Denturist Profile: Michael Moga

For many, the road to becoming a denturist is long and often time consuming. This was no truer than for Michael Moga.

Michael was born and spent his early life in Romania, where he married and had a daughter. Early in his professional life Michael worked as a dental laboratory technician “with expanded capability”, meaning that he could work directly with patients much like a denturist, a right he earned by obtaining an advanced degree from a Romanian dental school. In 1984 Michael and his family left Romania to immigrate to the United States.

Beginning his American life in Cleveland, Michael quickly found work as a dental laboratory technician, and for three years he did this full time while attending classes to improve his English. Once his comprehension reached college level Michael enrolled in a dental hygienist program, which he completed in 1989. “There are a few good decisions I have made in life”, Michael says. "The best was to immigrate to the United States. The two that definitely changed my life for the better were going into dental hygiene and then becoming a denturist.”
 
In 1990 Michael moved to Portland, drawn by the idea of becoming a denturist. He learned about denturism through a dental lab magazine article that spoke of a school in Iowa where he could get the training to practice the profession. He followed up, and while this turned out to be untrue, he did learn about denturist opportunities in the western states. Numerous calls to dental associations gave Michael the information he needed to decide that Oregon was the place he wanted to go. He arrived in Portland with $300 in his pocket and started immediately working as a dental hygienist.
 
Michael learned that to sit for the denturist examination he had to take a few classes from the then-Oregon Denturist College and fulfill the practical experience requirement. Over the next two years he worked as a hygienist for two dentists he had become friends with while taking classes. At the same time he worked chair side taking impressions for dentures and making them at a dental lab he had set up in his home.

In 1992 Michael took the denturist examination and received his license. He began his practice working with his two dentist friends. One year later he opened his first office in Beaverton, followed in 1995 by one in Vancouver, where he was able to provide patients with partial dentures. Once partials became legal in Oregon as well, Michael closed the Vancouver office and focused attention on his Beaverton practice. “I look at the impact that adding partials to my Oregon practice has had and it is absolutely unbelievable”, he says.

In the summer of 2004 Michael’s daughter Irina graduated from dental school at the University of the Pacific and opened her practice in Michael’s office. While they share both patients and office space, their practices are kept separate.

Michael works six days a week, and in an average day sees about six patients. He works regularly with three area dentists and occasionally does work for half a dozen more. The practice keeps him as busy as he wants. He would welcome someone to help share the load. “I would love to have somebody here”, he says, “but they would have to do the work my way. I’m not saying that my way is the best, but the way I make dentures works for my patients. I’m very grateful to the people of Oregon who voted for us”, he continues, “And when I do dentures for a patient I never forget that they voted for us.”

“I am also grateful to the handful of denturists who in 1978 showed strength and determination, and then put up the money to work to make denturism a legal profession in Oregon and, who in 2002 did the same thing again to add partials to our scope of practice. My hat is off to them all.”

Michael strongly believes in the work he does, and thinks that with the proper organization and effort, the profession can spread nationwide. “It will be a good thing for people who can’t afford dentists’ fees”, he says. “But I’m not saying that I’m, always less expensive than a dentist”, he continues, “There are some very complex cases out there that can drag on for many months.”

“We are not a large enough profession”, Michael believes. “Greater numbers means greater power and influence. I know that we want to take denturism to the next level, but we cannot do it with the professional base we now have.”

“If we want denturism to really catch on in Oregon and other states we need to establish a school here in Oregon”, he continues. “I am a firm believer in having a college program that people in Oregon and other states can attend. I know a number of very intelligent dental technicians who are not satisfied with what they do and would like to become denturists, but the lack of a school in Oregon prevents them from getting the training they need. If we had a Northwest school other than Bates in Tacoma we would be able to promote the profession at a different level and would be better recognized and appreciated. We would get more consideration and respect from the medical profession as well. That’s what education does for you.”

Michael’s message to denturists everywhere is to take pride in what you do. “I am proud of what I am. The best way to gauge yourself as a professional is in your patient’s satisfaction. If the patient is happy and you have helped improve their lives, you are a good professional.”