Dental graduate found her calling early I wanted to be a dentist since I was 9

Smiling woman with long dark hair wearing a black cap with a gold tassel and the number 26 hanging from it. She's wearing a black graduation robe with purple accents.

College of Dental Medicine graduate Charlotte Palmer plans to work in an underserved area with one of her classmates. Photos provided

College of Dental Medicine graduate Charlotte Palmer credits her childhood dentist, Felicia Goins, D.D.S., with setting her on the path that eventually brought her to the Medical University of South Carolina.

“The experience that really got me into dentistry was when I showed up to my appointment and had nine cavities that needed to be filled. She did them all in one day. She let me record the whole process. I went home, and I rewatched the procedure repeatedly, and I’ve been intrigued ever since then. I was just 9 years old. I’ve wanted to be a dentist since I was 9.”

Goins, a member of the MUSC Foundation Board of Directors, is proud of her protege. “Sometimes you can really see a sparkle in their eyes when you're talking to them. She was young. And that's when you really want to get them thinking about a career,” she said.

“I remember her always coming in inquisitive. She always wanted to learn more. She always asked me lots of questions. And I was like, ‘You know, Charlotte, you could do this. You could be a pediatric dentist.’”

A woman wearing a purple top and jacket smiles. She is standing with a younger woman. The younger woman has long dark hair and is wearing a black dress with short sleeves.

Dr. Felicia Goins with Palmer, who is following in her footsteps by becoming a dentist.

Palmer will see children, as well as adults, in the practice she’s joining in Chester, which is about 40 minutes away from her hometown of Blythewood. “I plan to go back to rural South Carolina. Chester is very underserved. Super rural. I will actually be practicing with one of my classmates. Her name is Liliana Montero, but we just decided that we wanted to give back to communities similar to the one that made us,” Palmer said.

“We'll be working at two offices, both of which take Medicaid. So we will be seeing a lot of low-income patients. And it truly is about helping the community, which is what I want to do.”

Palmer said she was the first in her family to go to college. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Spelman College, where she majored in Biology. MUSC was a big change, she said, one that took some getting used to. The classes were bigger, and she missed her friends from Atlanta.

Tariq Javed, D.M.D., associate dean for Academic and Student Affairs for the College of Dental Medicine, helped her find her comfort zone. He asked her to work in his office the summer after she completed her D1 year.

Two men on back row, four women and one man on front row. They are all wearing blue scrubs. The front row is sitting on a ledge. They are in front of a red brick building. The door has a sign saying dental clinics.

Palmer started to feel at home with her classmates during her second year in dental school. "Now I'm so attached that I don't want to leave," she said.

“I was very actively involved in recruiting her for our dental school. She had other offers as well. I was so impressed with her self-confidence and how she expressed her interest in dentistry,” Javed said.

His belief in her paid off. That summer, Palmer started to feel more at home. “I started to feel like I really fit in with my classmates, like I actually belonged here and could get involved without feeling uncomfortable or out of place.”

Javed watched as Palmer began to thrive. She mentored other students, maintained an excellent academic record, joined the school’s admissions committee and represented the College of Dental Medicine. “She has been just a role model. I think I should call her a goodwill ambassador for CDM and MUSC. That's what she has been, whenever we have asked her to help us with student recruitment or represent CDM at various meetings, she has done an amazing job,” Javed said.

Two young women with long dark hair wearing black scrubs. Both have dental equipment hanging around their necks. The woman on the left has her arm on the shoulder of the other woman, who is seated

Palmer with Liliana Montero, the classmate she plans to work with in Chester.

“I have truly enjoyed my time here at MUSC. Dr. Javed saw potential in me that I didn't see in myself my freshman year. It has taken me to heights that I didn't expect to go to,” Palmer said. “Now I’m so attached that I don’t want to leave.”

Palmer has been inducted into Omicron Kappa Upsilon, one of the highest honors in dentistry, recognizing both academic excellence and character. She was also selected for the $100,000 rural dentist incentive from the South Carolina Dental Association, awarded each year to one D4 student committed to practicing in an underserved area of South Carolina.

Goins, her childhood dentist, isn’t surprised by Palmer’s success. “She's really going to make an impact in our profession, which is great. That's what you want. You want someone with all her energy, all of her insight, to come and pay it forward.”

That’s exactly what Palmer plans to do. “I was so inspired by Dr. Goins as a child coming from a very low-income community, a very rural area. She built my confidence. It just made me want to just go back and, you know, be that person for someone else.”

Her message to future patients with that sparkle in their eyes at the idea of dentistry: “You can be that. You can defy the odds and be bigger than what usually comes out of your community. You can be more than what people expect, based off where you come from.”