Orthotown November 2023 - 32

OFFICE VISIT
How'd you find your
way into orthodontics?
When I was a young teen, my smile
affected my confidence and selfesteem.
I had a narrow palate and a
lateral incisor in crossbite. I remember
my parents taking me to an orthodontist
who gave me a tongue depressor
and told me to bite on it. What? In any
case, orthodontics was not a priority
or affordable. When I was in high
school, I thought that would be such
a great job to help people feel better
about themselves.
After I graduated from high school,
I looked around the world and even
with a much-needed scholarship to
stay in South Dakota, I decided I was
going to Berkeley and headed to the
sunshine in California. At that time,
I had no guidance on the journey of
becoming a doctor-there were no
doctors in my family, and I didn't
know about dentistry other than seeing
one if you had a cavity. I arrived in
California with little but a big dream,
and started working and signing up
for dental assisting school. Just as that
happened, the universe intervened
and I received an academic scholarship
from a college where my best
friend went to school in New Mexico.
There, I started taking the classes I
liked: biology, chemistry and physics.
I returned to California, waitressing
to save money, continuing my studies
at community college, and then
bought my own braces at age 19. Yes,
I saved my tips to buy my own braces!
I still remember the bite plate and the
spring to open the space catching my
lip. While going to college, I expanded
my work experience, learning computers,
bookkeeping and even some
entry-level programming.
my computer experience, I found a
programming error the company
fixed. Whenever I could, I would ask
questions, help in the lab and even
trim wires. The first time, I was so
nervous, my hand was shaky. I called
the sterilization equipment a " toaster
oven. " The team would kindly chuckle
and say I was never going to be
an orthodontist.
During my time at Berkeley and
working for my orthodontist, I also
worked teaching aerobics, which came
in handy when I started an exercise
program in dental school.
So that part of the story concludes
My journey into
pediatric sleep apnea
began with my
daughter. ... When
you face a medical
issue, you quickly
become an avid learner
so you can make
the best decisions
for your child.
When I received my invitation
to attend Berkeley, I called up my
orthodontist and asked if I could
shadow and ask questions. He said,
" I would love to, but we're too busy.
We need a bookkeeper. " I said, " Well,
I can do that! " And there it began.
I worked on a computer system called
MacBraces. They hadn't balanced the
books for quite some time, and with
NOVEMBER 2023 | 32 | ORTHOTOWN.COM
with a dental degree from the University
of the Pacific, San Francisco, and
the special day I got the call saying
I was accepted into the orthodontic
program at Northwestern University
in Chicago. There, we learned custom
treatment planning using a variety of
approaches. We had advanced training
in surgical orthodontics, cleft lip
and palate and early treatment. It was
there I further used computers with
cephalometric tracing and prediction
tracings; as I earned a master's degree,
I used computers to estimate the
accuracy of mandibular advancement
surgery. What I didn't know was how
this computer expertise would affect
my career.
You were in on the ground floor
of Invisalign! Tell us about
those first few years, the
challenges and your thoughts
on clear aligner therapy today.
So, who doesn't love Chicago? But I
missed the California sunshine, my
life and my friends, so I headed west
again. I started work like many do-
at a corporate office, where I gained
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Orthotown November 2023

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