The Art of Caring
With passion and understanding, pediatric dentist Jennifer Satterfield-Siegel puts smiles on her patients’ faces
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Jennifer Satterfield-Siegel knows that God works in mysterious ways. She’s learned to accept his timing and be OK with it.
This pediatric dentist believes that everyone is a work in progress and that everyone has a natural creative spirit.
“Creating is therapeutic, and it is something we are all born to do,” she explains. “You just have to figure out what it is that you are here to create.
“There is something wonderful when you take what nature and God have given you and turn it into something else –– to do that by yourself –– and then pass that gift onto someone else to enjoy it in the form you helped create,” she says.
These gifts aren’t always tangible –– sometimes they can be gifts of encouragement. Satterfield-Siegel first witnessed this when babysitting for a dental surgeon while still in high school.
“One of this dentist’s little girls fell and knocked out a tooth,” she says. “She got a little kiddie denture, and that was pretty intriguing to me.
“In my high school mind, it was cool how this oral surgeon could take care of his family.”
Satterfield-Siegel has parlayed that experience into owning her own dental practice, Special Smiles Pediatric Dentistry, which she leads with excitement, understanding and compassion for her patients’ needs.
A spark ignites
Her North Central High School yearbook reflects just how cool that early baby-sitting experience was to her –– it records an early desire to be an orthopediatric dentist.
Her mom, Kathleen Johnson, also influenced her career focus by telling her, “Be able to take care of yourself. Don’t depend on someone else to provide your basic necessities.”
These messages hit home. While in high school, this focused young lady was already juggling many school activities that helped her set high personal standards and develop a stoic work ethic.
She played clarinet and bass clarinet in the band, participated as a pom-pom girl in marching band, was vice president of the student council her sophomore and junior years, and served as vice president of the Black Student Union.
Satterfield-Siegel wasn’t successful at everything, but even those experiences helped build a stronger sense of self-confidence.
“I ran for president of the council my senior year and lost,” Satterfield-Siegel says. “Out of the clear blue, I tried to run track, but my legs just wouldn’t take me faster, even though I saw all these other runners passing me by.”
As a result of these early foundational experiences, Satterfield-Siegel learned that being a strong woman allows you to come into your own. Earning her degree from Indiana University’s dental school was core to her emerging independence.
Her residencies at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital and at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland continued to hone her vision as a pediatric dentist.
A pivotal moment came when she was a first-year resident and, along with the chief resident, had trouble pulling a patient’s tooth.
“We were stuck. So I called the program director for help,” Satterfield-Siegel recalls. “He said, ‘Just keep on trying and you’ll get it out. Call me when you get it done.’ Click.”
And she did. It was the biggest gift he could have given her.
“Essentially, he was saying, ‘You’re smart enough to do this. Figure it out,’” she says. “So now when, say, a child is experiencing trauma, I get into this mode where I am fully focused to give the best possible care efficiently, effectively and well.”
Satterfield-Siegel used this lesson to boldly move forward in what she knew would be a promising career that would marry well with her personal goals.
Later, she became chief resident and oversaw other residents.
“I was always paged. Sometimes it would seem to be a drag. But then I put my happy face on and went.
“It was crazy; I loved it. I thought, I can do this,” Satterfield-Siegel says.
An evolving career
After her residency, Satterfield-Siegel decided not to take any potential career opportunities in Cleveland and moved back to Indianapolis.
“I anticipated having a job here. It didn’t work out that way. So I became an associate with a couple of practices here,” Satterfield-Siegel recalls. “Sometimes you may not understand why you are going through something, but God has you right where you are supposed to be.”
So she worked on plan B –– starting her own practice.
At 31, Satterfield-Siegel opened her first practice with 25 patients.
“I built it and grew it,” she says. “I loved it. It was my joy.”
Change of plans
Satterfield-Siegel’s career took a turn when she sold that practice and moved to support her husband Max’s endeavors. Outside of Charlotte, N.C., she cared for young patients at a dentistry practice reminiscent of her own in Indy.
While the couple attended a party back in Indianapolis, her husband noted how happy she was back in her element.
“It was different for me to be away from my family and my life,” she admits. So she moved back to Indy and flew to North Carolina one day a week.
“I loved the practice in North Carolina, and, due to a restrictive covenant when I sold my business, the commute made sense for about eight or nine months.”
