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Giving Back
21 Plays1 month ago
About the Hosts:
Dr. Savanah Craig and Dr. Ronnetta Sartor are the hosts of "Beyond Graduation," a podcast dedicated to exploring the journeys and experiences of young professionals in the dental field. They have both completed their dental residencies and bring a wealth of knowledge and personal insights to their conversations, focusing on the myriad paths and considerations that follow graduation from dental school. Dr. Craig and Dr. Sartor are passionate about community service and mentoring, using their skills to give back and inspire others within the dental community.
Episode Summary:
In this insightful episode of "Beyond Graduation," Drs. Savanah Craig and Ronnetta Sartor delve into the rewarding aspects of giving back to the community through their expertise in dentistry. The hosts share their experiences and personal stories of how they have managed to integrate community service and volunteer work into their busy professional lives, particularly during the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons. They emphasize the significance of contributing positively to society, especially in ways that align with their professional skills and personal passions.
The episode further explores how both hosts have been involved in various forms of volunteer work since their dental school days. Dr. Ronnetta Sartor discusses her long-standing commitment to service, from her involvement in church activities to her sorority's community outreach. She highlights her current engagement in volunteer dental clinics and school screenings, which help address the pressing need for dental care among underserved populations. Meanwhile, Dr. Savanah Craig elaborates on her passion for hospital dentistry and how she has found innovative ways to continue this work post-residency by partnering with a Cincinnati-based dental residency program, providing much-needed dental care for special needs patients.
Key Takeaways:
- Volunteering in dentistry provides an opportunity to use professional skills to serve communities and populations that might otherwise lack access to care.
- Mentorship and education are crucial components of professional growth and giving back, offering young dental professionals insights into the realities of the field.
- Community involvement can manifest in various ways, from organized service projects to spontaneous mentorship, enhancing both personal fulfillment and societal wellbeing.
- Engagement in volunteer work from an early career stage lays a foundation for an ongoing commitment to service throughout one's professional life.
- Personal reflection and gratitude are essential, helping to maintain enthusiasm and resilience in the challenging field of dentistry.
Connect with Us:
- Savanah Craig, DDS: @savanahcraigdds
- Ronnetta Sartor, DMD: @dr_sartor
- FutureDentists Beyond Graduation: @futuredentistsbeyondgraduation
- Dental Residency Guide and Beyond Graduation eBooks: https://ignitedds.com/subscription-resources/
Get inspired by this engaging conversation and discover new perspectives on integrating volunteerism and mentorship into your dental career. Tune into "Beyond Graduation" for more episodes that offer valuable advice and heartfelt stories from your favorite dental professionals.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Beyond Graduation' Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Join Dr. Savannah Craig and Renetta Sartor as we navigate life beyond graduation. Real conversations about forging our own paths in our early years, in our careers. There's a reason it's called practicing dentistry. Welcome back everyone for another episode of Beyond Graduation. I am Savannah Craig and with me as always, it's Renetta Sartor. We're glad to be back.
Volunteering in the Dental Profession
00:00:26
Speaker
ah So we are round and up season two here um and so in the this you know idea of we're coming up on Thanksgiving and Christmas and all of these things we thought we would talk about um the ways that we volunteer and give back because you know dentistry can be stressful but um we're really blessed to be able to do what we do. So we both have a passion for using those skills we've learned to give back to people in the ways that we can. Renetta, what does giving back look like to you and how um help have you been giving back since dental school? Was it more a residency thing, private practice? How has that changed throughout year your time? I feel like I've been giving back for like
00:01:21
Speaker
as long as I can remember. like I remember being really young and going to church with my grandmother and doing stuff at church. um When I got into undergrad, we had a an organization called Impact and we would do community service of different types all over the Spartanburg and upstate South Carolina community.
