I did not know I wanted to go into dentistry until after I had graduated college and been working for several years as an interior designer. I worked in corporate design – designing retail stores first for Fossil and later for FedEx Office. When the recession happened, half of my department at FedEx was laid off and it opened my eyes to the fact that the industry I was in was vulnerable to the ups and downs of the economy. 

Around the same time, my mother became very ill again (she has battled trigeminal neuralgia for 30+ years) and a good friend passed away from cancer. My friend was in her mid-twenties, recently married, and lived a very healthy lifestyle. It put some things into perspective. I felt like I was wasting my life doing something that I was not passionate about. I also saw how my mom and friend’s doctors played a valuable role in their lives and I admired their positions of responsibility and their ability to really make a positive difference in people’s lives. 

I started looking into healthcare as a career and ultimately decided upon dentistry because I felt with my artistic background that I would enjoy the hands-on nature of the profession. I was also steered in the direction of dentistry by many physicians who described the medical industry as changing due to the lack of time available to see each of their patients.

I took prerequisites for dental school at night while working full-time as a Regional Design Manager for FedEx. I continued working until two days before my first semester began at the UT Health Science Center in San Antonio. During my senior year at UTHSCSA, I was contemplating the idea of working for the Indian Health Services as a means of exploring a new part of the country. A mentor at school convinced me to look into private practice ownership and I’m so thankful he did. Having someone to tell me I was not only capable, but also very well-suited for private practice was the push that I needed.

My husband (although we were unmarried at the time) and I had merely joked about moving to Colorado the year before, but with no real ambition. When we began discussing starting a dental practice somewhere, we quickly changed our mindset to finding the perfect town for us. I started looking into towns with a dental need in the states of Colorado, Wyoming, and Oregon. I Googled a list of towns in each of these states with a population under 30,000 and then went to the map and counted the number of dental offices that came up in a search. The January before my graduation, I came across the town of New Castle, CO, and was floored by the opportunity.

I called the town planner and introduced myself. He recommended that I come out and check out the town and see for myself. Raul, my now husband, and I flew out from Texas and were in Colorado for less than 24 hours that weekend. We saw enough to fall in love with the town. The downtown was adorable, the people were nice, and the outdoor recreational opportunities were more abundant than we could have imagined. 

The following week, Raul applied for civil engineering jobs and received several offers. He moved out to Colorado while I was finishing my final semester of dental school. As we typically do, Raul and I crammed as much as possible into one weekend. We got married on a Friday, I graduated on Sunday, sold my condo on Monday, and drove the U-Haul to Colorado on Tuesday!

It took us almost two years to find the perfect location and build out the dental office. In the meantime, I practiced dentistry in Grand Junction and Rifle, CO. It was a great time to learn what I did and did not want in my own practice. I spent my free time immersing myself in dental business-related courses. I started encountering speakers on the topics of oral-systemic wellness and knew that I wanted to build my practice in that way. I want to be able to intervene and make improvements in people’s lives and overall health.

The Town of New Castle was extremely welcoming. My team and I opened New Castle Dental in May of 2017 and we have been busy ever since. We at NCD are proud to call New Castle our home and look forward to meeting more people we can help!