Your committed team consists of brothers Tim & Gary Schankula. Tim is your denturist, with more than 40 years of experience at the Grantham Denture Clinic, beginning with helping his dad, Joe Schankula (your original denturist here, starting in 1974)—assisting Joe in the lab when he was still a teenager. Since then, Tim has gotten his formal education and licensing and taken over the business fully when Joe retired in 1996, and even opened two other denture clinics (Oakville and Niagara Falls) over the years. Gary is Tim’s assistant, only coming on board at the beginning of 2022 to help out with the post-pandemic rush (like so many others, Tim’s main assistant for decades, Linda, decided to leave her position during the pandemic). Gary decided to stay on and assists Tim in reception, the lab, all paperwork and business matters and the website. You can read more details about our long History on that dedicated page.
Tim Schankula, DD
Tim Schankula, DD is your denturist, owner of the Grantham Denture Clinic and a member of the College of Denturists of Ontario and both the Denturist Association of Ontario and Canada. Born and raised in Niagara Falls, Tim has been in the denturism business for over 40 years, beginning with helping his dad, Joe Schankula, the original owner and denturist of the Clinic, as his lab assistant starting in 1980 as a teenager, apprenticing with him, learning all aspects of denturism. Tim eventually took to studying formally and graduating from George Brown College as a fully qualified denturist in 1990, finally able to work with patients directly to fulfill all of their denture needs.
Tim was then able to join his dad as a full partner at Grantham. But he also opened another denture clinic with another partner denturist in Oakville, Mark Chandler, a fellow classmate, dividing his time between both clinics. However, Joe wished to begin to decrease his hours and responsibilities, slowing working his way to retirement, so Tim began working at Grantham full time starting 1992-93. Mark continues to this day practising in Etobicoke.
Tim is a very hard-working and dedicated individual, with a great amount of natural love and compassion for all of his patients. The very long hours and great amount of precision he displays in the lab with your dentures is a testament to how important you are to him.
Father & Son, Joe & Tim, grew the Grantham practice for another 3-4 years after Tim joined his dad full-time, until Joe retired in 1996—after 22 challenging years of getting this brand new kind of business started (see History) and becoming prosperous and such a benefit to the community—and turned the reins fully over to Tim to continue the already good reputation of the Schankula name in denturism. Tim took on the full responsibility of caring for his patients (and even expanding to a second denture clinic in Niagara Falls for a few years to make it more convenient for patients local to that area), dedicating his life to fulfilling all his patients’ needs. And every day since Tim grows his wealth of experience, skill and compassion. And he continues to appreciate his kind father’s abiding help in the lab every Thursday (to this day, Joe consistently comes in every week), and giving his dad a continuing sense of purpose in the very business he started so long ago.
Tim continues to study, fulfilling countless hours over the decades of required post-graduate continuing professional development and education, liaising with hundreds of his peers at conferences, lectures, conventions and webinars multiple times a year and keeping up with the scientific literature (in multiple media) on denture practice, technology, innovations, quality assurance and management—all to continue and improve knowledge and competence in the field and be able to apply it in his own practice and deliver the highest standard of professional care, responsibilities and ethical obligations to you. This includes keeping up on all the latest industry and government standards and measures of infection control, such as the Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) measures and Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS), which you can read all about on our Infection Control page.
Tim’s Hobbies: Tim does work long hours (for example, even though the clinic is only open Mon-Thu, you often will find him in the lab on Fridays and/or the weekends in order to get cases done for patients as quickly as possible). But in his spare time you may spot him on the golf courses in the summer, and in the Rocky Mountains out West and Quebec downhill skiing in the winter. He also enjoys his exercise regimen on a daily basis in his basement gym.
Gary Schankula
Gary Schankula, Tim’s brother, is your friendly office receptionist and Tim’s administrative manager and lab assistant. A retired computer programmer and analyst, Gary joined the Clinic in January 2022 to help Tim with the post-pandemic rush, with many people beginning to venture out again to address issues with their existing dentures and looking for new dentures. With his warm, inviting attitude and generous conversation, and his dedication to making sure patients are at ease, comfortable and leave with a smile, he quickly connected with all our patients. As the pace hasn’t let up, and Gary enjoys working with patients and helping his brother, he decided to stay on indefinitely.
This wasn’t the first time Gary worked at the Clinic. Back in 2000, he came on board for a year to help Tim with the beginnings of the satellite denture clinic in Niagara Falls as well as putting his computer skills to work switching the Grantham Denture Clinic over to a computerized system and moving all patient files into that digital database.
Gary is only continuing the family tradition of assisting, begun by his grandfather, Joe Schankula Sr., who assisted your original denturist at the Clinic, Joe Jr., in the lab for decades from the beginning onwards, and his mom, Irma Schankula, who also assisted in the lab for a number of years. Yes, the Schankulas know denturism!
With his background in Clinic operations and all denture procedures from his one year stint in 2000 (see above), Gary quickly brought himself up to speed in helping Tim with all aspects of clinic operations, except for the actual denturist work. He’ll leave that to the expert.
Gary is in charge of:
- All front office matters, including greeting and interacting with patients in person and by email & mail, answering their questions to the best of his ability (the rest he leaves up to your denturist), scheduling, answering phones, helping patients find the right time and date to conveniently attend to their denture needs, managing all insurance issues (including following up with insurance companies), billing, accounting, accounts receivables, accounts payable, banking, and so on.
- Assisting Tim in the operatory when needed and especially in the lab.
- Managing all website and online issues, including online advertising and maintaining this website.
Gary is also the one who built this entire new website, which went live in January 2024. So any mistakes are on him!
Joe Schankula Jr.
Joe Schankula is your original denturist who opened the Grantham Denture Clinic in 1974. He was part of a group of pioneering denturists who fought in the early 1970s to be able to bring their great skills in making dentures directly to the public, instead of through dentists, as had been the case up until then. They were finally victorious in 1974 when the Ontario government brought new legislation that would govern and license these new denture therapists (as they were called back then) and allowing them to open denture clinics to provide denture services directly to the Ontario public for the first time and at significant cost savings for the public—thus allowing freedom of choice to patients, which you can still exercise to this day. You can read all about their struggles on our History page.
After partnering with his son, Tim, starting in 1990 when Tim got licensed, Joe finally retired in 1996, giving the responsibility of running the practice fully over to his son. However, Joe still enjoys good health, and at 91 years of age still comes into the office every Thursday to help out with minor lab work, clean various equipment and tools and get everything ready for the next week. He still enjoys chatting with patients and even touching base with those that started out with him decades ago.
Our Mission at Grantham Denture Clinic for more than 50 years (first with father Joe and now with son Tim as your denturists) has always been to bring our patients exceptional solutions, techniques and quality care to their denture needs along with a compassionate approach, creating a calming environment with confident, yet gentle, personalized denture care, always putting our patients first. We just love the joy we bring to our patients’ lives when we fit them with a denture that makes them feel whole again.
Office Hours
| Mon | 9:00am-5:00pm |
|---|---|
| Tue | 9:00am-5:00pm |
| Wed | 9:00am-5:00pm |
| Thu | 9:00am-5:00pm |
| Fri | Closed |
| Sat | Closed |
| Sun | Closed |
