Dentist Career Statement

Dentistry was not a career that I saw for myself attaining until six years ago. Growing up, I have always had a fascination with teeth and oral hygiene but I was considered awkward because no one in my neighborhood, including myself could afford to visit the dentist. The first and only time I visited the dentist during my childhood was when I was in middle school. I remember being intrigued by how much there was to know about teeth. Even still, I never thought I could become dentist. I continued on through school and upon graduating high school, I quickly learned that I needed to figure what I wanted to be when I grew up. So I enlisted in the United States Navy with the hopes of becoming a dental technician however, the job did not start for another year. …show more content…
Deployments were becoming increasingly more difficult for my children to handle and there was the possibility of an eight-month deployment approaching. So in 2010, pregnant with our fifth child, I made the difficult decision to leave a promising career in the military and begin searching for a new career that would afford me more time with my family. In the same year, I enrolled in Thomas Nelson Community College as an Accounting major. After two years of being unfocused and unhappy, my husband asked me why I chose to pursue accounting when I showed such an interest in oral health. Still believing I wasn’t smart enough to become a doctor, I began my dental assisting certification class at Park Place Health and Dental Clinic in 2011 so I could gain a working knowledge of the field. I immediately fell in love with every aspect of dentistry. Being able to assist in procedures that alleviated the pain patients were in, to learning about what materials were used for treatments and why. There was an art to dentistry that I had never known about until this point. That was the moment I knew becoming a dentist was career for