FYI

Each quarter, we highlight dental professionals and office staff who have been nominated by their peers in recognition of their exceptional work for both their patients and their communities. We’re proud to announce our latest winner, Dr. Mayank Sharma.

Dr. Sharma is a dentist in Rancho Santa Margarita, California. We talked to him recently about his background, work ethic and his commitment to green dentistry.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got to where you are today.

I’ve been in dentistry for close to 21 years now. I went to dental school in India and practiced there for eight years. Then I just decided to move to United States.

I was fortunate to get into the University of California at San Francisco. It was a two-year program, and I graduated from there in 2019. I have been practicing ever since now — so close to six years. It has been an amazing journey overall. I’m loving every day and every step of it.
 

Why did you decide to become a dentist?

I think the biggest thing was my grandfather. He passed away due to oral cancer because it wasn't caught at the right time, so it was pretty much at the final stage. I think that is one of the things that I want to make sure of whenever I'm seeing my patients — I check everything. And if there's anything that is in its early stage, we always take care of it. We don’t wait for it to get to an advanced stage.
 

What does a typical day look like for you?

I’ll wake up in the morning and get a couple of things started — working out, for one. I try to stay fit because it's a very demanding profession. You have to make sure you stay healthy, especially your back and neck. They need a lot of care.

So I get those things done in the morning and come into the office, taking care of all the patients that we can during the work day. We are divided between the hygiene schedule and any emergencies or any people who we already have on the schedule for treatments.
 
We’re now trying to stay open till 7 pm so we can take care of the patients who don't have time during the day so they can come visit us after 5 pm. We are open Saturdays as well.

I love this profession. If my body would allow it, I could do this 24/7. That is how much I love dentistry. But you need some downtime as well. So that's Sunday for us, and sometimes we’re closed on Tuesdays so the staff can have some time off.

You're an advocate of green dentistry. Can you tell us more about that and what it entails?

Sure. Green dentistry just means that we have to try to use as many renewable resources as we can to save, to minimize the waste. And while we’re doing some simple steps, we can actually bring down the waste in the office by a significant amount.

My office has big windows that help for more natural light so we use less electrical light during the day. We are not paper based. We are totally electronic, so that saves a lot of paper. No paper charts, nothing like that. There are a lot of things which we reuse — not a lot of disposables — which also helps to cut down on the trash. Just basic things like that.

These small things, they add up toward the end. So it's not just from the environment point of view; it's also from the practice point of view that you end up saving something. But the biggest thing always is the environment. You do whatever you can try to do your part.
 

It sounds like you don’t have much free time, but what do you like to do when you’re not working?

I used to be a guitar teacher. That was a while ago, but I still love to play whenever I can get a chance. It kind of helps to blow off steam. And reading is also one of my hobbies. It helps you to relax and keep on learning more. And I go on hikes in the area nearby.
 

What's some advice that you would give to a recent graduate of a dental school?

The biggest thing I would say is just keep on learning. Dentistry is a great profession, but we have to stay updated with the latest technologies and the latest research and try to practice evidence-based dentistry. Look to research, look to studies and then try to provide the best possible care to our patients.
 
Learning every day is so important. Recently I was able to get my fellowship with the Academy of General Dentistry (AGD), which entails a lot of hours being put in. Next year, I'm hoping to get my master’s degree with the AGD that involves like 1,100 hours of continuing education, plus some exams and other things. As you keep on learning, it increases your confidence, and then you can provide the best possible care to the patients.


What I would like to tell the young graduates is to keep learning, keep improving and go slow. There's no need to rush. Improve one thing first; once you're confident, go to the second procedure. Learn that, be confident about it, and improve. Keep going.
 

Are you involved in any community service activities?

Oh yes. We’ve worked with an organization in Monterey to help clean the parks during the weekends. We have had quite a few mission trips which were in the United States as well. We have given free treatments to patients, including dentures extractions, root canals, so for all the people who could not afford it, we try to do whatever we can for them.
 
When I was in school in UCSF, we used to work for another two hours at night at a free clinic for all the people who don't have the opportunity or the resources to get good care. So recently I opened a non-profit to build up a team of professionals and continue providing good quality dental care to the areas which are underserved. It's in the initial stages, but that is one of my lifelong goals.
 

Is there anything else you’d like to talk about before we wrap up?

There are so many offices in the area, of course, and each office has their own specialty. They stand out in some particular way.

But the one thing that separates my practice from the others or makes us different from the others is that, first of all, we provide all kinds of dentistry under one roof. And as I mentioned earlier, I have been blessed to learn a lot, so I never favor any one treatment. If we see a patient coming in and I feel that this thing can be solved in four different ways, I'll give the patient all four options. I'm never favoring anything because I am able to do all four. So the goal was to make a one-stop shop — whatever needs to be done, we'll do it here for you.

If there's any specialist who I need in the picture, I'll bring the specialist into the office so the patients don't have to go here and there. We take care of all the people here.

Thank you, Dr. Sharma, for taking the time for an interview and for all that you do for your patients and your community. Congratulations on being chosen as a Smile Star.

You can visit the website for Dr. Sharma’s practice for more information.

Do you know someone who should be a Smile Star? Email us at smileaward@delta.org with their contact information and the reason your nominee should win this award.