“There are advantages of being your own boss.”

For much of the past 25-plus years, Dr. Richard “Bud” Davies has been able to call the shots at his dentistry business on North Sequim Avenue — outside of the eight-hour, four-day work week.

This winter, that schedule gets a bit more relaxed.

The longtime fixture in the Sequim dentistry community is transitioning into semi-retirement as he hands over Sequim Smiles to Dr. Brandon “Travis” Johnson who will re-brand the business Dungeness Dental this week.

“I’m not saying I won’t work anymore,” says Davies, noting he still has plans to do dental work on missions, with Native American tribes and other community projects.

But transferring his practice to Johnson has already begun in earnest.

Johnson was most recently director of the Jamestown Family Dental Clinic, where he managed a staff of about 27.

“This is an opportunity for me to focus what I want to do,” says Johnson. “I’m better at one-on-one (with patients).”

Davies came to Sequim in 1979 and worked with Dr. Runar Johnson for about four years. After about eight years in private practice in Kennewick, Davies returned to Sequim — and in the same building where Sequim Smiles, 321 N. Sequim Ave. Ste. C, is at — in 1991.

Davies has been there since, seeing to the dental needs of children, adults and seniors.

He says he’d been looking to make a change for about two years before he connected with Johnson through a third party.

The hardest part about making this change, Davies says, is making sure staffers and patients are being taken care of.

“I didn’t want to turn it over to just anyone,” he says. “(I wanted) someone I knew, I trusted, with competence and skill.”

Davies and Johnson had met previously through a professional association but didn’t know each other well. As it turns out, Johnson was waiting for the right opportunity to get back into a private practice.

Johnson graduated from the University of California-San Francisco in 2002 and then returned to his hometown of Burns, Ore.

After his father moved to the Sequim area, Johnson and his wife Kristen and two daughters moved to Port Angeles in 2006. There, Johnson worked with Dr. Todd Irwin at Irwin Dental Center, as well as on contract for the Quileute Tribe in La Push.

In 2013, he took over as director at Jamestown Family Dental Clinic in Blyn.

Besides the name change, Johnson says there will be little change from Davies’ Sequim Smiles to Dungeness Dental, aside from some minor aesthetics to reflect his personality.

For his part, Davies — who says he has plenty to keep him busy in semi-retirement, including singing in his barbershop chorus, at church and in plays, piloting and lots of travel — expects patients will find it a smooth transition.

“He’s got 18 years (of experience); in some ways, he’s more qualified than I am,” Davies says.

“And he cares about patients the same way I do.”

See www.sequimsmiles.com or call 360-683-4850 for more information and updates about the transition.