He put the show in showing off your pearly whites. Rockford’s musical Dr. T retires from dentistry

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — At his retirement celebration on Friday, Dr. Kristoffer Tumilowicz was both the guest of honor and the entertainment.

The soon to be 70 year old crooned “You Make Me Feel So Young” as Carl Cole backed him on a piano that sits inside the dental practice Tumilowicz has run for decades. Then he pulled out his piano accordion and played Beer Barrel Polka.

“I love being a performer,” Tumilowicz said. “I could never make a living doing that, but it’s fun to sing.”

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Tumilowicz, the founder and owner of Dental Dimensions at Edgebrook, has made his living for the past 46 years a dentist. But he’s also been much more.

He’s a singer, a musician, a natural showman, a philanthropist, an Eagle Scout and a sports fan who helped save the Rockford IceHogs from folding more than a decade ago. In this town, where he’s lived since 1980, he’s also known simply as Dr. T.

“Dr. T is one of these people who loves Rockford with all of his heart, and he’ll give the shirt off of his back,” Alderman Frank Beach said. “He wants to see results, but he’s a common man that loves this town.”

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Tumilowicz saw his last patients on Thursday afternoon. They were his brother, Stan, a graphic designer who is 21 months younger, and the partner at his practice, Dr. Maria Hamidani, who will take over Dental Dimensions.

Now he looks forward to spending time with his seven grandchildren, boating, golfing and doing all the other things he was too busy to do while working.

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Dr. T spent three years practicing dental work in DeKalb before coming to Rockford. He chose Rockford, in part, because he had a non-compete clause that required him to go at least 15 miles away. Here he built a loyal following of patients from his first offices on State Street to when he decided to form Dental Dimensions at Edgebrook in 1997.

“He’s always very active in the community. That’s always a huge plus,” said Roger Doran, who has been a patient for more than 40 years. “You want to support somebody like that.”

Roger and Jane Doran, who have both been patients since shortly after marrying 40 years ago, say Tumilowicz has displayed his care for both his community and his patients. Whether that was his efforts with the IceHogs, his support of the Boys Scouts of America or just nagging a patient to floss.

“He was always very caring and empathetic. When you’ve had pain, making sure you’re not still in pain,” Jane Doran said. “Calling you at home after you’ve done a procedure, making sure you’re still doing OK.”

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Tumilowicz multiple interests and talents are somewhat ironic considering he’s been laser-focused on dentistry since a young age.

He said he had a bad experience at the dentist when he was a child in Chicago, but then in seventh grade a dentist helped him extract a bad tooth and changed his perspective.

“She was so kind and compassionate and got me through it,” he said. “It was an epiphany, a light bulb turned on — I think I’m going to be a dentist.”

It became the focus of his studies from that point, and he pushed through college in three years and dental school in three years.

“I didn’t have a Plan B,” he said.

Over his 16,790 days as a dentist, Tumilowicz has seen the technology and the industry change.

“Back in the 70s and 80s I was plugging cavities with silver fillings. Now, I haven’t done a silver filling in 30 years. Everything is white. Everything is ceramic,” he said. “A few of my patients still like to have a gold tooth now and then — they want a little bling in their smile — but not many.”

He’s the son of Polish refugees who met in England after fleeing World War II, and he speaks Polish, English and Russian.

His father was a trapeze artist and part of a duo called the Amazing Mazurs. Tumilowicz inherited the performance genes.

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You might catch him singing at The Butterfly Club in Beloit, The Pomodoro in Loves Park, leading songs at the Rotary Club or singing every Sunday at St. Peter’s Church. Or you might catch yourself humming the catchy radio jingle that has played for years.

He said his original idea for the tagline to that commercial was, “If your teeth are not becoming to you, you should be coming to Dental Dimensions.” But the marketing agency felt like it was too long, and tune of “making every smile count” stuck.

His decision to advertise, which came after a long moratorium on marketing dental work, was controversial at the time, he said.

“A lot of dentists in town were upset with me for being the first advertising dentist,” he said. “I was kind of a Maverick.”

He’s still active in athletics, playing goalie in recreational indoor soccer leagues. But sports fans in town will best remember him for his work with the Rockford IceHogs.

In 1999, a hockey team in Thunder Bay, Ontario, opted to move to Rockford and formed what became the Rockford IceHogs. Dr. T became the team dentist. Later he became an owner who kept the team afloat, and now he looks back with pride as the AHL IceHog’s affiliation with the Chicago Blackhawks has made the team more valuable than ever.

But in 2002, the previous owners were threatening to relocate or disband the franchise. Jim McIlroy, Jeff Smith and Dr. T purchased the team in order to keep it in Rockford.

“So now I was working here, five, six days a week to support the team,” he said. “We went to all the away games. We went to all the home games. I was in the locker room stitching them up during intermission and afterwards.”

Dr. T led the team through the end of its run in the UHL, and the final game was a 3-1 victory over Kalamazoo to win the Colonial Cup in front of a postseason record crowd of 6,236 fans.

“On my last day we won the cup,” Tumilowicz said. “You can’t write a better storyline.”

Now his storyline in dentistry is coming to an end, too, although he said he’ll stay available to help as an unofficial consultant as needed.

“It was lots of Kleenex and lots of tears,” Tumilowicz said of his final day. “It’s been very rewarding to help people.”

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on Twitter at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas.