10 Under 10: San Francisco dentist sets tone for future of community health

Growing up as a fourth-generation San Francisco resident in the city’s Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood, Rubin Sorrell, D.D.S., saw the power of community involvement modeled early on.

“My family was really involved in local elections and anything having to do with our community. They were entrepreneurs and had a variety of different businesses,” said Dr. Sorrell, a recipient of a 2024 ADA 10 Under 10 Award. “I wasn’t sure yet what my career path would be, but my grandfather said, ‘Whatever you do, I just want you to be passionate about it and we’ll figure it out.’”

But outside of Dr. Sorrell’s family, there weren’t many positive professional male role models in his neighborhood who could help him find his passion.

That all changed in 10th grade, when Dr. Sorrell attended a Black Student Union meeting at Phillip and Sala Burton Academic High School. That day, faculty from the University of California San Francisco School of Dentistry spoke to the group, and it changed Dr. Sorrell’s life.

“Hearing them talk about what it was like to work in the dental field, I knew that was the path for me,” he said. “It was like a spotlight turned on in my head. I always thought that there is no other field that affects you psychologically as much as dentistry. I wasn’t able to go to the dentist regularly as a kid, but I always had respect for them. The way they carried themselves — it made an impact on me.”

 

Dr. Sorrell graduated from dental school in 2021, and his journey to becoming a dentist was a long, winding road, with plenty of tests and challenges along the way. Rather than giving up on his passion, he followed a nontraditional career path that has created a significant impact in his community through his nonprofit organization, Dental Robin Hood. While he grew up with few role models, he is becoming one for the next generation in his community.

Dr. Sorrell’s dental journey started at North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University, a Historically Black College and University located in Greensboro, far away from his tight-knit community and family in San Francisco.

“I always knew that I wanted to go to college and specifically an HBCU,” said Dr. Sorrell. “At the time, I saw so many Myspace memorial pages for people I knew in my community, so I wanted to get away from San Francisco for a while and experience something new. Going to an HBCU away from home was an opportunity for me to become an adult and not have the safety net in San Francisco.”

At North Carolina A&T, Dr. Sorrell also joined Army ROTC and was commissioned as an officer upon graduation, which provided him with opportunities to grow as a student and an adult.

“Coming from essentially a single-parent household, there's some things that you don't know that you need to know about truly being an adult and a person of respect, and it really just took my independence and maturity and knowing that you can restart your life if you need to, you do have the perseverance,” he said. “Ultimately, that transferred to how I feel about my patients. I’m going to teach them about their oral health and reinforce that they have the knowledge about what it means to take care of their teeth.”

 

After graduation from North Carolina A&T, Dr. Sorrell returned to San Francisco and resettled in the city as a man four years older and more mature, with military service and ready to continue his journey to becoming a dentist.

The dental school application process was an arduous one for Dr. Sorrell. Before he was accepted, he applied three times within five years to a variety of schools around the U.S., regularly facing rejection or no response at all.

Still determined, he started looking at nontraditional pathways to reach his professional goal.

That included enrolling in a two-year postbaccalaureate program at San Francisco State University, which gave him hands-on access and experience working with dentists in the area. Dr. Sorrell graduated from North Carolina A&T with a biology degree, but the postbaccalaureate program gave him more dental-focused experience and access. During the program, a representative from A.T. Still University’s Arizona School of Dentistry & Oral Health came to speak to students. The dental school had public health embedded in its curriculum and offered a D.M.D. and M.P.H. dual-degree program with A.T. Still University’s College of Graduate Health Studies.

Dr. Sorrell applied for both A.T. Still’s dental and master’s programs and was accepted by the latter only.

“When I got into the master’s program, I thought, ‘Well, why don’t I do this in reverse?’ The M.P.H. program also allowed me to stay busy to keep my skills and dental school application fresh,” he said.

The master’s program was very community focused, something Dr. Sorrell was passionate about. That same program also was the foundation for his nonprofit organization, Dental Robin Hood, which he started in 2016.

 

Dental Robin Hood is a community-based organization that educates residents in underserved communities about oral health and provides them with tips and supplies to build a healthier oral hygiene routine when they may not have regular access to a dental office.

“Dental Robin Hood started with me, some of my cousins, Dollar Tree and about 100 packets of toothbrushes and toothpaste,” Dr. Sorrell said. “I created my own oral hygiene tips and tricks and a list of free or reduced-cost dental services in the Bay Area.”

Dr. Sorrell and his cousins handed those packets out in housing projects, and then he expanded Dental Robin Hood to access community members in new ways. One of those ways was the Cut N Care program, which engaged barbers and beauticians.

“If you know anything about the history of teeth, barbers were our original dentists. We got our hair cut and our teeth done at the same place,” he said. “No one is as close to your face as a barber. So Dental Robin Hood left kits and the tips at the barber and beautician locations, and everything grew from there.” 

 

With his master’s program complete and Dental Robin Hood up and running, Dr. Sorrell turned his sights back to dental school and applied in 2017 to the UCSF School of Dentistry. He was finally accepted.

“Leading up to dental school, the experience of going through the Dental Admission Test, postbaccalaureate, master’s program — I thought that is the hardest I’ve ever worked, until I got into dental school, and that first year blew that out of the water,” he said.

When he graduated in 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he didn’t get to celebrate this monumental achievement with a graduation ceremony and public recognition.

“It felt a little lackluster because we didn’t have a graduation. It was just like, ‘All right, you’re in the world now, here’s your license, bye.’ So it was hard for me to make that transition, like, ‘OK, I’m on my own, what now?’” Dr. Sorrell said.

 

As Dr. Sorrell's dental journey continued, he focused on serving diverse Medi-Cal/Denti-Cal populations. His first year, he worked at Children's Choice, a dental support organization serving the pediatric population. In his second year, he joined Bayview Health and Wellness at the historic Arthur H. Coleman Medical Center, where he treated the general population. Most recently, he has transitioned to Oral Health Care Company, providing dental care across multiple Bay Area skilled nursing facilities. This trajectory reflects his deep commitment to serving underserved communities throughout different stages of life.

“Right now, I see patients a few days a week in the morning. Then, in the afternoons, I go into Dental Robin Hood mode, so I might be responding to emails, going to some school sites, etc.,” he said.

Since 2016, Dental Robin Hood has continued to expand, including adding the Anomaly Program, which gives at-risk high school youth exposure to occupations in dentistry outside of being a dentist, such as an office manager and dental assistant.

When he’s not seeing patients or working on Dental Robin Hood business, Dr. Sorrell and his wife and children love going for a drive.

“We’re trying to make drives cool again,” he said. “We know gas prices are going up, but sometimes you just like rolling in the car with the music playing and the window down while driving around your city.”

 

Food, dominoes and spades are also big passions for Dr. Sorrell and his family. 

“My community has a lot of different pop-up food shops, and we always like to eat different types of food and support local businesses,” he said. “We also love San Francisco sports, going to the park and reading as many new books as possible.”

Even outside of the office and clinic, community continues to be a core component of Dr. Sorrell’s life and the beating heart that keeps him closely connected to it.

“I’m so grateful to be recognized by ADA as a 10 Under 10 because I’ve gotten to this point by the support of the standard bearers before me, and I believe I am that next standard bearer for community health,” he said. “10 Under 10 shines a light on my work and the importance of investing in community health programs and initiatives.”

Learn more about the 10 Under 10 Awards program at ADA.org/10Under10 and get inspired at SmileCon's Changemakers Celebration, which will recognize this year’s 10 Under 10 Award winners and other award recipients.