Dr. Deborah Milliken Retires from SFSC on Jan. 4

Sadly, we must say goodbye to Dr. Deborah P. Milliken when she officially retires from SFSC as chair of Dental Education on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024, after serving the College for nearly 20 years. However, we had an opportunity to chat with her about her career as a dentist, administrator, and instructor, as well as her plans for retirement.

Where are you originally from?
I grew up in a small town outside of Louisville, Ky. We lived in town, but we also had a farm between Louisville and Lexington, so I had the best of both worlds — city life plus country life. We had cattle, horses, and some crops. My parents were school administrators, so we had a good life.

Where did you earn your degrees?
I graduated from Western Kentucky University with a double major in Chemistry and Biology and a minor in Mathematics. I earned my D.M.D. from the University of Louisville School of Dentistry.

After graduating from dental school, did you work with a local dentist?
When I graduated from dental school, I went to work as an associate in a dentist’s office in the town where my first husband lived. Within six months, I was a partner and then my partner became ill and passed away. Then, I opened my own practice.

Why did you decide to go into dentistry?
I fell in love with my pediatric dentist when I was about 5 years old. I loved the office environment, the way he worked with people, the way he talked to people, and he was as cute as he could be. As I got into my teen years, I developed an interest in art. My dentist recognized that because he had seen some of my artwork in high school. He said, “You know, this is something that we do in dentistry.” That really piqued my interest. He began talking to me about the shapes of things and how dentists carve teeth and instrument on teeth and it caught my interest.

When I first went to college, I planned to major in Art and then go to dental school. The first semester, I was an art major. I took two art classes and really liked them, but I realized that I was going to starve to death if I majored in Art. So, I changed my major to Chemistry.

In my class in dental school, we had 90 students. Out of 90, 10 were women. Of the 10 women, six of us graduated. In that post-Vietnam group of individuals, I think of the women in dentistry at that stage as pioneers. Dental school was fun, because we were learning so much. At the same time, it wasn’t so fun because I experienced prejudice for the first time in my life.

Now, of course, dental schools are half women, half men. And in some schools, it’s 60/40.

How did you get to Florida?
I practiced dentistry in Kentucky for several years after I got out of dental school. After a while, I decided that I needed to broaden my horizons a little bit and had always been interested in higher education. I thought I would go in the direction of teaching in a dental school. In 1984, I moved to Polk County to teach and practice dentistry.

You were at Webber International University in Polk County. What did you do at Webber?
I taught in their Nursing program because they had a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. It was a completion program, and a program before its time. At the time, the hospitals and physicians were less focused on employing nurses with bachelor’s degrees. Now, they all want someone with a bachelor’s degree.

Webber’s director of Nursing recruited me and I taught the advanced sciences, such as Anatomy & Physiology, microbiology, and biochemistry, to the Nursing students. At the same time, I was practicing dentistry. At Webber, I was asked to teach some general education science courses, which I did. Then they asked me to be the department chair for general education, then dean of students, then dean of academics, then executive vice president. So, I continued up the ladder. I was at Webber for 19 years.

I left administration and went to teach at Avon Park High School. I felt that I’d gotten back in touch with students, and it was like fresh air.

When did you start working at SFSC?

I started at SFSC as a dental hygiene instructor in 2004.

What drew you to SFSC?
Kevin Brown, the dean of Applied Sciences and Technologies. At the time, I was teaching algebra and geometry at Avon Park High School. Kevin found out that a dentist was teaching math at the high school and he got in touch with me to talk about SFSC’s Dental Hygiene program. They were trying to get the curriculum stabilized. I spent some time with him and it moved on from there. It took me a long time to decide whether to leave the high school, because I really liked teaching high school students. They are so much fun and, for them, everything is new.

What are some of the dramatic changes you’ve seen at SFSC and in your field?
Technology is the number one thing that comes to mind. At SFSC, we’ve had a lot of advances in administration technology – how you report things and keep track of things.

But, in terms of the Dental Education Department, we struggle to keep up with the technology, because dentistry’s changing so fast. I think it’s changing faster than ever. For instance, 15 years ago, we thought a panoramic radiograph was really something. Now, that’s considered old technology, and 3D radiographs are the current standard of care.

