Children leaving home in order to go to college has been a common occurrence for generations. What’s unusual is having home follow along. In a way, that is what happened with Jennifer Wadiak, D.D.S, an assistant professor with the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Dentistry and director of the UAB Dentistry Comprehensive Care Clinic.

After 23 years of working in private practice with her husband Derek in Fredericksburg, Va., Wadiak began considering making a career pivot to dental education. Both of Wadiak’s children were enrolled as students at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa when Wadiak discovered that the dental school had an opening for a clinical faculty member.

So with an opportunity to be relatively close to her children, Wadiak applied for the job after what she admits was a limited amount of research into UAB. She began her new role in 2021, and her husband joined her on the SOD faculty this year.

“I kind of took a chance,” Wadiak says with a smile. “But once I got here and started really learning about the program, I became extremely impressed. I can’t say enough good things about this school, starting with the admissions committee and the quality of the students. I’ve worked with four classes of students in the clinic since I’ve been here, and they are so talented and smart and motivated.

“And I’m extremely impressed with the caliber of faculty. There is a really good mix between people who have dedicated their careers into research and academics, and then people like me who come from private practice. We complement each other extremely well. And by having all of us in the clinic together, the students get a broad view of dentistry and a lot of different perspectives, which really helps them moving forward.”

Wadiak’s initial endeavor into the dental field also began with a bit of uncertainty. She knew she wanted to pursue some sort of medical profession, but did not truly latch on to dentistry until she spent time working in a pediatric dental office.

“That’s where I really started to love it,” Wadiak says. “To see the impact you can have on people’s lives through patient care and helping families, that’s when I truly understood what it means to be a dentist. And thankfully, I was pretty good at it.”

Wadiak had already met her husband by the time they both enrolled at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Dentistry, and they decided before graduation to open a general dental practice together.

“It worked well, because we each focused on the things we really liked and got good at that, which allowed us to treat our patients with anything they needed,” Wadiak says. “He was more into the surgical side of things, while I enjoy the bread-and-butter of dentistry: fillings, crowns, bridges, dentures and things like that.”

Over the years, Wadiak mentored a number of younger dentists, which was one of the early steps leading toward her eventual teaching career. She also learned the delicate art of persuasion while working on pediatric patients.

“I felt like I was always able to connect with children,” Wadiak says. “I enjoyed the challenge of it. How do I take a kid who has no intention of letting me work on them and gain their trust to the point where we’re actually doing dentistry on them, and they enjoy coming.”

“One thing I tried to do was draw on whatever was in children’s pop culture at the time. Like after the movie Frozen came out, if we were putting in a filling, I told them we were putting a snowflake in their tooth. We came up with some creative terms, so it wasn’t so scary for them.”

Wadiak says she takes a similar soft approach in her dealings with dental students. She wants her students to always be inquisitive, and never worry about not having all the answers.

“I don’t ever want a student to feel nervous or embarrassed to ask me a question or ask me for help. That’s what I’m here for,” Wadiak says. “I’m here to guide them when they don’t know what to do, and help make them better dentists.”

“I’m sort of like the clinic mama in a lot of ways. That’s how I want them to see me. I want them to know they can come to me and I’m always going to speak to them respectfully. If they say something that’s wrong, it’s OK. That’s how you learn. So when students leave here, I want them to feel like they got everything they needed out of their UAB education.”