Steve Kurti brings a rare combination of lifelong familiarity with Kurti Orthodontics, scientific training, dental research, and business consulting experience to helping his father guide the practice into its next chapter. His focus is ensuring that Dr. Kurti’s legacy of excellent, patient-centered orthodontic care continues serving rural communities for years to come.

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Ralph Steven “Steve” Kurti, Jr. has been part of Kurti Orthodontics for nearly as long as he can remember. As the son of Dr. Ralph and Carol Kurti, he grew up helping wherever he was needed, first cleaning the office and doing yard work, and later working in the orthodontic lab. Those early experiences gave him a practical understanding of the practice from the ground up.

Steve earned a PhD in physics from Case Western Reserve University and later conducted research in the dental department of a major medical university. More recently, he has worked as a business consultant, helping small and family-owned businesses move toward their next level of success. He now brings together the knowledge and perspective he has gained across these different settings to help his father guide Kurti Orthodontics through an important transition. His goal is to ensure that the culture Dr. Kurti created—and his legacy of excellence, integrity, and individualized orthodontic care in rural communities—remains strong and sustainable for years to come.

Quick Questions & Answers

What are your earliest memories of being around the office as a kid?

“My mom and dad had my brother and me clean the office to start with, so I remember cleaning bathrooms and emptying trash. Every week, we had to drag the trash cans from the bottom of the parking lot to the top. When you’re six or seven and dragging around a giant trash can, that seems like a lot of work. Not a lot that had to do with orthodontics early on, but we were probably five, six, or seven years old.”

When you were little, what did you think your dad actually did?

“I think I understood my dad’s business mostly from the beginning. Patients came in, he put braces on their teeth, and their teeth went from being crooked to being straight.”

How did your involvement with the practice change as you got older?

“My brother and I started with cleaning and taking out the trash, and I think we continued taking out the trash until we graduated high school. From there, we did yard work. When my dad was convinced we were hardworking and detail-oriented enough, we both started working in the lab. We went from trash work to yard work to lab work.”

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