Each month an active member of our AAE Connection Community will be highlighted.
Position: Currently, I am Chairman of the Department of Dental Medicine and Chairman & Program Director of Endodontics at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia.
Career Highlights:
- As I was completing my endodontic program at Penn, the Chairman, Prof. Leif Tronstad, asked me to teach two days per week in the Department.
- This changed the trajectory of my career. I thought that I would go into full time private practice upon graduating, but this was an offer that I couldn’t refuse.
- By teaching, I kept learning and my knowledge base kept expanding.
- I knew then that I needed to be involved in postdoc endodontic education to some degree for the rest of my career. Before becoming Program Director at Einstein, I was in private practice 4 days per week and taught ½ day.
Why Endodontics: I was totally intrigued with the management of dentoalveolar traumatic injuries; the associated complications, healing responses, and how proper endodontic intervention can make a lifetime of difference to the patient.
Best Piece of Career Advice:
I need to share two pieces of advice:
- Pay much less attention to the number of cases you complete each day as compared to the quality of each of those cases!
- Find the time to teach somewhere and pay what you learned forward; become a mentor!
Endo Challenge: Working as a new associate in a practice that didn’t share my values was extremely challenging. Leaving that practice, although difficult, was my only option.
Reason for Becoming an AAE member: Is this a serious question😉? I never considered NOT becoming a member of the organization that represents endodontists and endodontics.
Fun Fact: My favorite hobbies had been tennis, racquetball and scuba diving. Then, it was coaching the sports teams of my two sons. Favorite place to chill: the beach!
Community Question: What specific areas of your postdoc Endo program do you wish you had more training in? This is valuable information that all Endo programs and our specialty need to pay attention to. And, if you can contribute to this, do it!
If you have a member you would like to recommend, please email your submission to communityadmin@aae.org