A nontraditional journey to dental school

It was a quarter-life crisis that helped Kendra Domotor “zigzag” her way to dentistry, which proved to be the perfect blend of science, community, and service for her.

Growing up in the tiny town of Portland, Pennsylvania—“No, not the wrong state,” she jokes—Domotor was focused on music. With a music teacher mother, Domotor found music to be both an outlet and a way forward. Music scholarship in hand, she headed off to Ithaca College to study vocal performance to become a classically trained opera singer—career option one.

“When I was comparing musical theater to opera, I just loved the drama of opera and how relevant an opera written hundreds of years ago still feels today. People have the same feelings—whether they’re in baroque times or now—and I just thought the music was so cool,” says Domotor.

But as she worked her way through her science-forward curriculum, she started to realize that she was more interested in the anatomy and physiology of the voice, rather than, as she says, “the actual singing,” which caused a moment of “What do I do now?”

Her answer? Medical school—career option two.

“On TikTok there’s this girl who says that she has the ‘I can do whatever I want gene.’ I think that I am one of those people,” says Domotor. “If I put my mind to it, I am convinced I can do anything.” So, she enrolled in a post-baccalaureate program for career changers going into medicine.

Given her background in voice, she initially gravitated towards otorhinolaryngology—ear, nose, and throat (ENT). She continued to love the anatomy but struggled with the clinical aspects.

“There was so much cancer, and it was bad cancer. It was giving people the worst news of their entire lives—life-ending news—every day,” says Domotor. But shadowing made her realize that while ENT was not for her, she was close.

Her answer? Dental school—career option three. And for Domotor, the third time really was the charm.

The first reason she looked into dentistry? “Otorhinolaryngology and dentistry are next-door neighbors as medical specialties,” she says. But she found many other reasons why dentistry was the right fit for her.

“I appreciated that [in dentistry] you could make such a big difference in someone’s life with something that a lot of people overlook but that is incredibly meaningful—their smile,” says Domotor. “They’re not just teeth—for some people, their smile might be the only thing holding them back from getting a job or having the confidence to do what they love in life.”

She also found meaning in the systemic relationship between oral health and overall health and joy in the opportunity to teach, particularly in the Personalized Care Suite, the clinical care portion of Penn Dental Medicine’s Care Center for Persons with Disabilities.

“Many patients [who come to the Personalized Care Suite] cannot brush their own teeth or use floss, so it is teaching caregivers how to do that [for them] and how to get creative,” Domotor says. “It is, well, the toothbrush isn’t going to work, so how about this other tool that I have? Or even teaching caregivers tricks like changing when they brush [their clients’] teeth to help them with compliance. I really enjoy being able to use those opportunities to get creative but also teach them about how important [oral health] is.”

“Kendra’s energy and enthusiasm are infectious and reinforce her strong commitment to increasing access to oral health care for our patients and our community members,” says Joan Gluch, a professor of clinical community oral health at Penn Dental. “After completing Bridging the Gaps, a summer interdisciplinary community internship, at the end of her first year, she returned to work with us the following summer, assisting other health professions students and inspiring them with her high degree of knowledge, skill, and compassion in community health promotion.”

Domotor credits her master’s in bioethics with helping her communicate better with her patients, especially when conflict is involved. “We get a lot of clinical conflict mediation training,” says Domotor. “It’s about being able to get people to hear each other and figure out what their core values are so that [they] feel more heard so they can actually compromise with each other.”

After graduation, Domotor is headed to Colorado, where she will be pursuing advanced dental training in pediatric dentistry at Children’s Hospital of Colorado. And then she looks forward to working in a health professional shortage area as part of her commitment as a National Health Service Corps Scholar.

“I’ll be looking for a job somewhere at a federally-qualified health center most likely,” says Domotor. “They take predominantly Medicaid patients as well as patients who are un-or under-insured, so it’s nice to be able to give back to people who may or may not actually be able to pay for care.”

“I have been very impressed with Kendra’s ability to provide empathetic care to her patients,” says Glenn Rochlen, associate professor of clinical restorative dentistry and Domotor’s group practice leader at Penn Dental. “Always striving for excellence, she sets the bar high for herself and it is evident by how her patients feel about her and the quality of care she is able to deliver to [them].”

Although Domotor may have taken, as she says, the “scenic route” to dentistry, she says she is really proud of being a nontraditional student. “I was told it was not possible, and then I did it anyway,” says Domotor.

And she encourages others who might be in a similar situation. “If this is something you want to do and you’re willing to just put your head down and work for it—it doesn’t matter if you take the zigzag path or you take the straight path through—because it is possible, and I’m proof of it,” Domotor says.