Dental Fuel Episode 12: Expert Advice with Dr. Shannon Johnson

In Dental Fuel Episode 12, Dr. Shannon Johnson wraps up our last episode with her by providing some expert advice. If you haven’t met her already, she is a clinical rockstar and an amazing person.

We all can learn so much from her and I hope you will get the opportunity to meet her in your clinical journey!

Shannon Johnson grew up in a small coal mining town in eastern Kentucky. She graduated from the University of Louisville School of Dentistry in 2002 and completed her Advanced Education in General Dentistry Certificate at the University of Florida in St. Petersburg in 2003. Ever passionate about providing the very best care for her patients, Dr. Johnson is an avid continuous learner attending countless hours of continuing education each year from the profession’s best and brightest.  

An educator at heart, Dr. Johnson has taught at both the University of Florida and the University of Louisville. She is an associate faculty member at the Dawson Academy where Dr. Johnson dedicates time to helping dentists around the world master the skills necessary to predictably restore simple to complex cases with outcomes that are both beautiful and functional. She is the current President of the Dawson Association for Complete Dentistry and leads two Dawson Academy Study Clubs.

In her free time, Dr. Johnson enjoys spending time with her husband and daughter playing board games, visiting theme parks, attending various comic conventions, crafting, and scuba diving.

🎙️ Listen to Dental Fuel Episode 12 on Apple Podcasts

Dental Fuel Episode 12: Expert Advice Transcript

In this episode, Dr. Johnson closes out our conversation where she talks about her future and advice that she has for dentists.

Dr. Tanya Sue Maestas

What does the next five years look like for the doctor Shannon Johnson?

Dr. Shannon Johnson

You know really I love dentistry so I really do see my practice evolving into a larger practice, be that purchasing the office where I’m at which I think that can be a really good thing honestly. So we’ll see.

But having more chairs and doing complete dentistry in a way that I feel like it could be done, right, and the way it should be done. So, I think that’s going to be big.

I think I will try to share more, share more of what I’ve done well and what I have not done well. Because I’m pretty much an open book from that standpoint, with others hoping to inspire them.

My daughter is now like finishing up her sophomore year in college, so in two more years, you know, she’ll be doing a master’s program where she’s out and about so yeah.

I want to spend a lot of time with my hubby traveling you know we just celebrated our anniversary, so yeah, I want to be able to find that right work balance life.

So I want to give back a lot to dentistry because it’s my hobby.

Dr. Tanya Sue Maestas

Yeah, and I can definitely see you and your husband out golfing. If you could provide some advice for our listeners, what would be some key advice you’d like them to take home with them?

Dr. Shannon Johnson

Key advice for your listeners.

Trust yourself and trust your heart, listen to your heart.

And so in that period whenever I had left my practice in Florida I kind of like mentally stayed there for a while and I got into like a, woe is me, because I loved what I had, and what I have established there.

And there was no reason that I couldn’t have reestablished that but I didn’t listen to myself and I kept just like, putting my own like vision and goal for myself like behind, and I would do other things and I just felt like I was losing myself. So that would be one thing.

And then always just push yourself to learn to be better tomorrow than you are today.

I think that’s the biggest advice in personal life and yeah, financial life and in life in general. Just, you know, listen to yourself, trust yourself, invest in yourself and tomorrow will be better than good. 

Dr. Tanya Sue Maestas

Any last thoughts before we log off here?

Dr. Shannon Johnson

Y’all are just so lucky to have you here, oh my gosh, I love it. We feel very blessed to have you here and you know, myself to have connected with you.

So now, my final parting words maybe not of wisdom, but I love to challenge the idea of the status quo in dentistry.

And I love that you can really truly practice anyway that you want.

So if you’re somewhere where you’re not happy, really step back and figure out what you want to be, and then go be it because you can.

Dr. Tanya Sue Maestas

Shannon, thank you so much for your time today if our listeners would like to connect with you what’s the best way?

Dr. Shannon Johnson

Email me at ShannonPJohnson@gmail.com. I’m sure you can probably give that to them somehow, some way. And then just tell me like that you saw me here. Otherwise, you know, it’d be like, do I know? But yeah, reach out to me, and we can chat more, that’d be good!

Dr. Tanya Sue Maestas

Well, thanks again. And thank you all for listening. 

Connect:

Tanya Sue Maestas, DDS

Tanya Sue Maestas, DDS

Dr. Tanya Sue Maestas graduated from The University of Texas School of Dentistry at Houston in 2018. During her dental school career, she served as the national American Student Dental Association President and became involved in organized dentistry. After graduating, she completed an Advanced Education in General Dentistry Residency in 2019. Upon completion of her residency, she returned to the El Paso Borderland community where she serves as a Dental Director at La Clinica de Familia in Chaparral, New Mexico. She also serves as a faculty member at the Woody L Hunt School of Dental Medicine in El Paso, Texas. She remains involved in organized dentistry and holds various leadership roles in organizations including the American Dental Association, Texas Dental Association, Academy of General Dentistry, Texas Academy of General Dentistry, Hispanic Dental Association, and others. She currently serves on the ADA Council on Communications and previously completed the ADA Institute for Diversity in Leadership Program. She was recognized as an ADA 10 under 10 winner, Incisal Edge 40 under 40, and previously nominated as one of Texas New Dentists of the Year. She currently hosts New Dentists on the Block where she helps showcase the New Dentist story and build connections with new dentists around her and Dental Fuel a podcast dedicated to sharing and learning from industry leaders’ mistakes. She has a commitment to providing dental care to the Borderland community and hopes to encourage the next generation of dentists to give back to the community.