Today we’d like to introduce you to Shari Carroll.
So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
If you can believe it, this is actually my second pediatric dental practice! I owned a pediatric dental practice in Arizona for 8.5 years. I was very lucky to have started a practice there from scratch with my Dad who practiced pediatric dentistry for nearly 40 years. My husband and I had to make the decision to move to Los Angeles rather quickly when my son, Eli was just 2.5 years old. He was diagnosed with autism and was flying back and forth to UCLA for treatment each week. It became apparent to my husband and I that we would have to move to Los Angeles so our Eli could get the newest and best interventions available to him at the time. Overnight, my husband left his successful law career to be with Eli during all of his treatments over the course of the next year.
For the next three years, I would fly back and forth from Los Angeles to Arizona each week. I slowly got into the dental world in Los Angeles and ended up with my dream job- teaching the pediatric dental residents at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA). As I worked in Silverlake, I was discovering the large majority of patients with medical/special needs that would travel from the South Bay to Silverlake for dental care. I had an epiphany to make a dental office that accommodates all children, regardless of their medical or special needs. My office in Redondo Beach has a dental sensory room that can be adapted for each child. It has been highly successful for us in getting children over their fears in the dental office and I am so proud of it!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s been a pretty smooth road for the most part. I would have to say the biggest struggle I have had is balancing my career with being a mom. I have two beautiful children with very different needs. Having one child with special needs adds that much more importance on being present in your child’s everyday life. The silver lining is that my kids love coming to my dental practice, even just to play in the waiting room. I have brought them to work with me many times just so I can hang out in between patients and get quality time with each one of them. My kids also think its really cool that their friends come to my office as patients.
Please tell us about Shari Carroll Pediatric Dentistry.
As I previously talked about, I treat children with medical and special needs. I tend to bond with parents with children with special needs because we always end up talking about our personal experiences. In general, this community of parents really support each other. We all kind of have to learn from each other,
My office also specializes in breastfeeding support. Again, my own personal experiences as a new mom helped shape how I practice dentistry. My daughter had a tongue tie that caused us breastfeeding issues early on. Lip and tongue ties effects on breastfeeding are not something that is taught in dental school. I spent years educating myself (even taking breastfeeding CE courses) and perfecting a laser procedure that can help babies with difficulty feeding become fantastic breastfeeding babies. I love working with moms during this very vulnerable and exciting time in their lives. Our office staff loves getting to hold the all of the new babies too!
Contact Info:
- Address: Shari Carroll Pediatric Dentistry
1611 S. Catalina Avenue
Suite 100
Redondo Beach, CA 90277 - Website: RedondoBeachKidsDentist.com
- Phone: (310) 357 4414
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: #drsharicarroll
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/redondobeachkidsdentist/
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