Destined to Be a Dentist

As a child, Mario Ramos’ grandmother would say, “You should be a dentist.”

To this day, he doesn’t know what she saw in him. Maybe it had something to do with him taking apart her vacuum cleaner. But in any case, she was right.

Ramos has been a pediatric dentist for more than 30 years, running a private practice that serves children and patients with special needs. He is also the president of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry Foundation, which has helped 830,000 children in the US access dental care since 2010.

“I consider myself very lucky that I was able to find a career in a profession that works for me,” Ramos said.

Finding this career was a result of listening to those around him. While pursuing his undergraduate degree, he met a representative, with the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (now the Rutgers School of Dental Medicine). With his grandmother’s words in his ears, he got advice on how to enter dental school and later sought a dental internship.

“Back in those days, we found jobs with a newspaper,” he said.

Courtesy of Mario Ramos

He applied to many jobs, and after hearing crickets for a long time, nothing, no responses, he landed a job at a dental practice. Starting with sterilization, he moved up to the role of dental assistant and then head dental assistant. While working full time, he completed dental school prerequisites and headed to Fairleigh Dickinson University’s dentistry program, which closed a year into his first year. He was among the three students that Rutgers School of Dental Medicine accepted as transfer students.

Ramos sought to become an oral surgeon and completed internships, research, and clinical practice to pursue that goal. However, during his pediatric dentistry rotation, he discovered a natural talent for working with children. That didn’t go unnoticed by the faculty, who recommended he consider pediatric dentistry while applying for residency programs.

“I wanted to work with surgically complicated, medically compromised patients,” said Ramos. I wanted something challenging.” 

He then learned this was an option for pediatric dentists.

“I would have never known had faculty not told me,” he said. “That's my advice to students: Try things out because you never know.”

He did just that and applied to multiple programs, including Harvard University’s program with Boston Children’s Hospital and fell in love with it. “That was the best professional decision I ever made,” he said.

During his residency, he noticed the advantage of his Rutgers training.

“I was probably ahead of most of the residents in terms of my clinical skills that I learned at Rutgers,” he said.

Upon graduation, he rejoined the practice that gave him his start – this time as a dentist. Because he observed that dentists who had a hand in multiple facets of the job were happier with their profession, he tried to do the same in his career and began teaching pediatric dentistry at Rutgers in addition to private practice. Shortly after, he started his practice with classmate Carmine Russo. But teaching remained a passion.

“What better gift to give someone than your knowledge?” he asked. “Teaching gives back just as much as I gave, if not more.”

After a decade of teaching, he turned to organized dentistry and joined the board of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry.

“As practitioners, we can only help a certain number of patients in our offices,” Ramos said, “but organized dentistry allows us to touch many more patients.” He served on several committees and transitioned to the AAPD Foundation, which he now leads.

He still mentors students – many of whom became pediatric dentists.

“This year is my 30th year, and I still love it,” he said. “I love seeing a two-year-old smile. It's very rewarding.”