals and other trainings including short courses on mini-implants at the Shatkin First Center, Amherst, NY, and the Dynamic Dental Instruction organization. He has committed hundreds of hours training to make crowns in his office the same day via a Cerec machine. Implants and same day crowns are state of the art procedures and Dr. Fina is particularly happy to be able to offer these services to all patients.
Personal History
Dr. Fina and his wife Linda were happily married in 1982 in Richmond, VA. They were living in New Jersey when they decided to adopt children. They successfully adopted two lovely newborn girls from the same mother in 1996 and 1999. Initially Les was the primary care giver for the girls while Linda worked full time as the director of a social services agency in Newark, New Jersey. While the girls were still young Dr. Fina attended dental school at NYU, commuting daily from NJ to New York City. Upon graduation, Dr. Fina worked as an associate dentist while building his own practice in Newark, NJ. After three years of practicing in NJ, we decided to relocate. A family house on the Chesapeake Bay in Reedville, VA became available and the location and beauty of the area was too awesome to resist. We wrote the dentists in the area and found Dr. Alfred Hurt’s well established dental practice in Burgess was for sale. The rest is history. The family is happily relocated in the beautiful Northern Neck enjoying the people and numerous benefits of the area.
