My mother. She thought, as much as I really enjoyed my orthodontist, that I should look at that as a profession. So I started paying attention. I went from fireman, some of those other kinds of things to orthodontist, which is kind of a long leap.

But once I got to see what the orthodontist actually did, how he was able to change lives, how he was able to add that spark of confidence to a young person, and he did that for me… So as I was in dental school preparing to become a general dentist and then going on the specialize in orthodontics, as I was getting that addition training, I realized that there was a whole other field called cosmetic dentistry.

I had had a best friend in high school who had tetracycline stained teeth. They were literally grayish-purple. He always had a great smile, and he always did well with it, but I thought, you know, I really wanted to be able to fix him someday. And in dental school, we really didn’t learn how to do it. So I started taking every course that I could find. I studied under some of the masters. In that quest, I found my real passion, which was helping people to feel really great about themselves and at the same time, be super-healthy and be able to keep their teeth for a lifetime.

I was able to do that for my friend. He came into my office. It’s been years ago now. And many times I’ve actually said, “Hey, I could redo those for you, and I could even do a better job. The technology’s come a long way.” And he still says, “You know, I still love my smile. I still love my teeth. I don’t need to change anything.” And I really feel blessed by that.