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Well, I was teaching high school and had some friends in dental school, they said, “You oughta consider this,“ so I did. Met some good people that encouraged me and after taking the exam, I thought it was pretty interesting, so I decided I would try and got accepted and best move I ever made.
I graduated from the University of South Carolina, go cocks! And then I went to dental school in USC, we had a three-year program going year-round, I was able to get our a year early and was on an Army scholarship so I went to Fort Jackson in Columbia, where they had a mini residency program, which I participated in for two years. I had planned to get out, but my commander, who became Major General Leffler, discouraged me from getting out and encouraged me to stay in the Army.
I went to Germany for a three-year tour, I liked it so much I stayed for a fourth year. And then, Major General Leffler came to visit and offered me a two-year general practice residency in Monterey California, right next to Pebble Beach. I love to golf, and I did a two-year general practice residency there, and then the Army said, “Where would you like to go now?“ I said, “I'd like to go back to Germany, please.“ I went back to Germany, Nuremberg area, for three years and after that I got out of the Army, I went into private practice, but I did stay in the reserves and I did retire from the Army, but I did introduce you to the two-year general practice residency, I did a one-year residency in implantology at the Medical College of Georgia.
Just stay current on the latest trends. This practice is one of the, if the not the best, one of the best I've ever been associated with, in terms of being in the cutting edge of dentistry. We've got every piece of modern equipment you can have, we're all trained up on it, we're able to provide our patients with the latest, state-of-the-art dentistry.
My rule, because of my advanced training, is to do a lot of the surgeries, the extractions, the shaping of the gums to prepare the patient for a prosthesis, which could be a denture or a partial denture, and I do a lot of crown and bridge.
For me, it's seeing a person come in with a need, and being able to come fulfill that need, and create a beautiful smile for that patient and have them, oftentimes, hug me and thank me and say, “Thank you, doctor, it's beautiful.
Dr. Devon Parks attended the University of South Carolina for his undergraduate degree in biology and then received his Doctorate of Dental Medicine from the Medical University of South Carolina. When he isn’t practicing dentistry, he enjoys golfing, sailing, playing guitar, traveling, reading, watching movies, and spending time with his family and friends. He also likes to cook and pair food with wines.