Eric Olendorf, DDS

Dr. Olendorf grew up in a small resort town in southwest Michigan and has moved multiple times for military assignments. He completed his undergraduate education at the United States Naval Academy and embarked on a 9 year career as a nuclear-trained submarine officer up and down the East Coast. A military transfer took him and his family to the Pacific Northwest and he then transitioned to a dental career after his last submarine assignment. He had a very non-typical career path prior to dental school, you should ask him about it sometime!

He completed his dental school at the University of Washington School of Dentistry in Seattle, WA where he served and was elected as both his class and student body President and was very active with both his class and community service endeavors. Upon graduation from dental school, Dr. Olendorf was selected for Oral Surgery residency at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, serving as Chief Resident his last year. After completion of residency, Dr. Olendorf served as both a staff surgeon on an aircraft carrier in Norfolk, as well as an affiliate faculty at his home hospital of Naval Medical Center Portsmouth.

After his aircraft carrier assignment, Dr. Olendorf was transferred to Naval Weapons Station Charleston where he was the only active duty oral surgeon in the Charleston market. In this role, he is also served as an affiliate staff member at Fort Gordon, Georgia, where he helped mentor residents in their training program in addition to having a surgical home for his active duty Charleston patients for large main operating room cases, like corrective jaw surgery. He retired from active duty in July 2022 after over 21 years of service. He has received multiple awards and accolades throughout his career.

While assigned in Charleston, Dr. Olendorf met Dr. Jason Solomon and they hit it off to the point where they felt they could help serve the Solomon Family Dental customers within their offices. Drs. Olendorf and Solomon started in-office oral surgery at SFD in February 2021, giving their patients an oral surgery home in a familiar, comfortable setting. Since February 2021, Dr. Olendorf has been working part-time at SFD, and has been full-time since his military retirement.

Dr. Olendorf transitioned careers to oral surgery to be able to work with his hands, rehabilitate complicated dental needs, and provide patients comfort with in-office anesthesia. He loves to connect and develop relationships with his patients and help put them at ease with their procedures. Nothing makes him happier than exceeding patient expectations, knowing a job was well done and seeing smiling faces on those he treats. Don’t be surprised if you end up laughing at your oral surgery appointment! His focus of practice is site development and placement of dental implants, bone grafting, and extractions, with or without sedation. He can often place implants at the same time as extracting teeth to help save both procedure and recovery time for the patient to enable them to spend less time out of work or school. He also is passionate about corrective jaw surgery and rehabilitation from facial trauma or other disorders.

In his free time, Dr. Olendorf loves to spend time with his wife, five children and chocolate lab enjoying all of what the area offers. He also enjoys spending time outdoors, traveling, cooking, golfing, and both playing and watching sports. His children are students at COKSM Catholic School, and his family are members of the local Catholic community.

Dr. Olendorf’s commitment to continuing education, advances in technology, and dedication to excellence allow him to provide outstanding clinical care and surgical treatment for his patients in a comfortable setting.

Dr. Olendorf is a board-certified oral and maxillofacial surgeon and is credentialed at Trident and Summerville Medical Centers. He takes multiple days per month of facial trauma and oral surgery call at both locations. He is a member of the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, the American Association of OMS, the Southeast Society of OMS, and the South Carolina Society of OMS. He holds licenses to practice in not only in South Carolina, but also Virginia and the US Virgin Islands.