00:01:46
Speaker
Um, and then in undergrad, I pledged sorority too. And as everyone knows lots of sororities aren't just about all of the fun, but more than anything, um, they're about community and giving him back. So, um, I'm still a part of that sorority and everything too. So I still give back as it pertains to stuff
Renetta's Volunteering Experiences
00:02:08
Speaker
like that. Um,
00:02:11
Speaker
But from a dental perspective, um um I still give back as well. um you know, we did the same residency program. So it was a part of being a resident. You know, you had to volunteer at the children's clinic and the adult clinic. Um, it changed a little bit when, um, you got there, but when I was there, we also went to the VA and, um, serve the veterans, which was amazing, um, to do that as well. Um,
00:02:44
Speaker
I still volunteer at the children's clinic a few times a year. So that's fun. Shout out to mama Donna. Yes. Yes. Love her. Um, and Dr. Stockton too, cause she kind of is over the whole thing. yeah Um, but also like in our office, we give back a whole lot. One of the fun things that we do every year.
00:03:07
Speaker
um is school screenings at one of the local elementary schools, and um which is cool. The school that we volunteer at has a school population of over 800 children. Of course, parents can opt out if they don't want their kid to um be seen. but You'd be surprised what you see in a schools and it's super important because you hear that statistic all the time that the number one reason that children miss school is from dental related um things. so um
00:03:43
Speaker
When you when you do the screenings at the schools if you so i'm guessing it's more just like an exam and this is. What needs to be done and then where do the kids go for treatment do you send them to the children's clinic or two so.
00:03:59
Speaker
I think if where I volunteer for the children's clinic and where my office were, we're in the same County, I probably would be able to do that. But the way that the forms are pretty much as three boxes. If you you don't see anything, you can check that and just recommend that they go for, um, you know, their cleanings and everything else. The next box says, okay, I see something that could be an issue. Um,
00:04:28
Speaker
you know When you get time, schedule the child for an appointment. In the last boxes, I see something that's urgent and you need to get them to a dentist ASAP. Gotcha. our office information is listed. um But I think the school also has resources based on the family's specific um needs and everything. But it's it's pretty cool because you'd be surprised how many people and how many kids have not had pain, but you look in their mouth and
00:05:01
Speaker
It's definitely stuff going on, but we also on that form leave space for like anything else we might see. So if I see that a kid is like possibly congenitally missing a tooth, or if they have really bad crowding, I'll write on that form, you know, that they may want to have an orthodontic consult. Um, cause maybe no one's ever told them, or maybe the kid just has good teeth, but hasn't ever went to the dentist, you know? Totally. Um,
00:05:31
Speaker
What about
Savannah's Volunteering Journey
00:05:32
Speaker
you? You do some really cool stuff. Um, and you have been, so can you tell us about your journey from, you know, as when you could first remember giving back to, to now?
00:05:44
Speaker
Oh man, um similar to you of, you know, church and I went to um a Catholic school, so it was very much ingrained in the community and we gave back a lot through that. um And so then definitely continued service and in various ways through elementary school high school um college i also was a part of a sorority so we had philanthropic endeavors but i also would do um we call them alternative spring breaks where you could give up your week of spring break and go volunteer in some sort of
00:06:22
Speaker
um I did the same thing. Yeah, those were super fun. um So yeah, it's always been, I don't know, just a part of my life to give back in whatever way that I can. um And our residency, but like you said, was super big on, I always hear in the back of my mind, like you've been blessed to have this career and these skills. So you you should use that to bless others in whatever way that looks like.
00:06:51
Speaker
um But I really, really loved um hospital dentistry in residency. That was sort of ah a big part of why I wanted to do a residency was to use those skills to help special needs and this population of people that it's really hard for them to get care.
00:07:13
Speaker
So I loved that aspect of the our residency and the OR. And I think it's just so fun to like only focus on the dentistry. You know what I mean? There's somebody doing the anesthesia and you just do the teeth thing and get get it out of there. So it was important to me when I left residency to figure out a way to continue doing that. It's not the easiest ah thing to do. Being a dentist in a hospital system is challenging, but I found a residency um that I had applied to when I was
00:07:59
Speaker
Looking to get into residency myself and I you know had a really great connection with the attendings and those sorts of things. I went to South Carolina, but I contacted them when I moved back and said, I really love going to the operating room and treating patients. And I know that there's a need for more people to do it. I can't figure out how to do it on my own. So I drive down to Cincinnati once a month and treat special needs patients in the operating room under the UC Dental Health AEGD program.
