My dad happened to go to the dentist that week that I had to write a paper in high school for a social studies class, what I wanted to be when I grew up. So he said, “Have you ever thought of being a dentist?” So I wrote a letter to our family dentist, and he wrote me back a nice letter about what it takes to become a dentist. I liked my science classes in high school. I liked working with my hands. I was always building model airplanes and model cars and stuff like that. So the two seemed to go together. So that’s path I pursued. So I was a sophomore in high school when I decided to become a dentist.

Undergrad was Northern Wisconsin near where I lived, Eau Claire, Wisconsin. That’s where I met my wife. Then I went to dental school in beautiful Downtown Milwaukee. Continuing education is really important. We’re required to take a minimal amount for our re-licensure by the state. But there’s always new things coming up. Awhile back, I actually took an extensive class orthodontics and learned how to do braces. Another big thing that I’ve done more recently was implants. So that was something new that wasn’t available at all when I went to school. So there’s new things coming up all the time. So it’s important to keep abreast of the latest things.

One of the things that I’ve gone back to school to learn about with sedation. For a lot of people, going to the dentist is like almost impossible emotionally, because they’ve had some bad experiences and so they’ve got these hurdles in place that they just can’t get past for very good reasons. They may be really difficult to get numb, or they got a sensitive gag reflex. So being able to do dentistry on people like that is really rewarding because they’re just not going to go otherwise. The door is kind of closed for them for dentistry. So if you can take away those fears, it’s really exciting to be able to do.