Top 25 Women in Dentistry: Claudia Patch, DMD

Claudia Patch had a vision and a goal in dentistry before she set foot in her first dental class; she had her sights set on a specific dental practice and once she found her direction, she made each decision accordingly.

“I really believe that if you have vision, focus and direction, you’re going to end up in the right place.” Patch said.

Patch’s specific focus is implants, and she restored 40 full arches of implant dentistry in the last year alone.

She attributes a huge part of her success to having great mentors who steered her in the right direction.

“My first mentor was all about love of the profession and enjoying and embracing what you’re doing and having compassion for people,” she said. “I mean, of course that was a motivation for me as well, because if you keep in mind that it’s a people oriented profession and that’s really what you love it’s going to carry you through the difficult times.”

She admits that her path wasn’t always an easy one, and the process of becoming a dental professional was many times a matter of convincing and self-motivation. Her can-do attitude helped her along the way from her education to tackling day-to-day tasks at work.

“I would tell myself that nothing is impossible. You have to persevere and know that you can do it,” she said.

And persevere she did. Patch considers herself very lucky in her success and her work, which she describes as both exciting and rewarding.

“I feel like I’m changing people’s lives,” she said of her work in dental implants. “I’ve had patients cry, and tell me that they’re just so thrilled, that they haven’t been so comfortable in their lives and that what we’ve done has been life changing for them. That’s something very powerful that I wasn’t expecting to be able to do as frequently as I am now able.”

She also is proud to be so successful as a woman, and feels she was well matched for her role from the very beginning. Women have a certain kind of compassion and tenderness that makes them especially well suited for dentistry, she said.

“Even physically, having small hands and a gentle touch can be helpful for patients to feel comfortable and take down that wall people put up out of fear,” she said.

But success does not come without some struggle, and for Patch, that struggle is managing her time and making sure her mind is always in the right place. She overcomes this battle by creating an environment and a schedule that allows her to be her best and give each patient the quality of attention they deserve.

For the near future, she is moving forward to become a partner in her practice. As for her office, she is developing a program to be the premier center in the area offering the Prettau Implant Bridge, a technology that features full mouth implant reconstruction that will better the lives of many patients.