As a kid, I grew up going to my two cousins for my own dental needs. They had a group practice and I was fortunate enough to have braces on for four and-a-half years thanks to them. They did orthodontics and so going to them for four and-a-half years and seeing how they enjoyed their work and their work environment influenced me. They seemed to be having a lot of fun, and so that was my first experience with dentistry. It definitely intrigued me at an early age.
Through my life experiences, I became more and more interested in the health field. Dentistry made the most sense because I had more experience with that then medicine. Working in the mouth is a little more intricate and also there’s a great deal of artistry that’s involved. The combination of working with my hands from a functional standpoint, and from an aesthetics standpoint, creating a pleasing smile for my patients and giving them better health, these are what interested me about Dentistry.
The opportunity to treat people on a daily basis where I could make them feel a little bit better about themselves by giving them a brighter, nicer, more aesthetic smile. That was, for me, the best option that satisfied what it was that I was interested in most.
Cosmetic dentistry allows me to continue to perform general dentistry on patients and at the same time, if they want to come to me with cosmetic concerns, I am specialized in giving them the best smile they can achieve.
If a patient comes to me and they’re in excruciating pain, and I perform root canals or extractions, it’s rewarding to be able to remove the pain and heal them. But also, when they come to me with really strict aesthetic concerns, I’m able to address that as well. Cosmetic dentistry is something that takes an artist’s touch and an artist’s eye to be able to provide for them what it is that they’re requesting and that is what I really enjoy.
Improving a person’s smile and their overall outward appearance is very rewarding to me. A smile is most often the first thing that you look at when you’re communicating with a person for the first time, or you notice someone for the first time. It’s usually their smile you notice. It holds quite a lot of weight.
