Orthodontist Job Shadowing and News - Dr. Catania

Congratulations to:

Andrew Gurka !!

He is our latest "A" Team winner. Andrew won a $20 gift card to Target just for keeping his teeth clean!

* Many thanks to all of our great patients who participated in our Summer Food Drive! Dr. Catania matched all item donations as well as cash donations! Distributions were made to benefit Minoa's Heaven's Pantry, Tully Pantry, LaFayette Outreach, and the Fabius Pantry.

* We were fortunate to have several teenagers shadow Dr. Catania this summer. Shariq Shaikh, Ashley Smith, and John Mortelliti all gave up some of their valuable time to learn more about orthodontics as a career choice! Thank you all for your interest and we hope you learned a lot and enjoyed yourselves.

More about Shariq:

Shariq is now a freshman at the University of Buffalo. He graduated from Fayetteville-Manlius High School and will be taking pre-dental courses in anticipation of attending dental school in Buffalo or Connecticut followed by an orthodontic curriculum. He spent a lot of time in our office and is looking forward to focusing on college. In addition to shadowing this summer, Shariq is our patient and has a patient's perspective as well!

Shariq was originally interested in pursuing a career in medicine and then shifted gears toward dentistry. He thinks being an orthodontist will be interesting and fulfilling (Dr. Catania can confirm that it is)!

He enjoyed his time observing and asking questions in our office. He learned how the certified orthodontic assistants and doctor interact with each other as well as communication skills with patients. He likes how our office is friendly and jokes around a lot - he said this makes it fun for the patients and helps them relax. He was very helpful by assisting us in seating patients and learning sterilization techniques.

Shariq, known as "Shark" to some, says that shadowing is "a good way to figure out if it is really what you want to do." He recommends that if you want to learn, you have to make sure to ask a lot of questions!

We wish Shariq the best of luck in his endeavors to become an orthodontist!