Specialty: Oral/Maxillofacial surgery, orthognathic surgery
Education: Harvard Dental School, 1985; Harvard Medical School, 1987
Years practicing in Phoenix: 18
Hometown: Bellevue, Washington

How did you first become interested in this field?
“I had braces as a teenager, and that experience was such a positive one for me personally that I always thought if I can provide that same wonderful feeling for someone else, it’ll be worthwhile pursuing that type of work as a lifelong career.”

Did anyone help influence your decision?
“My orthodontist saw my interest in dentistry and surgery, and he actually took me to a couple of seminars that were given at the University of Washington. I thought, ‘Gosh, what a great career. I can help people and lead people along who are interested in something similar to what I am in and be kind of a mentor,’ and he was kind of a mentor for me.”

What are your proudest moments as a maxillofacial surgeon?
“There was a 16-year-old young lady who basically didn’t properly develop her lower jaw, so she had tremendous difficulty in everyday breathing, and, on top of that, she was a wonderful singer. I replaced both of her jaw joints and then moved her whole upper and lower jaw and chin forward. Not only was the facial transformation on her incredible, but so was the functional improvement in her ability to chew and simply to breathe, and her singing actually improved.
“My other proudest moment was in 1999 when I repaired (former Phoenix Coyotes center) Jeremy Roenick’s fractured jaw, and got him back on the ice playing with the Coyotes 10 days after. I was able to place two titanium plates across his fractures, and therefore he did not need his jaws wired together at all. Apparently it was the fastest, at that point in time, that anyone had been back from a broken jaw.”

By reshaping patients’ faces, there seems to be a lot of art accompanying the science of maxillofacial surgery. How do those go together?
“On the artistic side, I actually used to love to sculpt when I was younger. And then on the scientific side, I use all of the most technological and computerized diagnostic imaging, where I can move the bones of the face around on this particular computer program. I’m able to actually do the surgery on the computer, so that when I go to the operating room, I know exactly how much and where to move the bones of the face.”

How often do you do complex maxillofacial surgeries, and how often do you do simpler oral surgeries?
“In terms of my percentage, I probably spend 50 percent of my time doing temporomandibular joint and orthognathic surgery, and then 50 percent of my time is doing basic oral surgery, like implants and wisdom teeth. But the 50 percent (on TMJ and orthognathic) is enough, because they are intensive enough procedures where I need a break every now and then to do the more easy stuff. Wisdom teeth are 15 minutes for me, piece of cake.”