What do you get when you combine faith, family and teeth? None other than Frisco’s very own Frazier family. While they are known for their family practice, Frazier Family Orthodontics, one could argue fixing teeth merely scratches the surface when it comes to their service to Frisco. Dr. Jason Frazier and his wife, Kari, are not only set on doing the hard work of dentistry but the heart work of ministry.
Jason and Kari Frazier moved to Frisco in 2013 and have been faithfully serving our local community ever since. They met while in dental school together at Baylor in Dallas and moved around a lot due to Jason going back to school for orthodontics and completing his residency in San Antonio. But upon moving to Frisco they finally decided to put down roots, get plugged in and find their village.
With a heart for helping people, Jason always knew he wanted to work in the medical field. Growing up he had a friend whose dad was a dentist as well as a Sunday school teacher and a soccer coach. Seeing how he was able to have a successful business and still be present for all of life’s moments, he knew dentistry would be a match that suited his personality best. He not only loves the aesthetic of orthodontics but loves that it’s not a life or death situation with his patients (even though I’m sure some middle schoolers with braces would argue that it is, in fact, a life or death situation). Jason is all about the slow and steady path to victory and I’m sure anyone who knows him would attest to that statement being true about his faith as well.
Kari, on the other hand, was “born looking for teeth!” Ever since she was in the third grade she knew she wanted to be a dental hygienist. She is a part-time dental hygienist at Heritage Family Dentistry, also located here in Frisco. Unfortunately, orthodontists don’t have dental hygienists in their office, otherwise, she would be working at the family’s practice (even though she claims she would be a terrible employee due to her tendency of chatting the day away with friends while filling in at the front desk).
Both Jason and Kari were born and raised in loving, Christian homes. Kari was raised in a Southern Baptist church and was in a faith-based Christian school from kindergarten through twelfth grade. She found this to be a very important foundation to carry with her to college and beyond, as she continues to try to live and lead through a biblical lens as a response to her faith. As for Jason, both of his sets of grandparents were missionaries in Africa and his parents met in Nigeria. As you can imagine, the biblical foundation of his upbringing was strong, to say the least. “My group of friends was the youth group at church, so it definitely made life a lot easier to not feel judged and feel connected. I didn’t feel as much of the pressure of high school because of the group I was with.” Jason and Kari went on a few mission trips together in college and continued to put their beliefs into action together daily.
Dentistry, however, isn’t the only way you can catch the Frazier’s giving back to the community. Kari and Jason, along with their daughters Hadley and Leighton, attend Hope Fellowship West Campus where they are very involved and love to serve. When they first moved to Frisco in 2013, they volunteered at Hope’s vacation bible school and never looked back. They both are on the prayer team and Kari has been involved with the kid’s ministry for six years where she volunteers with kindergarten through third-grade students. She says it’s no longer a question of if they are going to serve but where they will serve. It’s a part of who they are and what they do.
Jason is also a volunteer at Hope Fellowship; he worked with Kari in the kid’s ministry for four years, but nowadays you can find him in the welcome center volunteering as a greeter and serving up sweet tea and coffee. They understand the value of not only going to church but being the church. “Nothing ever feels as good as serving other people or helping out. We’ve just always tried to continue to do that. I think that’s how we see this practice. More than growing an empire or this mega-successful money-making business, we’re really just trying to serve people with what we enjoy doing. That’s where I get the most fulfilment, just feeling like you’re really helping somebody achieve something,” states Kari Frazier.
Serving at their church goes hand in hand with their family practice. It’s like two worlds colliding to create the ultimate space for the Frazier’s to lend a helping hand wherever they turn. There are so many kids who Jason has met when they were six years old in the kid’s ministry who are now 12 and getting braces for the first time in his office. To them, he is just Mr. Frazier, not Dr. Frazier. Being actively involved in the church as well as at their children’s school with the PTA, the Frazier’s have created a safe space for kids and families who know of Jason as being real, authentic and fun!
All of this ties together to create the vision they have, and more importantly, the vision God has for them. Upon arriving in the Dallas area, they had no idea if they wanted to open, buy, or join a practice and they had no idea what community they wanted to be a part of. Kari and Jason looked at so many locations around the Dallas area, but when they came to Frisco and saw the plot of land where their practice now stands, they knew this is exactly where God was placing them. The peace of God was with them on that day and solidified that this is where they are supposed to be. Adding their church into the mix just really made it clear they were here for one thing – community. To put it simply in Kari’s words, “We thought we were coming to Frisco to open a business; we thought that was our purpose. Then we saw why we were really called here: for this community and for the relationships God had waiting for us.”
The Frazier’s feel fortunate to be so close to their children’s school, their church and their practice. Jason doesn’t just want to be a random doctor who pops in, he wants to be a familiar face in the lives of those around him. “We never want it to feel like you’re just one of the masses roaming through,” Jason emphasizes. “We are intentionally a little bit smaller to keep it slower-paced and a little bit more personable.”
Kari and Jason attest to God’s faithfulness in bringing all of these moving, intertwined parts together to be more than they could’ve ever asked or imagined. That is simply the God they serve. Whether you need braces, someone to pray for you, or both, the Frazier’s will always be there for you to lend a listening ear.
Haley Walker is an Aggie who enjoys a peaceful cup of coffee in the morning and a boisterous concert at night.
