Dr. Robert Beauchamp; ‘Credit Dentist’ Pioneer

Dr. Robert F. Beauchamp, tagged forever as “the credit dentist” and both praised and reviled for advertising and offering low-cost dental services to minorities and the poor, has died. He was 84.

Beauchamp, who also headed a real estate empire under Beauchamp Enterprises, died Sunday at his Newport Beach home of cancer, his son Robert F. Beauchamp Jr. said Tuesday.

“His family was his motivation and his passion and remained close from beginning to end,” his son said, noting that Beauchamp’s wife, Dorothy Osborne Beauchamp, and all five of their children were with the dentist at his death.

Born in Los Angeles, Beauchamp graduated from USC and earned his dentistry degree at the University of Oregon. In 1939, he took over his late father’s lone dental office at 5th and Main streets in downtown Los Angeles--and began to make a name for himself.

Aware of a state statute that was to take effect within months that would prohibit any dentist from maintaining more than two full-time offices, Beauchamp borrowed money and quickly opened seven more dental offices in time to qualify for a grandfather clause in the law.

“And it’s too bad I didn’t go for 20,” he told The Times in a rare interview in 1985, candidly explaining that he wanted a chain of dental offices primarily to increase his earnings.

His father had advertised and offered credit to patients during the Depression, and Beauchamp expanded both practices--advertising heavily on radio, billboards, newspapers and then television in the 1940s and 1950s. His ads attracted patients in droves but incurred the wrath of colleagues who did not accept the concept until 1977 when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the legality of advertising by professionals. Beauchamp was prohibited from joining the California Dental Assn. until he no longer wanted--or needed--to join.

Praised by such leaders as former Mayor Tom Bradley for serving minorities and low-income patients--and reviled by state prosecutors who accused him of exploiting the same patients--Beauchamp welcomed blacks when other dentists refused to do so for fear of offending white patients. Minority patients usually found treatment only at what is now County-USC Medical Center in the 1940s and 1950s. So Beauchamp opened his offices to them on Saturdays when the county facility was closed, commenting in 1985: “It wasn’t very long before [black patients] were all I had.”

In 1978, the State Board of Dental Examiners threatened to suspend Beauchamp’s license to force him to stop setting up turn-key dental practices through a dental finance corporation. Beauchamp stopped, but denied any wrongdoing, maintaining that he enabled 20 new dentists to start practicing by financing them in return for a percentage of their gross.

As the fortunes of his own eight offices declined, Beauchamp in 1985 established Western Dental Services Inc., the nation’s largest dental HMO, offering up to 50% savings on dental services for a modest annual fee. The operation now has 130 offices, mostly located in mini-malls, and advertises with bold red, white and blue billboards and television infomercials targeting the ethnic audiences that Beauchamp has always served.

In 1997, California accused Western Dental of performing too many procedures in single office visits and performing unnecessary dental work to maximize profits. Beauchamp settled the charges by paying a $1.7-million penalty without admitting any guilt. Federal officials have investigated Western Dental for insurance fraud, and about 100 malpractice suits have been filed against its dentists.

Although he maintained his license, Beauchamp gave up active practice of dentistry in 1964 to devote time to his real estate investments. His Newport Beach-based Beauchamp Enterprises, employing all three sons and two sons-in-law, encompasses marinas in Ventura, Dana Point and San Diego, apartment and office complexes, shopping centers and farmland. The company lost millions of dollars in Warmington Development Inc. home builders and San Diego’s bankrupt J. David & Co. investment firm. Nevertheless, the Beauchamp real estate empire is reportedly worth upward of $100 million.

“We never sell,” Beauchamp once told The Times.

The eclectic investor also helped develop and owned controlling interest in British Midland Airways regional airline.

As a dentist, Beauchamp was known for working 12-hour days, and he remained a hard worker in real estate. But he also enjoyed sailing his 57-foot Dorothy O sailboat in long distance races, golfing, fishing and playing tennis.

In addition to his wife of 60 years, Dorothy, Beauchamp is survived by three sons, Robert Jr., Richard and David; two daughters, Beverley and Dorothy Ann, 17 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.

Services will be private.