At this point, since the names of all involved are now a matter of very public record, I'll stop trying not to dox the parties in question.
Really all the information that's fit to update you all with is in an article in a paper local to where I live. The article is here (archive link to get around pay wall). And the text of the article is pasted below:
Pokin Around: A Springfield dentist blamed his office manager for forcing him to close. She says there’s much more to the story.
Peggy Myers didn’t quit over more money, she says. She didn’t quit over wanting to take days off. She didn’t quit because of outside work needs. She made it explicitly clear to Dentist Brian Hoffman, she says, that the problem was the way he treated her and other female employees
On Oct. 1, Peggy Myers had just started a vacation with her family and friends when her social media accounts blew up.
Her former boss, Springfield dentist Brian Hoffman, had just sent out a letter to about 1,000 patients (according to Myers) informing them he had just closed his practice and that Myers was to blame.
Hoffman wrote: “Our Office Manager, Peggy Myers, walked-out and gave no notice. With that one decision, came a host of issues.”
Hoffman’s letter ended up being posted on Springfield Reddit. In total, there have been over 1,100 comments on the post.
I contacted Myers because — as the saying goes — there are two sides to every story.
Myers tells me she and her family were pulling into Barry’s Seafood Buffet, in Mississippi, hours from the Gulf Coast, when she read the letter, which she received because she not only was an employee but also a patient.
“I couldn’t even eat because I was so stressed out,” she tells me. “I spent the entire time outside, away from my family and my friends and my children. I was trying to figure out what was going on. … I was so stressed out that I couldn’t focus on spending time with my family. I couldn’t focus on spending time with anybody.
“Honestly, it ruined my whole vacation.
“He’s a very vindictive person,” Myers says. “I think he just used me as a scapegoat for a business that he ran into the ground very abruptly.”
She says she started in January and soon was the longest-tenured employee
Myers, 33, had started work in January at Hoffman Stone Advanced General & Implant Dentistry, 3331 E. Montclair St., Suite G. She was promoted to office manager in March.
Thomas Stone had run the practice for decades but retired and sold it to Hoffman in 2025. Stone was not working there when Myers was hired.
Hoffman wrote in his Oct. 1 letter to his former dental patients: “Our confirmation system is automatic and the only person who had the ability to operate it was Peggy. So, I personally apologize to any of you who came to the office and found it closed, after receiving a confirmation message of any type. Peggy alerted no one to her departure.
“It seems it has become fairly common practice for employees to ‘just leave’ a job, whenever they feel like it. This is not a good demonstration of basic humanity or basic accountability,” Hoffman wrote.
“You may want more money, you may want to take days off, you may have outside work needs … all of which are understandable, but are part of the business relationship.
“It’s the killing of the Golden Goose if you try to make employment all about you, when it’s not — it’s a team. When employees make everything about themselves individually, this is the result.”
She made it clear what the problem was: he treated employees, especially women, horribly
Myers didn’t quit over more money, she says. She didn’t quit over wanting to take days off. She didn’t quit because of outside work needs.
She made it explicitly clear to Hoffman, she says, what the problem was: It was the horrible way he treated her and other female employees.
Myers tells me that while she worked at the dental office, Hoffman treated two male employees differently. He treated them with more respect, she says.
“He didn’t cuss them out,” she says. “He didn’t do any of that.”
Myers shared with me an email she sent to Hoffman on Sunday, Sept. 13 — a day before two new employees were to start at the dental practice, which had seen a pronounced turnover in staff.
“Tomorrow needs to represent a genuine fresh start. We cannot continue bringing new employees into the same unhealthy environment and expect a different outcome. We have already lost a tremendous number of employees, and we have also lost patients. At some point, that pattern must be acknowledged for what it is.
“It cannot continually be blamed on employees being too sensitive, unwilling to work, incapable of meeting expectations, or simply not being the right fit. When the same problems continue happening with different people, leadership has an obligation to examine the common factor and accept responsibility for its role in those outcomes.
“The way you speak to people, the way frustrations are handled, the inconsistency of expectations, and the lack of accountability have created an environment in which employees often feel disrespected, anxious, unappreciated, and afraid of making a mistake. People should not come to work wondering what version of their employer they are going to encounter that day.
“I am exhausted from repeatedly being placed in the position of trying to repair the damage after an employee or patient has been spoken to poorly. I am tired of having to calm people down, explain behavior I cannot justify, rebuild morale, prevent resignations, respond to complaints, and attempt to hold the practice together while simultaneously being blamed when something goes wrong. I cannot continue to be your scapegoat.
