Meet The Team

Dr. Vance was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. Dr. Vance graduated from UAB Dental School in June 2011. While in dental school, Dr. Vance conducted research involving the performance of cosmetic dental materials. This research was later published in the Journal of Esthetic and Restorative Dentistry.

In July 2011 he began a General Practice Residency (GPR) at UAB Hospital. A GPR is an elective, extra year of training for general dentists to advance their skills before they enter private practice or another area of specialty.

In this program he treated patients with complex medical and dental conditions, completed a wide range of general dentistry procedures under the guidance of veteran professors, trained in oral conscious sedation and implant placement, and completed rotations in oral surgery, ENT, emergency medicine, anesthesia, and community outreach clinics. It was also during this program that Dr. Vance made the decision to open his practice in West Homewood.

After five years of growing his practice in his Homewood location, in the summer of 2017 Dr. Vance acquired the practice of Dr. James Gillespie at St. Vincent’s Hospital (formerly Norwood Clinic at Carraway Hospital). Dr. Vance looks forward to providing his patients with high quality personalized care for years to come.

After attending Lawson state community college and UAB dental assisting school, Laura began her dental career at the VA in oral surgery. Norwood dental clinic (our practice’s original name when it was at Carraway Hospital) was her first private practice and she has been here ever since, which as of 2017 makes fourteen years.

In 2009 she moved with the practice to our current location here at St. Vincent’s. Laura is well versed in many aspects of dental practice including assisting, lab work (having trained in a denture lab), insurance, billing, sleep apnea, and much more.

In the summer of 2017 Dr. James Gillespie sold the practice to Dr. Marc Vance, and he merged his practice in Homewood with the St. Vincent’s location. Laura looks forward to taking care of patients for many years to come.

Wendy began working with the practice in 1986 after graduating from Wallace State with an associates degree in applied science in dental assisting. After assisting for over a year she attended the UAB preceptorship program for dental hygiene and received her license in 1989.

She has had the honor of spending her career in dentistry dedicated to this practice and my patients. Along the way she has formed very important lifelong relationships with the staff and patients at Carraway Hospital and at St Vincent’s Hospital.

Wendy’s devotion to her patients and her profession helps make AdVance Dental the exceptional team that it is.