Resident Spotlight: Dr. Josh Presley
Compiled by Dr. Austyn Grissom
Dr. Josh Presley is a second-year endodontic resident at Nova Southeastern University. In this Resident Spotlight, he shares more with us about his journey to dentistry, his passions outside of the clinic, and what he envisions for his future.
The Paper Point: Thanks for taking time to chat, Dr. Presley. Let’s start by telling everyone a little bit about yourself.
Dr. Presley: I appreciate you giving me your time as well, Dr. Grissom. I’m originally from Pensacola, Fla., and right now I’m in Davie, Fla., in my last year of endo residency at Nova Southeastern University. My wife and I have a son that’s a few months away from turning two years old, so we’re soaking up the baby phase as much as we can. I enjoy hunting and fishing, and the outdoors in general. I think people would say I help keep the mood light and have a good sense of humor.
Dentistry is a second career for me, so I guess I was a non-traditional dental student. I used to work in the pharmaceutical industry in the quality control lab and then spent my last year with that company doing validation work and product development. I got a master’s degree in biology to improve my dental school application during that time. My wife and I moved from Pensacola to Maine when she started her PhD program, and I got into dental school soon after at the University of Colorado. We lived in the Salt Lake City, UT area for a year while I was in an AEGD program at Roseman University. I got into the Nova endo program while we were in Salt Lake City and now we’re here.
The Paper Point: Awesome! Did you ever consider continuing your career focusing on baseball- either as a player or a coach?
Dr. Presley: Yeah, my childhood dream was to follow in my dad’s footsteps and play pro baseball. Luckily my dad always pushed me to be a doctor of some sort because I never grew out of the scrawny kid phase before my baseball career ended. I had the opportunity to coach high school baseball for a couple of years; two brothers on those teams are currently practicing dentistry today!
The Paper Point: At what point did you decide to pursue endodontics? Did you consider any other dental specialties?
Dr. Presley: I grew up thinking I wanted to be an orthodontist, but an experience right before leaving for dental school got me seriously considering pursuing endodontics instead.
About a month before I had to move away to start school, my wife developed the worst facial swelling I’ve seen to this day. She was prescribed antibiotics initially, but we ended up in an endodontist’s office when her pain and swelling persisted. At the time, I’m not even sure if I knew what an endodontist was. He found out I was about to leave for dental school, so he let me come watch the whole procedure. I remember being blown away by the technology in his office and thinking all the screens and radiographs he had in the operatory looked like something from Star-Trek. He completed a root canal for one of her molars, which she still has to this day.
What happened afterward really sealed the deal for me though, as I give that endodontist credit for saving my wife’s life. Her symptoms resolved after treatment until the evening she finished the antibiotic prescription a week later. The pain and swelling came back over the course of just a couple of hours; she had sepsis. The endodontist had her come in immediately for evaluation and made the referral to an oral surgeon that had hospital privileges. The endodontist let us know that we’d probably be in the hospital for several nights for administration of IV antibiotics, which is exactly what happened after the oral surgeon helped get my wife admitted. She was discharged after five nights. She was just starting to get better when we left the hospital, and everything completely resolved after a couple of more days of oral antibiotics.
The Paper Point: Wow.. that is an incredible testimony to the impact that our work as endodontists can have on a patient and their family members. Now that you are on the flip side of things, what has been the most impactful part of your endo residency so far?
Dr. Presley: It’s hard to pick just one part of my residency as the most impactful. I think my best experiences are tied to the people I’ve treated. Our patients can feel pretty anxious about whatever treatment they’re in for. When people let me know that they appreciate me, they trust me, that I’ve helped them understand their treatment, or even that they’re not scared of root canals anymore, I feel confident that I’ve provided the best service for them that I could’ve.
As far as a recent impactful experience, we treat prisoners at Nova at times, and I treated a woman’s #8 that had partially fractured away after trauma. I built the tooth back up as best I could. She told me I gave her smile back, and she left in tears of happiness. That impacted me and reinforced that we should be giving everyone our best.
I can’t talk about the most impactful part of my residency without bringing up the faculty, staff, and my co-residents. They’re all just good human beings. It’s hard for me to describe everything I mean when I say that, but being a good person is the most important quality in my eyes. We have a very positive and supportive environment at Nova.
The Paper Point: Between Northwest Florida, Alabama, Maine, Colorado, Utah, and Southeast Florida… do you have a favorite place that you have lived? Do you know where you would like to land after you complete your residency program?
Dr. Presley: I caught some monster trout and had plenty of fun outdoors while I was in dental school in Colorado, but the fly fishing in Maine was probably a little bit better overall. I just don’t like having to drive in snow! My wife and I are taking a hard look at moving to Texas after I’m done with residency, she’s originally from there and I’ve loved visiting. We’d love to live in a more rural area somewhere in the South, but we’ll have to see where opportunity takes us.
The Paper Point: What’s the secret to balancing being a full-time husband, father, and endo resident? Any wisdom to share with those who might be in a similar phase of life?
Dr. Presley: It’s my wife that makes it all possible. Our son is a few months away from turning two, so he’s still very dependent on her. She’s looking to finish up her PhD program soon, and fortunately she’s able to work from home because she’s taken on so much more with having our first kid and then me starting endo residency right after. I do my best to spend as much time with them as possible. I get everything done concerning residency stuff as early as I can on Saturday so I can spend the rest of the weekend with them, and I hit the weight room in the morning before heading to school during the week so I can spend time my son and give my wife a little bit of a break when I get home for the evenings. You’ll have to ask me this again after I take my oral boards to see if my strategy was solid.
The Paper Point: Let’s imagine you had 24 hours all to yourself… how would you spend it?
Dr. Presley: I think I’d want to be in Saskatchewan, Canada, deer hunting. I’ve never been out there but have heard that’s the place to be. If I knew how to elk hunt a little better maybe I’d say that’s what I’d do instead.
The Paper Point: Nice! I also love the outdoors, and I am already counting down to next year’s Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City (SLC). I can’t pass up the opportunity to ask a former SLC resident: do you have any “can’t miss” activities for those of us who will be in Utah for AAE26 next April?
Dr. Presley: The mountains are right there, so you need to head at least a little outside of town and see some scenery. I didn’t do any skiing in the year I was there, but if the snow is still good there’s great skiing and snowboarding opportunities within an hour of SLC. If you’re able to spend extra time, the national parks in Utah are beautiful; there’s Zion, Arches, Canyonlands, Bryce Canyon, and Capitol Reef.
The Paper Point: Before we part, what is one motivational quote that has inspired you to keep going on the tough days?
Dr. Presley: It’s not a specific quote, but when things get tough and we fall, “get up.”
Dr. Austyn Grissom is former chair of the AAE’s Resident & New Practitioner Committee.