“The new employees starting tomorrow deserve the opportunity to enter a workplace where they are welcomed, trained, respected, and given clear expectations. They deserve the chance to learn without being humiliated, spoken down to, or made to feel incompetent for asking questions. They should be allowed to make reasonable mistakes as they learn the practice.
“They need consistency, patience, and constructive feedback. Correcting someone should be done privately and professionally—not through anger, embarrassment, sarcasm, intimidation, or public criticism.”
After long email, she says meeting did not go well
Hoffman took off work Monday, Sept. 14; he told Myers he wanted to reflect on her email. They met the next day — Tuesday, Sept. 15.
It did not go well, she says. Hoffman, once again, talked about how he had bought a bad dental practice.
“We’ve heard it multiple times because it’s always his excuse that he had bought a bad practice,” she says. “… It wasn’t a good practice from the beginning.
“So then he says … people don’t want to work; people have oversold themselves; people are lazy. And I was like, okay. I was like, I get what you’re saying. I said, ‘but that’s your personal problem.’ I said we need to figure out what we’re going to do for employee retention and patient retention. So what is your plan?
“And he goes, ‘Are you not listening to me? I’m telling you exactly why this is happening.’ And I’m like, ‘No, I’m hearing you, but you’re not coming up with a solution. You’re telling me everything and every excuse that I don’t want to hear. I just want to know what we’re going to do better. And he looks me straight in the face, and he says, ‘If you’re looking for me to tell you I’m going to treat anybody any different than I am, you can keep looking.’
“He was going in circles. Like he kept going back to all the excuses as to why he’s awful to his employees and patients. And anytime I would try to say something he would do this thing to me, and he did it during the meeting. He would put his finger up, like he was asking me a question, and I’d go to answer, and he’d go, ‘Why are you talking? You don’t speak when I’m speaking.'”
At the end of the work day, she says, she did not tell him she was quitting. She left him a resignation letter stating that he was the problem. She has not been back since.
“I’m just done,” she says.
Troopers detail prior road rage incident
I reached out to Hoffman for comment. I specifically told him I wanted to know why he sent the letter, blaming Myers by name, to some 1,000 people.
He responded via email that his patients had been transferred to another dentist office and the closure had been done in accordance with Missouri Dental Board protocol.
A few years ago, Hoffman, now 53, was charged in connection with a road rage incident that occurred on Oct. 3, 2023, on Interstate 44 in Greene County. He was ticketed by a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper.
The probable cause statement says that “the investigation of the crash revealed Hoffman and Victim 1 were actively involved in a road rage incident, and had been for several miles. The crash occurred as Victim 1 would not initially allow Hoffman to change from the left lane to the right lane as Hoffman’s Infiniti was beside Victim 1’s Ford.
“Eventually, Hoffman was able to overtake Victim 1 and moved from the left lane to the right lane, directly in front of Victim 1. After changing lanes, Hoffman applied his brakes causing the front of Victim 1’s Ford to strike the rear of Hoffman’s Infiniti.
“After the initial impact, Hoffman’s Infiniti began skidding/sliding, and struck Victim 2’s vehicle in the left lane. The Infiniti continued off the roadway and struck the median cable.”
Hoffman pleaded guilty in March 2025 to a Class C misdemeanor and paid a $500 fine and was placed on six months of unsupervised probation.
She’s working as a temp; helping family business; and has enrolled at Ozarks Tech
Myers is married with two children. She and her husband own a collision repair shop in Camdenton. Since she quit, she has worked in dental offices through a temp agency and has helped her husband with business records at the family business.
She also has enrolled at Ozarks Technical Community College and is pursuing an associate degree in business.
They live between Lebanon and Camdenton. She drove over an hour each way to work when employed at Hoffman’s Springfield dental practice.
Myers says Hoffman slandered her. I asked if she is going to sue him.
“It is definitely under consideration. I have spoken with several attorneys,” she says. “Random strangers have reached out to me, referring attorneys.”
Does Hoffman need to do something to make things right to keep you from filing suit?
No, she says. “He’s already done enough.”
Ho. Lee. Chit.
For my part, I went to another dentist and got my crown finished. Hoffman still has over $1,000 that he charged me for services he clearly isn't going to be rendering. I've found there's a Missouri agency I can submit a claim to about that. I could also take him to small claims court. Haven't decided whether to go to that much trouble yet.
