Each month an active member of our AAE Connection Community will be highlighted.
Position:
- Currently, I work in two endodontic offices in the Dallas County area: Highland Park endodontics and Dallas endodontics.
- I also teach at the Texas A & M College of Dentistry AEGD residency program one day a week.
Career Highlights:
- Moving to a new city as a recently graduated endodontist has presented its own challenges. I’m pleased that I have been able to establish myself in the community and earn the trust of general dentists and my patients.
- I am really enjoying teaching as a part-time faculty and being able to work with residents and get their feedback.
- Being able to serve as the chair of the AAE Resident and New Practitioner committee has allowed me to be involved in other aspects of endodontics aside from patient care.
- I hope there are more highlights to come in the near future!
Why Endodontics: I like how precise and exact you must be all the time. After completing a root canal that final Xray can be judged for years to come. You always have to do the best possible work which is not always easy, but I love this challenge.
Best Piece of Career Advice: I think I am still in the early stages of my career and it’s too soon to give advice, however my recommendation for graduate residents is when looking for your first job, try to find a place that is willing to give you time and space to grow. In the early stages of your career, you start to form habits and it’s important to ensure good habits are formed.
Endo Challenge: The biggest challenge for me was establishing myself in a competitive city that I had never lived in. I had to start building relationships with the dental community and prove myself as trustworthy.
Dallas has been so good to me, and I enjoyed the friendly culture that made me feel so comfortable. I was also lucky to have supportive colleagues at work and school which helped me grow as an endodontist.
Reason for Becoming an AAE member: My first interaction with AAE was in AAE16 in San Francisco. Back then I was doing my advanced clinical training at the UCLA Endodontic department and was trying to find my dentistry path in USA. That meeting, the environment and AAE people had such a huge positive impact on me. In that meeting not only did I become sure that I wanted to be part of the endodontic community, but I also knew that I want to be involved with AAE as well. I was honored to be in AAE board of directors meeting for the past year as a resident observer and I am just amazed with all the great and well-known endodontists willing to spend their time to help the specialty grow and mentor younger endodontists like myself. AAE staff are a group of amazing and supportive people as well and I enjoy every minute of working with them. AAE wouldn’t be this successful without its amazing staff.
Fun Fact:
- I play chess a few times a day and I am challenging ANY chess players in the endodontic community to have a game with me at AAE22 in Phoenix.
- My other hobbies are following world current events and news and reading or watching documentaries about history.
- I enjoy watching sitcoms and my guilty pleasure is that I still watch Frasier without shame.
Community Question: What can we do at AAE and our committee to make residency more fruitful and make the first few years of practice an easier transition for new grads?
If you have a member you would like to recommend, please email your submission to communityadmin@aae.org
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