Dr. Joaquin Zagarra
DDS, MDS
In all areas of my life a key guiding principle has always been respect and the exercise of courtesy. To me, the human being is number one. As a professional I am treating a person, not just a set of teeth. This approach makes me genuinely interested in all the aspects of a patient’s life and has permeated down to all my staff. I want our work environment to be a happy and fun place, full of willingness to serve and help.
Patients easily become our friends and treatments become easier and more fun. Seeing a happy patient smile after the long journey of treatment is one of the highlights of my specialty and I am blessed to see this frequently. The bumps on the road can always be surpassed with open, friendly communication and all problems can be solved when there is a will, coupled with honesty and clear goals.
I am in the business of improving people’s lives, making them happy and with an increased sense of self-confidence through an improved appearance and harmonious smile. I firmly believe that a smile can open the doors of success. So, in my practice, all diagnosis is made on an individual basis and the treatment plans are formulated according to this principle. I will always try to exceed expectations and generate feeling of well-being.
I believe that technology is important when it serves the philosophical principles which I have outlined. My office is highly technical, all staff members are well trained and receive continuous education regularly. Technology is used in many ways: precise images in diagnosis, animations to explain treatments to patients, scanners to capture precise molds of teeth and jaws, state of the art bracket systems and wires and so much more to carry out the purpose of improved esthetics, optimized function, a sense of well-being, increased happiness and a live changed.
Finally, I have translated to my practice another guiding principle of my life, honesty. I give my patients what they need, nothing less, and many times much more, beyond their expectations. By the same token, if I find that a patient does not need or will not benefit from my services, without hesitation I will say so and will guide him to where his investment will be more fruitful.
SHARING MY KNOWLEDGE
My passion for teaching came from my father. He was a great teacher. As a child I saw him lecturing to dentists many times, and later on as a teacher of orthodontics to our third-year dental class. His most outstanding feature was his ability to engage his audience and deliver easily digestible pearls of seemingly complicated matters. Similar qualities I learned to develop when I was granted a stipend to teach undergraduate orthodontics during my 3-year residency in the Department of Orthodontics at the University of Pittsburgh. Upon returning to Colombia as a USA certified Orthodontist I began teaching at my dental school where my father had been named Dean. The new responsibility led me to a thorough preparation of quality content slide shows on different areas of orthodontics that I used for lecturing residents, undergraduate students and as an invited lecturer to many national and international meetings. The passion developed, always with the background insight of my father’s way to master the quality of simplification and obtain the core principles of any matter. Then, the challenge of presenting them in a simple and clear way becomes easy.
MY PASSION FOR RESEARCH
One of the things that comes hand in hand with teaching is research. My master’s thesis involved research in the facial and dental characteristics of Colombian populations and carried out similar studies in isolated indigenous communities during the Expedicion Humana of Universidad Javeriana throughout Colombia. I was also on the thesis committee of many graduate residents doing research in different areas. One particular area where I gained expertise was that of growth and development, and after reading and digesting all available literature from the established scientific community, I realized that there were many gaps, insufficient explanations and partial knowledge presented as ultimate truths. This has led me to start researching outside the box, discovering new and exciting avenues of thought and research in non-traditional ways, with new explanations for unsolved puzzles in facial growth. New and sophisticated technology accompanies this endeavor and I am currently exploring with GDV (gas discharge visualization) as it correlates health and sickness to visualization of patient’s energy emissions captured on a screen.
NEVER STOP DREAMING
Many dreams have come true in my life, and they have always involved a vision and circumstances accommodating to make it happen…coming with my family to live and practice in the US, teaching graduate orthodontics at NSU, seeing my daughters through college, opening a practice in a beautiful community like Weston, seeing my daughters get married and enjoying being a grandfather, all this with a marriage that has lasted a long time and counting…never stop dreaming, as dreams do come true!