Dr. Lisa Curry enjoyed visiting the dentist when she was young, but years passed before she knew she wanted to become one. When she began her practice in the Williamsburg area in 2003, she became its first Black female dentist.
She didn’t know it yet, but she was the beginning of a trend.
Now the area is home to eight Black female dentists, an unusually large number in a relatively small area in a field historically dominated by white faces. There are roughly 170 Black female dentists in Virginia and fewer than 4,000 nationwide, according to the American Dental Association.
“We like to refer to ourselves as unicorns,” said Dr. Rana Graham-Montaque, a dentist at Pediatric Dental Specialists of Williamsburg. “We’re very unique, but we do exist.”
Curry opened Curry Dental Center in Greater Williamsburg in 2003. She provides a range of services, including teeth cleaning, extractions and implants.
The Connecticut native studied at Hampton University and received her dentistry degree from the University of Connecticut. She returned to Virginia to complete her general practice residency at the VA Medical Center in Hampton. Originally wanting to be a cosmetologist, she enjoyed going to her family dentist from the age of 3 until she went to college, she said.
“I just liked the environment,” Curry said. “It just seemed like a lot of fun.”
After graduating from Hampton U., Curry served as Graham-Montaque’s mentor, who attended the same university. Graham-Montaque in turn became Williamsburg’s first Black pediatric dentist.
As the city’s first Black female dentist, Curry brought “a lot of attention” in the Black community, Graham-Montaque said.
“She was the first and definitely very open with embracing us as we started to come to the area,” she said.
Growing up in West Point, Graham-Montaque said, there weren’t many dentists who looked like her. Because of her wit, her family thought she would become an attorney, she said. But she wanted to be a physician.
Her course changed while studying at Hampton, where an orthodontist recommended she consider the dental field. After graduating, Graham-Montaque earned a degree in dental surgery from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. She now runs her own practice and performs dental surgeries at Sentara Williamsburg Regional Medical Center, where she also provides surgeries for adults with special health care needs.
All eight dentists shared their experiences as Black women in the field.
Graham-Montaque said she gets looks weekly from people surprised she is their dentist. Surprised reactions from children, however, have been an inspiration, she said. She called it “mind-boggling” every time she’s told she’s the first Black doctor they’ve ever seen.
It’s happened to Dr. Kalisha Jordan — Williamsburg’s first Black endodontist — as well.
Jordan, who has served as president of the Peninsula Dental Society, once had a patient who told her he had never visited a Black dentist.
“And I just smiled,” she recalled. “I didn’t really know how to respond to that. I want to say maybe I joked and said, ‘Well, it’s your lucky day today! This is a first for you!’”
Dr. Farren Billue, who primarily practices at Smiles of West Point, said she gets shocked reactions from patients frequently. While she’s experienced positive and negative reactions, people mostly are positive, she said. She described it as a blessing to be a provider for Black patients who are excited to see her as their dentist.
Diversity in dentistry
Each dentist said higher visibility is a key factor for improving diversity in the dental world. When choosing a career, Graham-Montaque said it initially didn’t connect that a career as a dentist was a possibility; she didn’t see people who looked like her in the field. But representation plants the seeds the possibility and challenges stereotypes, said Jordan, another product of VCU’s dentistry program.
As a native of Bermuda, Dr. Joelle Hairston said she grew up around Black professionals and was inspired by her own dentist — a Black woman. Hairston, an Army spouse who previously worked as a military contract dentist in Texas, Georgia and South Korea, now runs her own practice — Williamsburg Smile Care.
“Seeing someone who looks like you in a road you never imagined that they could be in, it changes their whole outlook,” said Jordan, whose specialty as an endodontist focuses on root canal treatment for children and adults. “If I can do that for just child or one person, that’s a win for me.”
To help students see her as a dentist, Curry involves herself in career days and local school events, she said. Graham-Montaque also noted the current generation of dentists showcasing the career through social media platforms, such as Instagram and TikTok.
Dr. Jennifer Howard of New Town Dental Arts said having more diversity in dental schools and more Black professors can help diversify the field. Billue — yet another product of VCU — noted that during her studies, there were “two or three” faculty members of color. Dr. Joy Phelps, who lives in Williamsburg but works at Commonwealth Pediatric Dental Specialists in Sandston, was the only Black woman in her dental program, and one of only three Black dental students.
Phelps said having more Black dentists gives more support for Black patients.
“I think its important that we get more Black people get into dental programs so they can be a part of their community and they can help serve their community, so we know what we’re looking at,” Phelps said.
VCU’s School of Dentistry — the state’s only dental school — has worked to diversify the field by showcasing it to high school students. In February, the school partnered with nonprofit Mentorships in Dentistry to host the Diversity in Dentistry Summit, a session that gave hands-on dental activities and mentoring to Richmond high school students exploring career opportunities.
The session also gave VCU dental students the opportunity to help the visiting students as well.
Dr. Carlos Smith, an associate professor in the School of Dentistry and its associate dean for ethics and community engagement, said the school hosted the summit for two goals: to positively impact the Richmond community and help grow a workforce that reflects the diverse population they serve.
“Across the globe it is well established that a health workforce that mirrors the populations served opens up opportunities for all,” Smith said.
The low percentage of Black dentists in the United States has been an issue for decades, he said, and he highlighted reports such as “Oral Health in America: A Report of the Surgeon General” in 2000 and the Institute of Medicine’s “Unequal Treatment-Confronting Racial and Ethic Disparities in Health Care” in 2003 calling attention to it.
According to 2023 data from the American Dental Association’s Health Policy Institute, compared with 67.8% of white dentists in the United States, Black dentists only make up 3.8%. For Black women in the field, that number is 0.0185%.
The American Dental Association points out that diverse dental professions help support access to care, health literacy and better oral outcomes in the United States. Connecting with the next generation of diverse students who want to join the field, the association said, has been a priority for each of its three councils — Government Affairs, Advocacy for Access and Prevention and Dental Practice — for many years. The association said the substantial cost for dental education can create debt.
“The American Dental Education Association most recently reported educational debt for indebted dental school graduates in the Class of 2024 is $312,700,” said the association. “By continuing to work together across the industry to initiate and improve upon strategies rooted in advocacy and access, we can support minority dentists in dental careers.”
A new class of dentists
Detroit native Dr. Shanail Allen knew by sixth grade she would be a dentist after being fascinated by her classmate’s braces. She ended up in Williamsburg by way of Howard University’s College of Dentistry and now practices at Allen Family Dental in Henrico.
Nothing was going to sway her, she said, and she became a general dentist and uses her practice as a space where everybody is welcomed.
“On the school bus, on the way home from school, I made a decision, ‘When I grow up, I am going to be a dentist. And I am going to learn how things in the mouth work,’” Allen said. “And here I am!”
With dentists such as Allen, Curry, Graham-Montaque, Hairston, Jordan, Howard, Phelps and Billue leading the way, little girls’ dreams are now within reach.
Curry’s oldest daughter is now studying dentistry at Howard where, unlike Curry, she is not the only Black student in her dental class.
“A lot of people said that I would not make it,” Curry said. “So you have to kind of work through that and just stay determined and work hard.”
James W. Robinson, 757-799-0621, james.robinson@virginiamedia.com
