From the Spring 2025 Journal of the Colorado Dental Association
By Casey Rhines, D.D.S., CDA Editor
Some faculty go into teaching because they want to pass down their knowledge to the next generation. Equally, graduating dental students consistently note mentorship as something they consider while job hunting. Prospective students and alumni both want to know what current dental students are learning and what drives them.
Here is a look into a couple of the dental school’s graduating seniors:
Kasra Roostan
CR: What made you want to be a dentist?
KR: I wanted a career where I could use my hands. Growing up I always liked to build things, like home improvement projects, Legos, etc. I always viewed dentistry as an art: a patient coming in with a problem that I can see and fix with my own hands. I believe that dentistry is a perfect blend of art and science.
CR: What is your ultimate goal as a dentist?
KR: I want to learn and be pushed. I want to be the dentist who can stay in my bounds but do anything that comes my way. I want to be a robust, confident provider who can take care of my community.
CR: I’m sure you’re developing a practice philosophy. Tell me about that.
KR: My practice philosophy focuses on patient-centered care, compassion and lifelong learning. I strive to provide individualized care that prioritizes not only oral health but also the overall well-being of my patients. Equally important to me is the emphasis on education — empowering patients to make informed decisions about their oral health and preventive care. I believe that prevention is the best medicine, and that patient education is one of the most important roles we play as healthcare providers.
As someone who values giving back, I am passionate about serving underserved communities. I believe everyone deserves a healthy smile, and I am dedicated to bridging gaps in access and equity by treating every patient with dignity and respect, regardless of their background or circumstances.
Ultimately, I hope to create a practice environment that fosters trust, comfort and excellence in oral health care, while continuously improving as a clinician.
CR: Any idea of where you want to work?
KR: I grew up in Lakewood, went to Boulder for college and did my bachelor’s and master’s there. I love the outdoors. Here is home for me; I really want to stay here. Finding a good fit is most important to me and I’m willing to drive extra to find that perfect fit.
Aunika Torres
CR: I overheard you, the other day, saying you’re going to be doing CU’s GPR! What made you want to do that?
AT: My sister and her husband are both dentists — they met in dental school — her husband did a GPR and I was inspired by the capacity of cases he could handle. I like being a general dentist, but I want the confidence and clarity for my future patients that a GPR would provide. The faculty and staff know me at the CU GPR, so I think it’s a good opportunity for them to push me immediately — I want to be comfortable being uncomfortable.
CR: What is your ultimate goal as a dentist?
AT: I want my patients to feel like I truly treat them as if their mouth were my own. I want them to have that confidence within me that I am steering them in the right direction and treating them like family or friends. I want to make sure I am developing myself constantly and never remaining stagnant.
CR: What’s on the horizon after your one-year GPR is completed?
AT: Anything and everything! There is so much in dentistry to learn and there’s no way you can learn it all within the four years of dental school or even one year of a GPR. I would love to get involved with a senior partner with the same view of dentistry as me so they can show me the tips and tricks they learned along the way but also offer mutual respect to the constant evolution of dentistry and the practitioner.
CR: You have an interesting background — can you tell our readers about that?
AT: My parents are both professors, so we are like military brats without the military. I was born in Georgia, moved to Ohio, then moved and graduated high school from Oregon, did my undergraduate in Idaho, and then moved to Colorado for dental school. One of the things that brought me to Colorado was that it was a new horizon — no one in my family had been here before – so it was something to call my own. I became comfortable with the unfamiliarity of things, which inspires my willing approach to dentistry.
I have always wanted to be a dentist since I was 5 or 6 years old. My parents took me to a hygiene school clinic; I remember it smelled like mint, and everyone was wearing white coats. In high school, I met someone who got a full mouth rehab with braces donated to him and it completely altered his life course – he could blaze a trail with new confidence. It was amazing to see how dentistry could alter someone’s self esteem and remove any limitations to what they could achieve.
