How she came to dentistry
After college, Dr. Lynch's first job was as a social worker for children and families. One day she took a child from her caseload to the dentist with a toothache, and watched the dentist take the pain away in a single visit. It changed the course of her life.
I was blown away by the immediate help this dentist gave a young girl by taking away her excruciating toothache pain, in about a half an hour. I realized that he had concretely helped her. My primary motivation for choosing social work as a career was helping people, and the help I was giving my clients seemed flimsy to me. It was not very tangible, and when it was tangible, it was not lasting.
I had been mostly scared of the dentist because of early experiences as a child. When I saw the dentist help that girl, I decided I wanted to learn more about what dentists do. As I learned about dentistry being a marriage of science and artistic skill, with the added bonus of physically being able to help people, I was hooked.
Training
Dr. Lynch graduated from Oral Roberts University with honors and a minor in chemistry. In high school she won city-wide and school art competitions for her sculpture, and that eye for form has followed her into dentistry. She chose New York University College of Dentistry for its hands-on clinical training and rigorous academics, and graduated at the top of her class in 2005.
She practiced in Manhattan, then spent a year as an extern treating underserved patients in rural Texas, where she gained her experience in oral surgery. In 2007 she and her husband, who had fallen in love with the Valley on vacation, moved here for good. They are raising their five children in Arizona.
How she practices
Dr. Lynch considers her training a journey that does not end. She keeps up with both the conventional and the biologic schools of thought in dentistry, so that she can offer patients real options rather than one answer. She takes time to listen, because the person in the chair knows things about their sleep and their health that no test shows.
She does not enjoy having her own teeth worked on, and she remembers being scared of the dentist. So she takes care that nobody is rushed, that every image and every finding is explained, and that the appliance she fits is as comfortable as she can make it.
Patient care
Dr. Lynch considers her journey in dentistry an ongoing one, staying abreast of the most up-to-date health information and current best practices from both allopathic and biologic schools of thought. One special area she is concerned with is patient care: she takes time to listen to each patient in order to understand their health concerns and specific goals.
Why sleep apnea
Year after year, she saw the same signs in her dental patients: teeth worn flat, a jaw thrust forward in the night, a small airway, a partner who could not sleep for the snoring, and a patient who was always tired. Many had tried CPAP and given up on it. AZ Sleep is her answer: a practice where those patients are tested at home, fitted with a custom appliance, and seen on a Saturday if that is the only day they can come.
