Mount Pleasant Magazine 6.4

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Medical Marketing content
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A nd just like that, the
dental profession is en vogue.
Earlier this year, dentist was ranked
No. 2 in U.S. News &World Report’s 100
Best Jobs of 2016. (Orthodontist finished
first.) It’s a far cry from the pop culture
depictions of dentists as idiosyncratic sub-doctors, and the
attitude
couldn’t
come at a better time as studies
continue to show a direct link
between oral health and overall
health.
In the Lowcountry – indeed,
in all of South Carolina – no
institution has done more to
advance dentistry over the past
five decades than the Medical
University of South Carolina’s
James B. Edwards College of
Dental Medicine, which mints
more than 70 new dentists each
year, the majority of whom hail
from the Palmetto State and
embark on careers here.
One of those students is Rob
Painter, a 27-year-old Greenville
native who completed his doctor
of Dental Medicine in May and
is set to join a Charleston-area
dental group this summer.
What would draw an
obviously talented young man –
more than 1,000 applicants vied
for just 71 spots in Painter’s class
– to a profession that perhaps
isn’t viewed as the most glamorous in the medical world?
“I wanted to find the way that I could do the most
good both in terms of treating patients effectively and
being in a field that was attractive to me,” Dr. Painter said.
“I view dentistry as a craft. It’s a combination of art and
surgery, and I love working with my hands. It made sense
as the best way to put my passion and talent to use.”
That explanation mirrors the sentiments of Dr. Tariq
Javed, the College of Dental Medicine’s dean of academic
and student affairs, who
identified training, community
service and research as three
tenets of the college’s mission.
“We are producing dentists
who are competent but also
have a heart,” said Dr. Javed.
“I believe we’ve been very
successful. Our faculty and
staff are pre-eminent. And
our clinical facilities are very
modern, very up-to-date. That’s
thanks to the state, MUSC, our
alumni and benefactors.”
New FroNtiers
Based largely on a visceral
combination of overheard
grousing and personal pain,
it’s believed that most people
view trips to the dentist as a
necessary evil at best, in some
cases to be avoided until oral
maladies at last become truly
unbearable.
The truth is that dental
care is a critical part of good
health and that tooth decay
is the most prevalent chronic
disease among both children and adults – despite being
imminently preventable.
Training, Community
Service and Research
The MUSC College of Dental Medicine
above: dr. rob Painter discusses options with a patient.
Below: no institution has done more to advance dentistry in
the lowcountry than MUSc’s college of dental Medicine.
By daniel Brock
Photos courtesy of the College of Dental Medicine.