Being a woman dentist is wonderful! I didn't always feel this way, but I appreciate it more and more each year. Daily, I am grateful for my career, my patients, my staff and my ability to connect with wonderful people every day and make a difference, in ways big and small.

One of the joys of dentistry is its "daily-ness". We generally don't see people in acute crises, like an oncologist would, or in times of tremendous joy, like an obstetrician does when delivering a healthy baby. One of my patients most poignantly described this to me years ago. A mother came in to my practice with her 4 kids for routine cleanings. The hygienist came to me and said, "I don't know what I did wrong but this family is very upset with me." I went to the mother in the waiting room and she gave me a wan smile. "Is everything ok?", I asked. "Your children seem upset; how did we upset you?" "Oh, it was nothing you did," the mother assured me. "We buried the children's father and my husband this morning. But I wanted the kids to realize that life goes on, and part of life is going to the dentist, so here we are." A return to normalcy for this woman was going to the dentist - a "daily" activity. She wanted to show her children that life goes on despite their loss - so she came to my office for their dental cleanings.

Mostly, we see people between their work day and their kids' soccer practice - between dropping off the dry cleaning and going to the grocery store. We get to share their lives - over and over and day by day through the seasons of life - if we're lucky - over years and decades. We see them when their babies, who were born last month are keeping them up at night, or they just got a new job, or they're thinking about retirement. We see them when their teenagers are acting up, when their mom died last week and when they are using their dental insurance after loosing their job. They see us through the seasons of our lives too. Some of my patients remember me pregnant - and my children are now nearly 20 and 25. One dear patient literally drove her friends to see me when I got divorced; she supported me with paying patients at a time I needed them dearly. When I met my fiance, they celebrated with me - when my baby left home, they hugged me knowing how empty the house now seemed. They comment on my hairdos and when I've lost weight. They are my community.

I hope we can share in meaningful ways on this blog. In dental school, we were only 11 women out of 137. We were squeezed into a very small locker room. We had to be close as there was literally little room for us. The sorority of women dentists has grown tremendously in the 30 years since I was in school. But it is still a fairly small sisterhood and while we may not share a locker room or even office space, perhaps here we can let down our hair, or rather, put down our explorers and explore the joys, sorrow, hopes and fears of being a woman dentist today. Blog on!