10 Under 10: Texas dentist flips the script on his childhood dental experiences

As a kid, Austin Lee, D.M.D., had a very relatable relationship with the dentist.

“I hated going to the dentist for as long as I can remember. I felt like every time I went to a dentist there was something wrong,” he said. “I didn’t have the best oral hygiene routine as a kid too, but I definitely felt a trust issue with the dentist. Something was always wrong, and afterwards, it just never seemed to be fixed fully. I was still having some issues. There was a lack of trust with the professionals.”

The kid version of Dr. Lee, a recipient of a 2024 ADA 10 Under 10 Award, would never have imagined dentistry would end up being his career path or that he would now own his own dental practice, Orbis Dental Group in San Antonio.

Because of his childhood experiences, Dr. Lee didn’t prioritize his oral hygiene as an adolescent.

“I went maybe once a year [to the dentist], maybe,” he said of his time in boarding school.

When Dr. Lee was 18 and a senior in high school, an accident forced him to leave the years of mixed dental experiences in the past and allowed him to see the power of the profession.

On a Sunday morning while surfing, Dr. Lee had an accident and broke his front tooth in half. The accident left him in pain and with an unsightly smile. A dentist was able to see him the same day and not only fix his smile but also reduce the pain.

“I left the office pain free and with a better-looking tooth than I imagined, and I just absolutely loved what he did for me and to me, so I decided at that point that’s what I wanted to do,” he said.

 

Dr. Lee even used the mixed dental experiences he had as a child and the issues he felt with those dentists to fuel his professional dental approach. 

“My goal is always to change our patients’ mind about dentistry, that it doesn’t have to be hard, it doesn’t have to be difficult, it doesn’t have to be scary, and that’s always my goal with my career,” he said. “My eyes were set toward dentistry, knowing it is going to be years down the road.”

As an undergrad at Colby College, a private liberal arts college in Waterville, Maine, Dr. Lee balanced playing Division III lacrosse with his bespoke curriculum of classes since Colby College did not have a formal medical or pre-dental program. In addition to juggling classes and sports, he had real-world dental experience through volunteering and observing in the local community around the college. Dr. Lee said juggling these three commitments was tough, but it ended up benefiting him later in dental school.

Applying to dental school is a time-consuming, challenging, vulnerable process. Sometimes, that means taking a roundabout journey to get there.

Dr. Lee’s dental school journey was just that. When he was wait listed at several dental schools, he decided to take a year off. He used that time to take summer school and additional classes, on top of working at a Massachusetts company as a chemist, which was a mixed experience.

“I didn’t really like working as a chemist,” he said. “I would work in a lab without a window and not see the sun very much, which in [Boston] winter took its toll on me.”

The plus side to hours in the lab? Dr. Lee said he learned a lot about chemistry and how it applies in day-to-day life, which made him stronger as a dentist because now he looks at the chemical components of everything he uses and does or doesn’t put them in his patients’ mouths.

“I have a pretty intimate knowledge of what that chemistry can do. And if you mix a couple of things, what are the advantages and disadvantages of everything we use,” Dr. Lee said.

 

During this time, he also explored opportunities with the U.S. Army and the Health Professions Scholarship Program to get him toward his goal of being a dentist. 

“I always knew I was going to become a dentist, but I didn’t know when I could,” Dr. Lee said.

Then, he met a man who would change his life and become a lifelong mentor. Vangel Zissi, D.M.D. — a practicing endodontist and Tufts University alumnus — and Dr. Lee crossed paths through the lacrosse league Dr. Lee played in at Colby College. Dr. Zissi’s son played in the same league for Tufts University.

“Dr. Zissi knew my story and put his blind trust in me and helped me make my dream come true by attending dental school at Tufts University,” Dr. Lee said. “If it wasn’t for the people around me and the colleagues and the friends and my mentors, I definitely would not be here right now.”

With Dr. Zissi’s support and guidance, Dr. Lee enrolled in the class of 2015 at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine.

During dental school, the two men kept in touch, and Dr. Lee was determined to show Dr. Zissi that his faith was well placed.

“He cared about who I was. He could have washed his hands of me but didn’t. I care about people who take a chance on me,” he said. “So I kept in touch with him every once in a while so he knew that he didn’t waste the chance he took on me. He was approachable, I could go to him if I had any concerns and he was very easy to talk to.”

 

When it came time to start dental school classes, Dr. Lee knew a challenge was ahead of him and he gave himself a very nontraditional but direct pep talk. 

“Before I started dental school, I told myself for weeks that this [dental school] is going be the worst four years of my life,” he said. “I heard so many rumors about dental school being so hard, how that impacts its students. I told myself that it is going to be tough, but I’m going to get through it.”

Preparing for the worst, Dr. Lee was pleasantly surprised once his first year of school was underway and even found himself tapping into some of his undergrad time management techniques.

“It wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t as hard as I feared,” he said. “I think partially because I was already used to trying to manage time between school and lacrosse during undergrad, I had a lot of practice doing time management, and that was on my side.

