Hello and welcome to my inaugural blog! As a general dentist and a mom, I have wanted to start a blog for a long time, and now I feel that I have a small window of perspective to do so. You may notice that this is an extremely BORING blog page. This is intentional. Content is king - no fancy videos or distracting (and annoying) pop ups. I'm a simple person - I will try to heed my own advice of KISS - "Keep It Simple Stupid."
I want this to be a non-biased opinion page from a dental professional with no corporate ties or high paid lobbyists breathing down my back. You deserve that. You all work hard for your money and want to know what's what when it comes to your mouth. I am also not going to preach from high atop a tower of academia with studies that feel irrelevant to the bread and butter of dentistry today.
However SPECTACULAR you may think my blogs are, they are by no means a substitute for routine preventive care and a clinical evaluation by your dentist. So please don't pit me against your existing dentist - we all have our own philosophy of care. Based on my background and studies in biomedical ethics, I feel a passion and obligation to try and bridge the gap between you, the consumer, and your dentist. I want you to laugh, learn, and ask...and vent your frustrations if you'd like!
First off, who am I?
I grew up in York, PA where DENTSPLY is headquartered. For those of you who don't know, it's the international leader in professional dental materials and supplies, in my opinion. As a side note, my sister is an account representative for DENTSPLY, Jasmine Tome. I have no financial disclosure relationships with this company - although I wish I did since they are such a HUGE corporation.
I attended Albright College in Reading, PA where I met my husband, Mike. We both swam for the swim team and quickly became best friends and yada, yada, yada. (Seinfeld reference...one of many to come) In my second year of college, I became interested in medicine and dentistry. I majored in Spanish and Biology. Yes, I can speak basic Spanish but I'm fortunate to have assistants who are native speakers!
After having multiple internships at York, Reading Hospitals St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan, I began to steer clear of medicine for reasons I won't elaborate on right now (maybe later). I am fortunate to have several health professionals in my family who elaborated on the direction of medicine in this country, and I really didn't want to completely sacrifice my personal life and well being to become an employee of a large corporation. I was accepted to several medical schools, but after some twists and turns in my life, I decided to serve others in a more specific way.
After graduating from college in 2005, I accepted an internship at the National Institutes of Health where I performed laboratory research with international physicians in the area of Stem Cell Transplants. It was here that I decided to apply to dental school after working in the NIH Dental Clinic, which treated high risk individuals. I got accepted to the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine in 2006.
While in dental school, I really wanted a break from linear, didactic thinking so I applied got accepted into the Master of Bioethics program, offered through the medical school. It was a great opportunity to meet professionals and students from law, medicine, research and social policy. I studied vaccine ethics, sociology of medicine and female reproductive technologies among other things.
In 2010, I completed a one year residency at the Lehigh Valley Health Network, Muhlenberg site. I loved it. I learned more clinically in one month of training than I did in three months of school. But to be fair, we had didactic classes much more in school and limited clinical time. After asking employees and assistants which dental office they go to, they steered me to Bethlehem Smiles. I scheduled an appointment and was asked to join by Dr. Carlis and Parsons later that year. The office is great, the staff is wonderful and we pride ourselves on practicing the right way, not necessarily the easiest way.
Additionally, I am a member of the ADA. Another topic for a post in the future...
I am on staff with Lehigh Valley Health Network as an attending dentist and a contracted employee for the pediatric program, Miles of Smiles. Miles is an outreach mobile unit that you may learn more about here:
http://www.lvhn.org/facilities_directions/community_clinics/dental_clinic
I am a celebrity, you know? Sort of. Here I am, 8 months pregnant, featured in the Morning Call newspaper in 2013:
http://articles.mcall.com/2013-01-21/health/mc-pa-poor-dental-care-children-20130120_1_dental-van-dental-care-sealants
I also do school exams for Bethlehem Area School District, so I love treating kids. However, I am NOT a pediatric dentist. We refer special needs children or children who may need alternate forms of restraint or sedation which I choose not to do. For this, I LOVE our pediatric dentists. I grew up seeing only my family dentist, but I had minimal dental issues due in large part to good homecare, great preventive care and a lower sugar diet. Also, my parents appropriately prepared me before going to the dentist - especially before I had a baby tooth extracted. I digress - this will be a topic for a future post...
I have been practicing since 2010, so as an esteemed, venerable, colleague of mine once said, "You guys are the really the best educated dentists since you are the most recently educated." Thanks for that, I appreciate! I do not yet have gray hair, so I don't automatically earn a commanding presence when I walk into the room. I'm also 5'2", and often wear pink scrubs, so you never have to worry that I will "scare you" into doing something you really don't want to do.
I love writing and hate public speaking. I want you to learn, laugh and think. Let's start the journey together...right after I give kisses to my little guy, who is trying to pull the plug on my laptop...and I don't mean my husband.
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