John was born and raised in Tallahassee, Florida. His dad was a CPA and his mother was an accountant for the State of Florida. To many people’s surprise, Dr. Ratowski is a seventh-generation Floridian. His paternal grandmother’s family settled in Florida a few years before it became a state in 1845. After graduating from high school, John moved to Atlanta to attend Georgia Tech. He originally planned to become an electrical engineer and then pursue an MBA. After his freshman year, he changed his mind and decided to become a dentist. After John earned his Bachelor’s Degree from Tech, he moved to Gainesville to attend the University of Florida College of Dentistry. Dr. Ratowski received his Doctor of Dental Medicine (D.M.D.) in 2001.
Dr. Ratowski’s first job out of dental school was as an associate in a two dentist practice. The practice occupied a recently-built 11-operatory building. The owner was really interested in state of the art equipment and the practice was loaded. It looked like a showroom for A-dec. It was an incredible opportunity and it was such a contrast to the offices that some of his classmates were working in that were cramped, had old worn-out equipment from the 1970’s and had no room for growth. It showed Dr. Ratowski that dentists need to work in comfortable spaces with good equipment.
Dr. Ratowski purchased a dead practice in Panama City in 2003. The practice had closed five months earlier. The seller, an 82 year old dentist, and his former office manager came in and called their old patients to see who still needed a dentist. They found that 200 of their patients hadn’t moved on and they scheduled them with Dr. Ratowski. From that starting point, he spent the next six years running and growing the practice. In that span, he put an addition on the building, adding operatories and a private office for himself, and he replaced almost all of the equipment that he acquired in the practice purchase. When he put it on the market, the practice had 1,950 regular hygiene patients. He sold this practice in 2009 and moved back to his hometown, Tallahassee.
Dr. Ratowski took off for a few months before starting a temporary dentist service. He sold his time by the week for out of town jobs and, for local offices, he would sell his time by the day. His longest gig lasted two and a half months when he replaced a local dentist who had passed away unexpectedly. A young dentist purchased the practice from the widow right before the 90-day window closed.
One of John’s friends from UFCD was a partner in a three dentist group practice in Tallahassee. One of the dentists left and John took a job there in 2016. This group was in the middle of constructing a 16-operatory purpose-built dental office. They moved into it during the fourth month that John worked for them. It was the best facility that Dr. Ratowski ever practiced in. He worked there until early-2020. When he left, the practice had grown to become a five dentist office.
John has a lot of hobbies and interests. For the past decade, he has played guitar in Tallahassee-area bands and duos. He also spends a lot of time curating and maintaining his guitar collection. He goes to estate sales and thrift stores regularly. He’s always hunting for a deal. John will buy practically anything that contains a vacuum tube. He exercises and plays racquet-sports like tennis and pickleball. Here is a list of some of the things that he likes: Apple, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Xcode, Swift, Fender, Gibson, Martin, Fractal Audio, Audio Research Corporation, Pass Labs, PS Audio, Nikon Z-mount, Neumann, and Universal Audio.
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