I've been practicing dentistry now 26 years, which is amazing to think back on that long, but my original interest in dentistry stemmed from health care, but then actually an interesting story. When I was a freshman at college, I was a mechanical engineering major and I was playing racquetball, and I took a racket to the face and knocked out my, or broke my two front teeth, and I was in a new town and had to find somewhere to get my teeth fixed, and I went to a dentist, um, I don't even remember how I found it, maybe the Yellow Pages back in the day, and I was amazed at the work the dentist can do to restore a smile, and I went from having some snaggly teeth to, you know, having my smile back with a couple of veneers, and I thought, that's awesome, I would like to be able to do that, and that was really where my interest in dentistry sparked from, and also kind of just a general interest in medicine that I had, so after that it just kind of cascaded from there. My advanced education general dentistry residency was a year-long residency right out of dental school.

After I finished my residency, then I was Navy dentist for four years, and during that time, 9-11 happened, so my first assignment after my residency was North Carolina supporting the Marines, so I was assigned to a surgical battalion that helped support them. It helped shape me from a standpoint of being able to operate in different environments, and learn to, I would say, adapt, and be able to get the job done in any kind of situation. Now, to private practice and doing dentistry in the desert of Iraq, you know, there's not a whole lot that correlates there, but people skills, management skills, and being able to overcome adversity, I think, are big takeaways that I had after my time deploying, and even in the Navy.

The meaning of Dental West, if I think back on it, was really something that I took from the previous owner. I felt like I wanted to carry on the tradition that he had established, so I kept the name that he had in the hopes that I could carry on that tradition. I think I've done more than that in the 26 years, and taking the name to a newer, higher, more personal level with technology, and all the advances that have happened in dentistry over the next 26 years, too.

My general philosophy has evolved over the years, but I would say, really, in the last 10 to 15 years, as we try to focus more on the customer, it's pretty simple. It's to connect with our patients, to understand, and exceed their expectations. Everyone comes in with a little bit of a different idea of what they want out of dentistry, so we're looking to understand them, and to meet and exceed that expectation.
As I was finishing dental school, technology was just becoming more modern. Implants were becoming more routine. Composites were just becoming mainstay of dentistry.

It's just gone from really old school to new school, and luckily, I was in an era that kind of started to bridge that gap, and I've been able to keep bridging that gap through continuing education and purchasing of the equipment it takes to do that.