“In dental school, I had more time to study [compared with undergrad and balancing sports and school], so my goal was to learn as much clinically relevant information as I could. I tried to be a sponge as much as I could to learn about dentistry.”

Dr. Lee spent his time talking to a variety of people in the dental school to learn what each did and didn’t like about the profession and their specialties. This allowed him to have a critical and objective look at what his career as a dentist would look like after dental school. While he sought more exposure to all of dentistry, Dr. Lee was interested in two specialties: oral surgery and prosthodontics.

After graduating from Tufts University, he decided to spend more time exploring both specialties and enrolled in a one-year advanced education in general dentistry residency program at the Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine. The program gave him additional general dentistry experience and training, on top of a more refined focus in prosthodontics. Despite the name of the program, Dr. Lee said his residency adviser was focused on prosthodontics, so he got more experience and exposure to that work.

When asked why he was interested in prosthodontics, Dr. Lee said he could touch on some of his previous chemistry and engineering background.

“I looked at it as the functional aspect that marries into a cosmetic aspect,” he said. “And after having gone through my own personal front tooth issue, it really interested me that I could bring someone who is in bad shape into a lifelong healthy mouth situation. Rebuilding everything from top to bottom, from a bad health to a good health.”

 

Now with his D.M.D. and residency complete, Dr. Lee was ready to start working toward his next professional path: starting in private practice with progression toward taking over a dental practice.

He joined Darryl Smith Dental Group in Swampscott, Massachusetts, which provided comprehensive dental care to its patients and allowed him to work with prosthodontics as well.

“My first few years of private practice were focused on learning — how to talk to patients, how to gain their trust, how to present cases so they can understand — so I can understand their wants and needs, and they can understand their problems and potential solutions: advantages and disadvantages,” he said.

When a partnership opportunity at that clinic didn’t work out, Dr. Lee explored other options with practices around the Boston area and he used resources such as Spear Education and the Pankey Institute to keep learning and continuing his dental education. Jump ahead to 2020, and like many professionals, Dr. Lee and his wife, Lea Hachem, D.D.S., were at a bit of a crossroads when COVID-19 set in across the country.

At that time, he was in the process of acquiring a different dental practice in Cohasset, Massachusetts, just south of Boston, and Dr. Hachem — a periodontist and professor at Boston University — was interviewing for new teaching positions outside of the Northeast, specifically the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Dr. Lee and his wife had a deal: “Whoever signs a contract first wins, and then we have to stick with it.”

 

Dr. Lee’s wife signed first and stepped into a new role as the predoctoral director of periodontics at the University of Texas at San Antonio, which meant Dr. Lee would have to pursue practice ownership in a new state.

After spending his entire education and working career in the Northeast, Dr. Lee spent his first year in San Antonio working in private practice to become familiar with the area. This allowed him to explore opportunities for his own practice and learn about how to best serve patients and provide oral health care in his new state.

Dr. Lee quickly learned the differences between the Northeast and Texas.

“It’s very different culturally, socioeconomically, everything was a change,” he said.

From dealing with insurance to determining patients’ status to building a rapport with his patients, Dr. Lee learned a lot in his first year in Texas, which prepared him to finally buy a practice in November 2021, where he currently works.

In his practice, Dr. Lee continues to draw upon the mixed dental experiences he had as a child to change the experience for his own patients. One key component of that approach is patient time. He believes in investing that time with patients so they have a strong level of trust and are informed plus educated about their dental hygiene and overall health needs.

Dr. Lee is also active in the San Antonio New Dentist Study Club and was part of three different study clubs after his residency. Study clubs provide a casual, structured environment for dentists to share, connect and learn from each other.

Dr. Lee said he found the study clubs to be incredibly beneficial as he continued his education outside of the classroom. In Texas, he sees a need to bridge a mentorship and continuing education gap with dentists fresh out of school. He is working to expand the availability of study clubs in Texas, with the goal of expanding nationwide down the road.

During SmileCon 2022 in Houston, his idea for an ADA New Dentist Study Club won the Smile Tank competition. The competition, modeled after the TV show “Shark Tank,” brought together five ADA member dentists to share their innovative ideas for how the ADA could enhance the value of membership. 

 

When Dr. Lee isn’t seeing patients in his office, he likes to be outside as much as possible. He and his wife both love to travel, and their two rescue dogs keep them busy. They are also welcoming their first child in October, which will be a new adventure for them. 

Looking back at his journey to today, Dr. Lee’s advice to new dentists and those just graduating dental school is easier said than done but also basic: Do right by the patient, and the money will follow.

“With the cost of education and loans that dental students come out with, I know this is easier said than done because you’re looking to cut costs,” he said. “You can define success as many different things, but I got into dentistry to take care of patients and community and focus on that.”

Being recognized as one of the ADA’s 2024 10 Under 10 Award winners means a lot to him because it brings extra awareness to his approach with patients and his work with the new dentist study club, he said.

“[Being recognized] drives me to work harder in furthering our profession as a whole to make it better for current and future patients and our colleagues,” Dr. Lee said.

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.