00:08:36
Speaker
That's great. That's awesome. Yeah. What's that experience been like for you so far? It's, it's sort of complicated because I'm driving from Columbus to Cincinnati. So we're still working out the administrative side of all of this and what is most convenient for checking all the boxes and getting patients seen. But we,
00:09:03
Speaker
you know, any more patients that can be seen in a year is better. So it allowed me to take over one hospital session a month and give time for the other attendings and residents to add more ah OR dates. So that's awesome. um In the beginning, I went down with the other attendings and, you know, we worked together because hospitals are confusing places to get around. ah Being a dentist in a hospital where nobody knows who you are is a little bit overwhelming. So um they were very awesome in like getting me up to speed slowly. So now I'm going myself with um
00:09:45
Speaker
They had a resident who was in the program last year and she stayed on as an attending. So her and I go together on Wednesdays, which is great to have somebody else who knows what's going on. The nurses and dentistry is not a part of the healthcare system.
00:10:05
Speaker
And that's a whole other topic, but it's nice to have another set of hands to, okay, can you go grab me a toffelmeyer? Can you get this, that, the other thing? But as you know, but maybe a lot of people don't, the patients that we take to the operating room really are unable to even get a set of x-rays in a traditional dental practice.
00:10:28
Speaker
So we have no idea what we're getting into until the patient is intubated and under an anesthesia. We take all of our x-rays we do our exam and we determine what treatment is needed. So it can be anything from a 20 minute pro fee to full mouth extraction to a combination of.
00:10:51
Speaker
10 fillings and 10 extractions. Oh yeah. Those were, I remember those being fun days, but you also don't know what time you're going to get done because exactly you have no clue how long it's going to be. Yeah. And they're, you know, typically medically challenging patients. So anesthesia and intubation and those things can be,
00:11:18
Speaker
challenging so it's always very funny when you have a new sort of OR team and they're like how long is this going to be and I'm like as soon as I know I will let you know but I have no idea till I take these x-rays and I think that's challenging because they're used to an appendectomy takes as long as an appendectomy takes barring any complications but worry um Yeah, it's a lot of fun and the the plan is at some point for me to be able to start taking residents with me and you know I have a different set of training because I went to Prisma, so um to be able to share those skills is really cool.
00:12:05
Speaker
That'd be really cool because with working with the residents, you'll you'll
Mentorship in Dentistry
00:12:09
Speaker
be able to learn too. like um i've I've never worked with an another dentist or like been in the same room with another dentist talking about dentistry that I didn't pick up some pearls. Totally. but it's It's super funny because
00:12:30
Speaker
Typically when I go with the other attending who's newer, we'll do, you know, split half the mouth. And there are times where giving her pearls on extractions because she wasn't super comfortable with surgery. And we laugh because she's like, how do you know how to do this? And I think back to being myself as that like new resident and being so afraid to pull teeth. And now it's,
00:12:58
Speaker
it's my favorite thing to do. So it's really funny to look back on those things. And um yeah, I think giving giving back is super cool. And the parents are and caregivers are super grateful, so. Sure.
00:13:10
Speaker
I think another area of giving back that we maybe didn't even really think of as giving back is, um, but you kind of touched on it as mentoring. Yeah. And that sort of thing. So the cool part of having my own practice has been the amount of young people who are interested in dentistry that asks if they can come to the office to shadow. That's so fine it's really cool. Cause I had one of the local,
00:13:36
Speaker
high schools reach out for, right now we have a student that's doing an internship with us. whoa And so she comes every Tuesday and Thursday morning and she's super bright and her energy makes me excited for dentistry all over. Um, but she's interested not so much in being a dentist, um, but in hygiene, but also how a dental office works. And I feel like,
00:14:08
Speaker
Yeah. That's for granted. Right. You take for granted it. Like some of the questions that she has very intuitive and, um, it's just, yeah, it just gives you a new excitement. Um, and makes you reflect on what made you want to get into dentistry and just how much we have to offer people with the talents that we've been given. Yeah.