In dentistry 15 years ago, a dental implant was an unusual thing. Now, it’s common place. The success rate for dental implants is over 90%. About 20 years ago, endodontic therapy (root canals) was a slow process. Now, it can be done fairly quickly with mechanization. People think it’s going to be painful, but it’s not. Local anesthesia has advanced exponentially in the last 20 years. We have new products, new technologies, and new techniques.

In our clinic at SFSC, we use Silver Diamine to arrest active decay. A child comes in with decay in a tooth. The parent may say that they can’t afford to go to the dentist at this time. We can place the Silver Diamine and it arrests the decay until the child can get more definitive treatment. It’s a topical that we usually have to replace every three months. It’s going to change public health, especially in Florida. We’re constantly chasing childhood decay. More kids miss school because of dental decay than for any other reason. And the number of workdays that adults miss because of their own dental issues is extraordinary.

What have you enjoyed most about working at SFSC?
I’ve enjoyed working with the students. Being with students keeps you refreshed. Even if you’re teaching the same courses year after year, the students find different ways to approach that same topic and in good ways. They need different ways to have difficult, complex concepts explained to them. If I say to them that something happened in the 1970s or ‘80s, that’s ancient history to them. The don’t have any of those contexts that they can apply. I encourage my students to look at old movies. Their definition of an old movie is something that was made in the ‘90s. My definition of an old movie is something that was made in the 1930s and is in black and white. That’s an important way of looking at our present and our future.

In terms of Dental Hygiene, how do you apply that concept?
You can use examples from movies in which they’ve presented dental care in a particular way. In the movie, “Marathon Man,” for example. You ask a student, “Why did the torturer choose to use a tooth that did not have decay on it to expose the nerve?” It becomes a teaching tool for understanding tertiary dentin and secondary dentin. When I explain that in histology, they can say, “Well, if the tooth had decay in it, the pulp of the tooth would try to protect itself by laying down additional dentin in between the decay and the pulp.” If a tooth doesn’t have that decay, it doesn’t lay down a protective layer of dentin. So, that’s going to be a big, fat, juicy pulp and they’re going to drill right down into it and it’s going to hurt like the devil. I can guarantee you that not one person in that class had ever seen the movie, “Marathon Man.” Now, at least half of them have.

Is there anything else you enjoy about teaching?
I like the faculty and, over the years, I’ve mentored new faculty, both in my first experience in higher education and in this department as well. I enjoy mentoring faculty.

What are your plans for retirement?
I’m very involved with my church, First Presbyterian of Frostproof. When I retire, I’ll do more. It’s small, so it provides people with the opportunity to get to know one another and to bond as Christians. Frostproof is a relatively small community with lots of need. So, even in that small community, there are plenty of opportunities to share Christ.

I am also planning to write. I’ve written a good bit in the past. I write science fiction, but I’ve never been published. I’m hoping that I may find someone who’s interested in publishing some of my work. I’ve written several short stories that are more directed toward teenagers and middle school age. I would like to submit those to some magazines for that age group. I will do some writing and artwork. We have fabulous local artists and I plan to, perhaps, take some classes with them and see where that goes.

What will you miss about the College?
The students, the faculty, and our patients in clinic. Our patients come here and some of them have had such bad experiences or no experience in dental offices. It’s great to get to know them and reassure them and watch as the students turn them around. The students educate them about dentistry and about what’s going on in their oral cavity. They explain that their oral cavity is the gateway to the rest of their body and, if something is bad in there, the rest of their body is going to have something bad going on, too.

I’m going to miss faculty, friends, and students. I’m so proud of our graduates who have gone out and become successful. They have family and are doing all those things they wanted to do when they started this program. Our patients are really dedicated. They commit a lot of time to coming in and being patients for our students. We can provide expensive treatment at a reasonable cost. But the patients pay with their time. Because it’s instruction for our students, the patients have to sit in the chair for a long time.

I’ve also enjoyed the interactions I’ve had with our local dental community. Our local dentists, hygienists, and dental assistants have been so supportive of this program. They give us everything from encouragement to advice and, from time to time, money for things we desperately need in the program. We’ve been really blessed with such a supportive dental community.

Is there anything else you’d like people to know about you?
I don’t think there is enough gratitude in the world. We often say “Thank you” in a perfunctory way and it has become almost meaningless. I am truly grateful for the wonderful experiences and people I have engaged with in my work and personal life. To be so blessed is a rare thing.