David hasn’t always been passionate about dentistry—in 1988 he almost left the profession. The summer we met he was more comfortable talking about his travels and photography than his practice. In fact, for the first two months of our friendship when we talked about everything—sports, music, art, travel he said little about his work. Months later, we fell in love and the walls came crumbling down—that before meeting me he almost left dentistry—he was thinking about moving to Peru to be mountain guide. But WHY??
He was sick of the jokes, felt like a punching bag—embarrassed to be in a profession where the general consensus is UGH!!! Even though he tried not to take it personally, over time, the insecurities began to seep in. Then Karma came knocking, and while I might have wished he was in another profession (give my own dental dramas), the universe brought us together. With our collective energies, everything started to look just a tad brighter. A few years later, David’s dear friend and mentor (a periodontist and prof at Tufts Dental) puts a firecracker under his seat, pushes him to ramp up his own training. To date, David has logged more than 1500 hours in hands-on training and now he teaches these skills at the world-famous Pankey Institute where he did most of his hands-on training.
Like many of us David needed the push, and now that he’s reached a mastery level, he found his “WHY” and his joy. Given his extensive training, he knows (that with a high degree of confidence) he can offer his patients treatment options others can’t. David has now found his sweet spot, loves being in practice but it came at the end of a lot of hard work and soul searching.
