05/09/2026
Humbled Principal 🙏✍️
There are moments in dentistry that stop you completely.
Today was one of them.
When I opened Smile Solutions as a squat practice in 2003, there was no social media strategy, no algorithm, no online visibility plan. There was just dentistry, trust, relationships and word of mouth.
After nearly 30 years in this profession, my satisfaction has changed. It is no longer only about the dentistry I personally provide. It is about watching my associates grow, develop their own clinical identities, and become highly skilled in their own areas of dentistry.
In many ways, I feel like the mother of the practice. I guide, support, challenge and protect the standards we have built over so many years.
Many of my patients have become part of my life in a way that is difficult to explain. They are on my phone. They message me directly. If I had to choose who to sit with for coffee or dinner, I would choose them all day, every day.
That is the privilege dentistry has given me.
A skill.
A relationship.
A trust.
A place inside people’s lives at moments that often matter far more than teeth alone.
This review touched me deeply because it reminded me why we do what we do.
For this patient’s mother, the issue was not just a smile. It was anxiety, embarrassment, confidence, self isolation, and the ability to feel herself again.
To be trusted with that is never small.
The stories our patients bring into the surgery stay with us. They become part of our own memory bank. Most of them remain private, held quietly between clinician and patient.
So when someone takes the time to write publicly about what their mother felt after just one session, it means more than I can properly put into words.
I am humbled.
And I am grateful beyond measure to have spent my life in a profession where our hands, judgement and care can still make such a human difference.