Dr. Smith attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and received a B.S. degree in Zoology in 1962. He then enrolled in the School of Dentistry at the same institution, graduating in 1966. He served as a Captain in the U.S. Air Force in Goose Bay, Labrador for the next two years, and then practiced general dentistry in Plymouth, Michigan, for an additional year. He entered the Graduate Program in the Department of Orthodontics at the University of Michigan in 1969, completing the M.S. in Orthodontics in 1971.

Since 1971, Dr. Smith has been in a private practice limited to orthodontics in both East Lansing and Okemos, Michigan. His primary teaching responsibility is in the Undergraduate Orthodontic Program.