Why I Chose Dentistry
A lot of patients ask me why I chose dentistry. It’s a fair question and one that my patients should know about.
When I was little I had open heart surgery. While I was in the hospital for what seemed like months, (it was probably a couple weeks) I got to know one of my nurses (Joe) and was always excited when he came around. He would spend a lot of time with me, playing games and helping me out, sneaking me Fudgecicles when it was past time for eating. He was a good guy and initially got me thinking about working in healthcare. I had some big decisions to make at such a young age because I also planned to be an astronaut and a professional basketball player.
As I grew older I gradually became sure that my road led to the health professions. Dentistry was always in my mind from the time I was in high school. We had a few family friends that were dentists and they always seemed to be happy. I also enjoyed the sciences, art and working with my hands, so dentistry seemed like the perfect fit. But, I wasn’t sure yet. During college I declared biology as my major but took Introduction to Law and Business as electives. My dad is an attorney and has an MBA so I thought I should give it a chance. I thought maybe the apple wouldn’t have fallen so far from the tree. Turns out, the apple fell off the tree, rolled down the hill and into a river of fast moving water cause I hated those classes. The only thing I got out of it was that I was slightly better able to understand my dad’s convoluted way of thinking. Law was definitely not for me!
I kept on studying the sciences and watched as my older brother began attending medical school at the University of Colorado. His stories made me want to stay away from medicine and eventually I came back to my original thought of dentistry. I started taking introduction to dental classes at BYU and felt like it was the way to go. The things they were talking about in those classes seemed quite interesting and I began planning to go to dental school. I finished up my undergraduate education and applied to school. I travelled to both of the Florida Schools and interviewed at CU. I ended up deciding on Nova Southeastern in Fort Lauderdale and began classes there in the Fall of 2004.
Dentistry has been a fulfilling profession to be in. I constantly get to learn new things and find joy in working with and meeting new patients. It has proven a very rewarding field to be in!
