Dentist & Family Find Solace On SPI by R. Daniel Cavazos |
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Brooke and Aaron Unterbrink are doctors and South Texas natives who have found solace in relocating at South Padre Island. |
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South Padre Island's only dentist knows the best way to stay informed about his coastal community. "It's where we go to see what's going on," said Dr. Aaron Unterbrink of reading Island Matters. "There's nowhere else to go to find out what's happening on the Island."
The Island's dentist is among the SPI businesses supporting IM via a business sponsorship. Unterbrink sees a need for a media source focused on the community with a dedication to a place like the Island. There is no other outlet serving that need, he said. "We're always reading it," Unterbrink said of Island Matters. "If a new place (business) pops up, you know they're going to get exposure (on IM), and you can read about it there."
Unterbrink and his family have settled on the Island after years of owning and operating multiple medical offices in the McAllen area. Unterbrink and his wife, Brooke, a retired pediatrician, along with their two teenage sons, have found the quieter and satisfying life they were seeking. Getting through the COVID-19 healthcare emergencies of 2020 and 2021 convinced Unterbrink and his wife that there had to be a better way to live and work. "We were looking to scale down," Brooke Unterbrink said. "We've simplified our lives." |
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Dr. Aaron Unterbrink has left multiple dental practices in Hidalgo County to find a more relaxed way to work on South Padre Island. |
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Scaling Back Aaron and Brooke met in high school while living in the coastal hamlet of Riviera.
It's that little dot of a town 15 miles south of Kingsville with a Dairy Queen by U.S. Highway 77. Riviera is the last place to fill up before the King Ranch if you're traveling the remaining 60 miles south to the Rio Grande Valley. The high school sweethearts attended Texas A&M University in College Station. There, they got the direction and impetus to pursue careers in medicine. Brooke has family roots in McAllen, and it's the city where the young couple decided to start medical practices in their respective fields. They practiced medicine and started a family from the early 2000s to 2021. Aaron Unterbink would open five offices in Hidalgo County, including two in McAllen.
When COVID hit in 2020, Dr. Unterbrink's dental practices went into emergency and frantic mode – as did healthcare clinicians everywhere. He recalled, "At the speed we were going, there was hardly time to think." Brooke Unterbrink had left her medical practice by then to help her husband manage the business affairs of multiple dental offices. At the end of 2021, the couple reflected on what it was like being medical practitioners during a pandemic. Their analysis of those years produced a significant reassessment.
"When we finished all that, we thought, 'Why do we have all these practices?' " Aaron Unterbrink recalled. "We decided to sell everything and simplify our lives." |
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Together on the Island As the Unterbrinks were selling their business and residential interests in McAllen, Dr. Emma Gavito was retiring from her dental practice on the Island. |
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Aaron and Brooke Unterbrink are high school sweethearts who grew up together in becoming doctors. |
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South Padre was where the Unterbrinks wanted to be after having a residence here in previous years. Aaron Unterbrink wanted to continue his dental practice, but not at the volume and speed he experienced in McAllen. It would be the ideal segue. Unterbrink would move into Dr. Gavito's old office and set up his practice at 4912 Padre Blvd. By mid-2022, Unterbrink focused on his Island practice. Instead of seeing 50-plus patients daily, he can focus on about ten daily and spend more time with each patient. Brooke home-schools the couple's sons in a room by the reception area. The family home is within walking distance of the office.
"We're together," Brooke said of her family's life on the Island. "We're still working, but it feels like we're not working that hard compared to before. And living on the Island, what can you say? It's such a nice place to live!"
Aaron Brooke eased back in his office after seeing his last patient on a recent weekday. He talked about his life's journey from Riviera to South Padre – and now being over two decades into his dental practice.
"I put in a successful 20 years with a bigger practice," he said. "I'm not burdened with that kind of volume anymore. It feels great to slow down and have the time to talk to my patients." |
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| R. Daniel Cavazos is a Rio Grande Valley native and
longtime journalist who has worked as a publisher,
editor, and reporter at several South Texas
newspapers, including The Monitor, the Valley Morning
Star, The Brownsville Herald, and San Antonio Light.
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