00:14:37
Speaker
we We all were that person at some point. You had to have your shadowing hours. So that's that's so cool. And that's so special because those early interactions with somebody who's willing to have you come to their office and get excited with you, I think can really shape someone's career versus having those dentists who are not happy in their career can really just squash that dream. And I've had, we've had some high schoolers come through and we're just like, you know, ask us anything. You know, you can watch what you want. And some of them have said, yeah, I think I want to do something in healthcare, but I don't think it's dentistry. And that's okay too, right? Totally.
Gratitude and Healing in Dentistry
00:15:25
Speaker
I would rather them know now than to go through the rigorous process of getting into dental school.
00:15:31
Speaker
and then get there and then realize this is not what I want to do. So um yeah, it's been really interesting, but we keep in touch with them and they're, you know, they tell us what they're doing and we're super proud of them. That's super cool. I think that's, reminds me of the the biggest part of like giving back, especially in the dental field, giving back in general just reminds you how grateful you are for your life and all of these things. But I think like you said, giving back with dentistry reminds you of the excitement and why you wanted to do this because not every patient but some patients in your regular every day can not be as grateful as you want them to be.
00:16:22
Speaker
in some aspects, and so I think when you're giving back, people are very appreciative, it even if the patients aren't the other people that you're with can give you that energy to keep doing this. I think that kind of ties back into what we we're saying about ourselves too, right? So you and I always talk about how I have like a gratitude journal, and especially on those hard days,
00:16:50
Speaker
It means even more to come home and write in that journal because it helps you reflect on what's going good. Yeah. And not so much on what could have went better. Yeah, I think that's a really good point because it can. You can get in the weeds. For sure.
00:17:12
Speaker
It's easy to do, it's easy to do. Yeah, but I think, I don't know, I've started recently, especially in, for me, I think in the OR because you're not focused on patient management or anything else.
00:17:29
Speaker
I find myself just being like, this job is so crazy and cool. You know, the fact that I just take this drill and I take out the decayed part of the tooth and then fix it, like on such a minute level, that's crazy. The fact that we can do that is wild. um It reminds me of um one of my cutest little patients. She's five years old.
00:17:59
Speaker
And, you know, showtale do right with their first dinner experience. So I pretty much described a procedure to her as magic. Right. So I told her I was getting rid of the bad bugs. Yeah. And once I got rid of the bad bugs, I was going to paint her teeth and then shine my light on it like Disney and magic. And once I shine my light is brand new. Yeah. And it blew her mind and it blew my mind that I even came up with that to tell her. And I was like, but essentially that that's what we're doing. Right. Yeah. yeah That's what we're doing is magic. We fixed it. Exactly. And there's not a lot of.
00:18:35
Speaker
things in in life that are sort of that cut and drive, we'll just take out the bad part. It'll be all right. Like, I don't know. Not every day do I have that like, eyes wide open magic of my job, but sometimes you're like, this is actually really crazy that I do this all the time.
00:19:02
Speaker
So I think that's a great way to wrap up dentistry and giving back and just finding those little pieces that remind you how lucky you are to get to do this and have the the ability to do what we do.
Conclusion: Diverse Ways to Give Back
00:19:20
Speaker
Yes. And I think one of the important parts that we kind of came to is that it does not have to be dentistry related. You're giving back. It could be giving back to your community. Um, it can be mentoring. It can be whatever you deem as your way of giving back to society, but also giving back to yourself too. Mm-hmm.
00:19:43
Speaker
Yeah. Well, let us know um what everyone else is up to and the ways that you're giving back and finding gratitude and enjoyment out of life because we are blessed to be able to do what we do. So let us know what you're working on and we'd love to hear from you.
00:20:07
Speaker
Thank you for joining us for this episode of Beyond Graduation. If you enjoyed this week's episode, be sure to share it with a friend. Connect with us on social media, Savannah Craig, DDS, and Dr. Underscore Sartor. And remember, you are not alone on this journey. This episode was sponsored by the Dental Residency Guide and the Beyond Graduation eBooks. These eBooks can be found at IgniteDDS dot.com slash eBooks. Thank you so much for listening to Beyond Graduation brought to you by Ignite DDS and Future Dentists.