March 30th is "Doctor's Day"

According to our handy-dandy app, March 30th is "Doctor's Day, so we thought we'd let you know a little bit about Dr. Jennifer Robb.

Dr. Robb grew up in Mentor, Ohio and knew in eighth grade that she wanted to be a dentist. (Actually, she wanted to be an orthodontist--a dental specialist who moves teeth using braces or other appliances, but in dental school, she discovered that bending wire was not her thing, plus she liked the variety of general dentistry, but more on that later.)

Dr. Robb did her undergraduate work at Siena College in Loudonville,NY in part because Siena had partnered with Georgetown University (Washington, D.C.)'s dental school. Acceptance into that program meant she'd automatically have a place at the dental school as long as her GPA remained acceptable and she passed the requisite classes. The program also allowed the fourth year of undergraduate studies to be completed in the same year as the first year of dental school. Unfortunately, Georgetown University opted to close its dental school withno advance notice--this occured about halfway through Dr. Robb's undergraduate program. For Dr. Robb's year only, Siena College allowed the Dental Program students to attend any accredited dental school and accepted the credits toward the Bachelor's of Science degree.

Dr. Robb chose the University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine for her dental education (but knowing now what she does about in-state and out-of-state tuitions, she wishes she'd considered OSU's dental school!). At the time Dr. Robb attended dental school, both Case Western and Ohio State gave the DDS (Doctor of Dental Science) degree. Pitt used the DMD (Doctor of Dental Medicine) degree. These days, both degrees are very similar, because there is an accrediting board that sets guidelines for what subjects need to be taught to dental students. What Dr. Robb has heard is that at some point in the past, one group felt dental students should learn about the entire body (not just the head and neck) because things going on in the body could affect the mouth and teeth. This was a change from the more traditional method that focused more on the head, neck, mouth, teeth etc. The whole-body group decided to use the DMD designation to distinguish itself from the DDS training. 

As we said, now-days both degrees receive the same training, but for a long time, it was rarer to see the DMD designation since both Ohio dental schools awarded the DDS degree. However, Case Western decided to change the degree they give to a DMD degree within the last decade or so, so you will probably see those initials more often than you used to.

After dental school, Dr. Robb worked for a couple different owner dentists as an associate. In fact, she moved to Lorain County in 1994 to work as an associate dentist. By the late 1990s, Dr. Robb felt ready to take on ownership of her own office and contracted with Dr. Thomas TImko to buy his dental office at 1612 Cooper Foster Park Rd., Lorain, OH. She and Dr. Timko worked together that first year, and then he retired at the end of 1999. 

Dr. Robb enjoys preventive and restorative dentistry the most with cosmetic dentistry a close third. (Preventive dentistry is items like your cleaning or dental sealants. Services that help keep your mouth healthy. Restorative dentistry restores teeth that have cavities, chips, or breaks back to functional use. Restorative dentistry includes fillings, crowns, and bridges.) With a general dental practice (what used to be called family dentistry back in the day) there is a lot more variety between appointments, rather than doing the same procedure on each patient.

In October, 2017, Dr. Robb acquired the practice of the late Dr. Donald Karpinski who used to practice on Oberlin Avenue in Lorain and moved it to her Cooper Foster Park Rd. location. She is enjoying meeting the new (to her) patients.

Outside of the dental office, Dr. Robb likes photography (she's a Nikon gal at the moment), scrapbooking, reading, and spoilng her niece and nephew (unfortunately, they don't live close by).

We hope you've enjoyed learning about Dr. Robb and invite you to tell Dr. Robb about yourself.