About Me

I was born in Switzerland and lived there for my first 8 years until my family decided to move to San Diego to be closer to my extended relatives and for “better opportunity.”  I then spent the rest of my childhood and high school years in Orange County and went back to San Diego for college at UCSD, where I obtained my B.S. in General Biology with a minor in Visual Arts in 2000.

After that, my career in dentistry all began at the University of Michigan.  I really enjoyed my experiences there (although I could have gone without the freezing cold weather)-Michigan football, all of the lifelong friends I have made, spring  break, running in the snow and ice through the Arb, Ann Arbor, etc.  After what seemed like years and years, I was a doctor finally and graduated with a D.D.S. degree in 2004.  At first I thought I wanted to become a pediatric dentist, but then I decided to do a 1 year GPR (General Practice Residency) and got into the Harvard/Cambridge Hospital program.   I was then Boston bound.  My 1 month anesthesiology rotation was probably my favorite thing out of the whole program.  I was able to do some intubations and a spinal, watched some cool surgeries, including a c-section.  Pretty gory stuff.  Boston was a great city.  I was able to walk pretty much anywhere or take the T.  I lived in the same building as my friend, Stacy.  We would complain about our respective programs together and how we couldn’t wait to get back to California.  Boston to me is all about: Cannolis at Mike’s Pastries in the North End, the T, Boston Duck tours, Sam Adams Brewery, Legal Sea Foods, running along the River, visiting my friend, Barbara, in Connecticut, our trip to Philly where I crashed into a police car (was not my fault by the way!).  Good times, good times.

So, after 2005, I eventually moved back to San Diego after I found a job.  After working for “the man” for about 2 years, I wanted to start my own office.  I guess there was no better time to do it, so I jumped headfirst.  I found a great location next to Petco Park downtown.  It’s all about location, location, location.  The East Village neighborhood of downtown is still growing.  Lots of condos going up and lots of new businesses with only a couple dental offices nearby.  My friend, Joe, designed the office and I love it!  Eventually I’ll have all 6 operatories going in the future when things pick up.

On my spare time I love to do anything outdoorsy and have been training for all of these marathons.  I got into running races in late 2007.  I did a few 10K races, the triple crown (Carlsbad half, La Jolla half, and AFC half), and ran the San Diego Rock-N-Roll Marathon twice.  The first one, my goal was 4 hours, and I got 3:58:09.  This year’s I got 3:50:38.  My ultimate goal is to get a 3:40 to qualify for the Boston Marathon.  I am currently training for the Long Beach Marathon coming up in October.

I wanted a site where I can share all of my trials and tribulations with dentistry and owning an office, while sharing some of my more interesting dental cases.  All the while incorporating my activities and runs, whether they be 3 miles or 20 miles.  Sometimes I wish I could carry my camera on my runs to capture all of the gorgeous scenery along the harbor, at the beach, Mt Soledad, Balboa Park, just to name a few places.  Some of my friends ask, what do you think about when you run for that long?  Sometimes I just let the music take over, but other times, many thoughts go through my head…

Enjoy and thanks for stopping by,

Theresa Pham, DDS