By Conrad Dudderar
Senior Staff Writer
A longtime Yukon orthodontist has accepted a prestigious position at the University of Oklahoma, with plans to keep his private practice open.
Stephen K. McCullough, D.D.S., M.S., of Yukon, has been appointed as the new program director of the Graduate Orthodontic Department at the OU College of Dentistry. Dr. McCullough assumes his new position April 1 and looks forward to this new challenge.
“I try to give back to the profession that’s been pretty good to me,” Dr. McCullough said as he greatly anticipates preparing a future generation of orthodontists.
Dr. McCullough, who opened his Yukon orthodontic practice in January 1984, will still have his office here. That office has been on the second floor of the Spring Creek Building, 508 W Vandament, for the past 36 years.
“I’m going to see my patients on a limited basis, mainly on Mondays just because of my schedule there,” he said. “I’ll still be here to take care of them.”
“I’m still going to live in Yukon. I have lots of friends here and love living here. It’s a great community.”
While operating his private practice in Yukon, he has taught part-time with OU’s Graduate Orthodontic Department.
“I’ve been affiliated with them for a long time and I’ve had my practice for a long time,” the popular Yukon orthodontist said. “I was considering ‘winding down’ a little bit and then this opportunity came up. I can do the ‘best of both worlds’ for a little while.”
STRONG TIES
Dr. McCullough has strong ties to the OU College of Dentistry, having obtained his dental and undergraduate degrees there in the 1970s and serving many years as a clinical professor in the Department of Orthodontics.
Dr. McCullough earned his master’s degree in orthodontics from the University of Michigan because OU didn’t have an orthodontic program at the time.
He returned to OU to teach when the graduate orthodontic program started in 1981.
“A few months ago, the chairman of the department and the current program director asked me if I’d be interested in teaching more at the university,” Dr. McCullough said. “The chairman was retiring, so I thought about it for a while and we talked things out.
“I said I would be interested and then they offered me the position. I decided I’m going to go that way for a while.”
Dr. McCullough is a member of the American Association of Orthodontists, the Southwestern Society of Orthodontists and the Oklahoma Orthodontic Society.
He also is a member of the American Dental Association, the Oklahoma Dental Association and the Oklahoma County Dental Society.
The American Association of Orthodontists (AAO) House of Delegates last spring elected Dr. McCullough to serve as a director of the American Board of Orthodontics (ABO).
The longtime Yukon orthodontist was only the second Oklahoman selected to be a director on the national board.
Dr. McCullough helps administrator ABO examinations to candidates seeking to become board certified.
