Paul Pival, A Dentist On Broadway Who Showed His Patients He Cared

While practicing dentistry for 42 years on Broadway in Seattle, Paul Pival treated far too many patients to remember every name. But he always tried.

``He made his patients feel like he cared about them as an individual and not a number,'' said Dr. Victor Barry, who worked with Pival. ``He made them feel like they were in Nordstrom's, not a dental office.''

Paul Pival, 77, died Tuesday of heart failure.

Barry, who bought the dentist office two years before Pival retired in 1981 because of open-heart surgery, said Pival had about 1,000 regular patients when he retired.

``I still see a large majority of the patients he saw,'' Barry said, ``which shows what kind of guy he was because they took his advice and came to me.''

During the war, Pival worked for the Naval Dental Corps in the Puget Sound Naval Dispersary and at the naval station in Balboa, Panama.

After the war, he started the office on Broadway. And for the 49 years that Trudy and Paul were married, nobody else cleaned or worked on Trudy's teeth.

``I have them all,'' said Trudy, who is 74. ``That speaks well for him.''

Pival saw a lot of changes in dentistry, but there was one change he didn't experience before he retired. Trudy said he never sat down while he worked, as many dentists do now. She said that simple change made work a lot easier for dentists.

Pival, a graduate of Gonzaga University and the Creighton University School of Dentistry, grew up in Libby, Mont.

He was a life member of the Seattle King County Dental Society and Washington State Dental Association.

Services were held yesterday at Our Lady of Fatima Church. Burial was at Calvary Cemetery.

The family asks that remembrances be sent to Catholic Community Services, 910 Marion St., Seattle, WA 98104.

He is survived by his wife; children Judy Wilson, Bellevue, Mary Jane Walton, Bainbridge Island, Dr. Paul Pival Jr., Bradford, Penn., Philip Pival, Honolulu, Hawaii, Frank Pival, Juneau, Alaska, and Mark Pival, Seattle; sisters Millie Wollaston, Seattle, Mary Janet Risley, Spokane, and Helen Gardner, Lomita, Calif.; and 10 grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews.