Everything’s rosy, peachy keen, and in bloom for a dentist in Naperville, Ill.
“I love to read books, especially history books, bicycle, hike, and I just received my certificate in botanical illustration from the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois,” said Dr. Paula Shannon Jones. “I no longer practice clinical dentistry due to a health disability.”
But that doesn’t get her down. She owned a 1,200-square-foot general dentistry practice with some 3,000 active patients when she sold it after 20 years.
“I have to say that I have achieved most of my goals at this point in my life,” the 55-year-old Dr. Jones said. “My most prized accomplishments, of course, are my two daughters, Heather, 36, and Meghan, 22. I also have two grandchildren who are the light of my life: James, 8, and Brynn, 5. My family is the most important thing in my life. I have two sisters who are my best friends, and my parents are the most interesting people I know.”
They owned a movie theater in Defiance, Ohio. Dr. Jones worked in the theater from the time she was in the third grade until she went to college at Indiana University to study nursing.
“I tried nursing and it was not a fit for me, so then I enrolled in the dental hygiene program at IU,” she said. “I loved dentistry so much when I was a hygienist that I wanted to able to do more procedures, so I applied to dental school two years after I graduated from dental hygiene school.”
She received a DDS degree in 1984 from Case Western Reserve University.
“When I had an active dental practice, I was very interested in new technology. I loved my air abrasion unit,” Dr. Jones said.
She encourages women who want to pursue dentistry to just do it.
“It is absolutely the best career for anyone who loves science, art, and has people skills,” she said.
Dr. Jones is a member of the American Association of Women Dentists, American Dental Association, the Chicago Dental Society, the Wheaton Dental Society, and is a Fellow in the Academy of Dentistry International and a vice-regent.
The vice president of the Academy of General Dentistry ranks the organization second to her family.
“My second most important accomplishment was achieving my Fellowship in the Academy in 1995,” Dr. Jones said, “but that year I also received the AGD Distinguished Service Award for my work with the new dental graduates.
“For the next three years, I would like to help the AGD achieve its goals.”
