Everything that happens in life provides an opportunity. Take a minute to look back on your own life. How did you get to where you are today? What decisions did you make that got you here? Which ones took you on a detour? Which individuals changed your course? What difficulties did you run into and how did they change you? We all have a story, and I was recently asked to share mine. Not long ago, I had a new patient who was fifteen years old. She had severe decalcification and decay on the facials of all her maxillary anterior teeth. She was quiet, would not smile and was scared to death. Her mother sat in the corner, propping her elbows on her knees, and tapping her feet. She was staring at me the entire time I worked. That was a bit daunting. When I was finished, she said, “I wish I could have watched you do that when I was in my twenties. I think I would have loved being a dentist. Watching you today was like watching a therapist, a surgeon, and an artist all at once. You calmed my daughter, gained her trust, worked with such precision, and made her smile for the first time in years. You are an artist and a doctor all in one. What made you decide to become a dentist?” Path to Dentistry After I processed her humbling compliments, I told her that when I turned sixteen my parents said I’d have to pay for gas if I wanted to drive. So, my job search began. In my hometown of Montezuma, there were not many options aside from babysitting. However, Daddy happened to be going to get his teeth cleaned. He asked Dr. Carl Williams if he planned to hire summer help. I still remember the outfit I wore to my very first official job interview! Dr Williams hired me to pull charts, seat patients, do sterilization, and keep the waiting room clean. I quickly got bored and asked if I could learn to assist. Fortunately, his assistant allowed me to help as much as I wanted. I asked a lot of questions. Dr. Williams explained procedures to me and showed me how he developed relationships with his patients. In rural Georgia, we saw patients from several counties. There were no specialists within forty-five miles, so Dr. Williams did most dental procedures himself. I got to see firsthand how he helped and became a vital part of the community. As a member of Dr. Williams’s staff, I attended my first Hinman Dental meeting when I was seventeen. I continued to work after school and the following summer. My path was mapped out and there were roadblocks that popped up, but the goal of becoming a dentist is what kept me motivated to find a way around them. I graduated high school from Southland Academy in Americus and began Mercer University as a pre-dental student. In February of my freshman year, I donated to the blood drive on campus. That night I started having a pain in my left side. After two months of inconclusive medical visits and scans, I went in for exploratory surgery and came out with a diagnosis of cancer. All the muscles in my left side and abdomen had to be removed. I was diagnosed with Extra-Osseous Ewing’s sarcoma by Sloan Kettering and received seventeen rounds of chemotherapy at Egleston at Emory. My inpatient chemotherapy lasted over twelve months, so I had to withdraw from Mercer for a year. A Life-Changing Set-Back The cancer diagnosis when I was only nineteen changed my life. Everything came to a halt. I was given a thirty percent chance of survival. Cancer taught me more in a year than I could have learned in a lifetime. I learned the importance of my health. I learned that real friends stick around in a crisis. It showed me what is important in life: Money or possessions couldn’t heal me. What did heal me was the support of family and friends, along with God’s love, healing, and peace. I found that attitude is everything. It’s not what happens to us. It is what we do with challenges that determines not only our future, but also our sense of happiness in the present. I also learned what it is like to be a patient! I found out what makes you feel like your needs and health are a priority to the doctor, and unfortunately how it feels when you are just a number. This lesson has been key in the way I treat all my patients. The Golden Rule applies in everything we do! One of the driving factors that got me through it all was my desire to return to Mercer so I could go to dental school and become a dentist. My oncologist, Dr. Stephen Lauer, told me that when he applied to dental school, he couldn’t carve chalk, so he was not accepted. I told him I was so glad he couldn’t carve chalk, and that he became an oncologist because he was part of God’s plan in saving my life. Immediately after completing my treatment, I returned to Mercer and majored in Communication with minors in Biology and Chemistry. The Come Back I began dental school at the Medical College of Georgia in 2002 and after graduating, completed the General Practice Residency at MCG. I purchased a 47-yearold practice in Macon, Georgia right after residency. The practice had been established by Dr. Tommy McKelvey and later owned by Dr. Pinkney Gilchrist. Dr. Gilchrist was going into an endodontic residency, so he left for school the day I started work. I formed a team to surround me to teach me the things I didn’t know. I hired a consultant, an accountant, and an attorney. I bought my insurance through the Georgia Dental Association because they gained my trust when I was in dental school. I have been in | 31 Jan 2025
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy Nzc3ODM=