Family ties enhance dental school experience for patients, students

Family ties enhance dental school experience for patients, students

"My own endo mentors made a big difference for me in being excited about endodontics, and to have a chance to do that for other people is really exciting," Christian Sheaffer said. "I think that all aspects of dentistry really can be exciting and challenging. And that's the beautiful thing that I'm excited for with Lucy Anna - that there are so many different things you can do."

That sense of exploration led Lucy Anna to serve as business manager of the dental school's Hyde County Outreach Clinic in Swan Quarter - as an ECU undergraduate and Honors College student - before she graduated in 2024 with a double major in nutrition and dietetics and public health. In that role, she helped manage patient appointments and lead the business aspect of the clinic.

"I think that with my time in Hyde County, I know how difficult it is for people to afford dental care and how it's often the main driver for them making the decision to pursue care," she said. "That experience was so invaluable, and the thing I took away the most was that chair-side dentistry is only half the battle."

From that experience, Lucy Anna is ready to impact the profession of dentistry itself alongside her family, in a state that faces oral health care gaps, retiring dentists and a plethora of challenges for patients needing care. She knows it starts by bridging relationships with patients as soon as she meets them.

"Building that relationship and that trust is so important to being able to provide that kind of care," she said. "That's my biggest takeaway and something I'll carry on with me when I start clinic."

Fund Honors Family Passions

As it goes, dentistry is a profession steeped in generations. It's a legacy career - practices oftentimes stacked with fathers, mothers, sons and daughters working alongside each other - or spreading out and caring for different regions of the state and nation. What makes such a specialty focus so popular among families?

"I think that dentistry can be a little bit consuming sometimes, and all family members are involved in it, whether they want to be or not," Christian Sheaffer said. "And certainly, being part of a multi-generational dental family is very much part of our lives and was at the forefront as a career option. I think that's probably not an uncommon thing, that many people's families are involved in that."

Lisa Brown Sheaffer goes a step further, embracing the dental community as a virtual village that lent its support to her family over the years.

"All of my kids have had that experience of meeting some really great people that can be role models for them as well," she said. "I think just being exposed to the field, it's just been a really neat community of people. And I think it's easy to choose to be part of that if you just love what you do."

That love is what spurred Dr. Benjamin Brown, Brown Sheaffer's father, to honor his late wife through the creation of the endowed Grace Marie Hudson Brown Memorial Patient Care Fund, which will help support the cost of oral health care for those who need it.

It adds to a total of 23 unique Patient Care Funds program in the school focusing on different patient populations or geographical areas across the state. The program is a unique "four-way win," said ECU School of Dental Medicine Dean Dr. Greg Chadwick, in that it provides cost support for patients, lends clinical experience to students, offers a streamlined option for giving for donors and helps the school meet its mission.

Brown, a retired endodontist, has been a vital supporter of ECU's dental school since its creation.

Brown has also had a major impact on the well-being of dentists in North Carolina; along with Chadwick, he helped found NC Caring Dental Professionals (NCCDP), which assists licensed professionals who may be struggling with a substance use disorder, alcoholism or mental illnesses. Late last year, Brown and Chadwick were honored with the organization's inaugural Chadwick-Brown Meritorious Service Award for their work in the NCCDP.

The new fund's focus on patient care and education reflect Grace Brown's passion for education and the endless support she provided her family as they worked to become dentists.

"My father was in the U.S. Air Force, stationed primarily in Germany, and when he returned from his tour, they were married," Brown Sheaffer said. "She encouraged him to enroll in college, and she began her career in education while he was in college and then in dental school. My father told me that she was his constant support, and that they even went to library together in the evenings. He would study and she would prepare her lesson plans."

Grace Brown was a popular teacher, and dental school faculty even requested her to teach their own children.

"Once I was older, I heard this myself from her former students, many of whom were my own dental school faculty," Brown Sheaffer said. "They said she was a favorite teacher because she was always positive, fun and encouraging. Once my father began his dental practice, they started a family and she continued in education as a substitute teacher. My favorite days in elementary school were the days she was the teacher in my own classroom."

During Brown Sheaffer's own path to dentistry, her mother encouraged her to accomplish what she set her mind to.

"As I began my dental education, there were already many female dentists, but it was still a male-dominated field," she said. "My mother became my constant support, just as she had for my father. When I began my career in the US Army Dental Corps as a young, female captain, once again in a male-dominated field, she again played a vital role in supporting me. As I began my private practice and Chris began his endodontic education and practice, both she and my father became our support system in a new way, by providing care for our young children. They were unwavering and selfless in their support and care for their grandchildren, allowing all of us to thrive."

Grace Brown turned that same positive outlook toward her grandchildren.

"I'm so sad she's not here seeing me right now, but she would be so excited," Lucy Anna said, "but this fund being named for her kind of ties her in, having a tangibility to her name and being here and thinking of her and memorializing her in that way."

Grace Brown was particularly thrilled to see two of her grandchildren attend ECU and looked forward to the prospect of one or both attending ECU's dental school.

Christian Sheaffer said the fund also offers a continuing measure of value to the care patients in Ross Hall and across the state will receive.

"Contributing to the ECU School of Dental Medicine is a huge multiplier, and any gift that goes to the school, just the care that the patients receive from that gift is worth so much more than the gift that you give," he said. "That is something that needs to be celebrated, that there's a great opportunity to take gifts and increase them and multiply them, because not every contribution grows the way that this does and that it's a real, tangible benefit for the people that you're giving for."

Impacting the State Through Dentistry

The Brown-Sheaffer family is, undoubtedly, made up of fans of the ECU School of Dental Medicine - for its mission to reach patients across the state who live in rural communities and who have obstacles in accessing oral health care. Each member of the family - at their varying points along their dental professional journeys - has and will make a lasting mark on North Carolina's oral health care position.

"I'm so proud of the state and so proud of the ECU School of Dental Medicine and the way it's set up, truly helping the people and training really great dentists in the process," Brown Sheaffer said.

Fourth-year dental students gain experience across the state, working alongside faculty and staff in one of the school's eight community service learning centers and Ross Hall.

"It's fulfilling so many needs for the students, the patients, the communities," she added. "Having good oral health can change somebody's life. I'm so proud to see Lucy Anna in this field, and I'm encouraged to see her jump right in and feel confident."

It all comes full circle as father and daughter interact in the school's simulation lab, Lucy Anna carefully following Christian Sheaffer's instructions as he guides her hands.

"I'm very excited for all that is possible," he said. "It means a lot that she thought enough of what we do to consider that for herself. I'm excited for her to find her way in dentistry."

Brown Sheaffer said watching the two of them in action brought back memories of her parents seamlessly folding dentistry and education into the family fabric and brings about pride for the fund that will bear her mother's name and make a difference for many years to come.

"It's just a great way to combine their two fields, dentistry and education," she said. "It gives back in so many ways, and I'm really proud of my father for doing that. I'm proud of him for memorializing her in this way."

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