Following in Their Footsteps: Dental Offices of Central Florida

Bioscience

Three years ago, I got the opportunity to work chair-side in my grandfather’s dental office. Granted, I was too young to do anything but hold the suction tube and hand him the instruments, but I was enamored with the idea of giving people the confidence to smile wider.

This summer, I took that interest a little further. I spent five weeks shadowing two general dentists, an orthodontist, a periodontist, an endodontist, two oral surgeons, and two pedodontists. While in their offices, I observed crown placements, Invisalign cases, implants, gum grafts, wisdom teeth removals, and root canals. In addition, I visited the lab that some of those doctors use to make models, bridges, crowns, and the like.

Because I also expressed an interest in psychiatry, I attended a lunch meeting with a retired psychiatrist. The stories in his repertoire were fascinating; his preferred techniques included hypnotism and the age regression method.