Expertise. Warmth. Familiar faces.
Meet the two pediatric dental specialists who care for your family at Just Kids.
Practice owner · Father of three
Upper Valley dentist since 2015
Steve K. Rayes, DDS, MS
Board-certified pediatric dentist · ABPD Director & Secretary
Dr. Rayes is a board certified pediatric dentist, the owner of Just Kids Pediatric Dentistry, and an Instructor of Surgery at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. Alongside full-time private practice, he teaches pediatric medicine and nursing students and provides operating room care at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. He is a Past President of the Vermont State Dental Society and represented Vermont as a Trustee and Delegate to the American Dental Association.
He provides the full range of pediatric dental care — prevention, restorative treatment, sedation, and hospital dentistry under general anesthesia — with deep experience caring for children with special healthcare needs and complex medical histories.
View Dr. Rayes’s ABPD leadership profile ↗Training, service & life outside the office
His path to pediatric dentistry started far from New England. After earning a biology degree at Indiana State University, with minors in business administration and French, he completed his dental degree at the University of Michigan and a General Practice Residency at the Louisville VA Medical Center. He then accepted a commission in the U.S. Public Health Service, serving the Indian Health Service and requesting assignment to remote Alaska. Stationed first in Dillingham and later in Kodiak, he flew into villages across Bristol Bay and Kodiak Island with portable equipment, living and working in each community a week at a time. He went on to serve more than two decades in uniform, retiring at the rank of Captain (O-6).
Six years of treating Alaska Native families in the bush — especially the children — set the direction of his career. The U.S. Public Health Service awarded him a full scholarship to return to the University of Michigan, where he earned his Master's degree in Pediatric Dentistry. Back in Anchorage, he joined the Alaska Native Medical Center and Southcentral Foundation as a staff pediatric dentist, helped design and build a new pediatric dental residency program, and directed that program — the NYU Langone Advanced Training Program in Pediatric Dentistry, Alaska site — from 2006 to 2019, twice leading it to full accreditation. During those years he also served as a consultant to dentists, physicians, and nurses across 23 service units and more than 200 village clinics throughout Alaska. He holds a Teaching Certificate in Dental Education from the University of the Pacific.
Dr. Rayes earned board certification from the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry and has served the Board in a number of roles: as a national board examiner and consultant since 2011, on the Qualifying Examination committee from 2013 to 2017, then on the Oral Clinical Examination committee, where he was Part B leader in 2018 and Chair from 2019 to 2022. Since 2023 he has served as a Director of the Board — a role that places him among the small group of pediatric dentists responsible for the certification process itself. He also serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Dentistry for Children.
In 2015, he and his family moved east to purchase a private practice in Vermont, where he has cared for Upper Valley children ever since.
Dr. Rayes is the proud father of three. He has been a private pilot for more than 40 years and speaks 3.5 languages — English and French fluently, Arabic and Greek conversationally. When he's not in the office, you'll find him flying, tending his small farm and beehives, or out fishing, hiking, and camping with his kids.
Pediatric specialist
New England roots and experience
Rachel Davis, DDS
Board-certified pediatric dentist
Dr. Davis graduated with her dental degree from The Ohio State University, where she received the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry Achievement Award. She then completed two additional years of training in the Advanced Education in Pediatric Dentistry Program at the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage, Alaska.
After her residency training, Dr. Davis practiced in Bangor, Maine, and served as faculty for the pediatric dental residents at Penobscot Community Dental Center. She then practiced at several locations in New Hampshire before joining Just Kids Pediatric Dentistry.
Dr. Davis is Board Certified by the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry, and has served as Secretary/Treasurer and President of the New Hampshire Academy of Pediatric Dentistry.
In her free time, Dr. Davis loves to bake and spend time outdoors — hiking, snowshoeing, and exploring New England with her family.
A local tradition.
A continuing commitment.
Our practice began with Dr. Bachner 36 years ago. When Dr. Rayes purchased the practice in 2015, he continued that commitment to caring for children and families in the Upper Valley. Today, Dr. Rayes and Dr. Davis carry that tradition forward at Just Kids.
One shared approach.
Both doctors are board certified by the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry. Familiar doctors and relationships built over time help us get to know your child. We bring that understanding, our training, and the evidence to an individual treatment plan—with clear explanations and room for your questions.
Explore our care ↗