A new vision
Amid this hectic lifestyle, Satterfield-Siegel used her experience to create a business plan that finely tuned her vision for a new dental practice.
She started with specifics, including location, a mission statement, strategies to grow her practice, and budgets for the lease, supplies, equipment, and hiring the right staff.
“I live with my business plan,” she says.
With this touchstone document in place, Satterfield-Siegel opened Special Smiles Pediatric Dentistry in March.
“I started getting referrals from pediatricians for children with special needs,” she says. “Some of my patients have distinct needs due to autism, bleeding disorders such as hemophilia, Down syndrome, spina bifida, cerebral palsy, or depression.”
Satterfield-Siegel feels she has a good balance of patients and staff in her practice.
“Pediatric dentistry is so special to my heart,” she says. “I like to sit back and tune into a child and his or her family and really communicate well with them.”
A compassionate team leader
The Special Smiles Dentistry team members, several of whom have worked at both of her practices, feel Satterfield-Siegel is a good role model and a caring leader.
One of those longtime employees is the team’s financial insurance coordinator, Yolanda McConnell, who is a mom of two sons, Dillon, 11, and Tyler, 6.
“Being a mom herself, Dr. Siegel understands what it’s like to be a mother and that you sometimes have a call of duty somewhere else besides the office,” McConnell says. “She’s very aware that we too are balancing careers and parenting.”
She says Satterfield-Siegel was completely understanding when McConnell had to juggle her work schedule around Dillon’s health problems.
“Dr. Siegel allowed me to be a parent when I needed to be one,” she says. “We’ve all worked together so long that we all know our jobs. Dr. Siegel has brought us together into departments based on what we all know and do best. We’re all the right pieces, we fit together, and that makes a difference.”
Satterfield-Siegel loves collaborating with colleagues to deliver the best care for children, and she works with other physicians and health care professionals to bring more resources to families.
“I’m here for a reason,” she says. “To be next door to Ron Hathaway, craniofacial center director at St.Vincent’s Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital, it’s no accident.
“I am working on being able to connect more patients with resources that will enrich their lives,” Satterfield-Siegel adds. “I want people to know their children are going to be treated as individuals and deserve quality time. And that we recommend the same kind of dental treatment we would want for our own children.”
As a strong believer that female business owners are in a position to empower and nurture other female professionals, Satterfield-Siegel puts those beliefs into practice every day –– in both the care of young dental patients and her staff.
Such teamwork helps build relationships with parents and their children. Seventeen-year-old Jordan Easton, a Lawrence Central High School student, has seen Satterfield-Siegel since she was 5 years old.
“As soon as I heard that Dr. Siegel opened up her new practice, I told my old dentist I didn’t want to come back –– that I wanted to come to her,” Easton says.
Mom Sherry E. Curry now brings Jordan to Special Smiles for her dental care.
Bringing it all together
Earlier this year, Linda Hamilton of Indiana’s March of Dimes chapter approached Satterfield-Siegel with the opportunity to be the medical honoree for the 2011 Mom of the Year fundraising effort.
“We sat down and looked at the March of Dimes’ mission statement, and it really fit with the Special Smiles mission so well,” Satterfield-Siegel says. “This time around, children with special needs really tugged at my heart. Knowing the kinds of challenges my patients and their parents have –– it can really be intense.”
When Satterfield-Siegel saw the list of issues March of Dimes supports, she thought of her patients.
“I think about how God puts these special people in your life. It can really change your perspective on life and what’s important.”
Helen Wells, who has known Satterfield-Siegel since Jennifer was 15 years old and was a model at the Helen Wells Agency, presented her the award of Medical Honoree.
“I have just watched Jennifer grow into this beautiful person that she really is,” Wells says. “I was so proud. She’s got a great reputation as a wonderful pediatric dentist. It’s really something –– how she takes care of children. She gives back to the community too.
“She is what you see –– her heart is huge.”
Satterfield-Siegel’s children attended the Mom of the Year event and saw firsthand the extent to which their mom’s efforts affected so many others.
“I loved being able to have that teaching moment with my children. March of Dimes is a wonderful organization that just loves everybody.
“To be able to raise money for them was a privilege.”
Personal priorities
In addition to professional success, Satterfield-Siegel is enjoying life too. She recently celebrated her 15-year wedding anniversary with her husband Max Siegel, who owns Revolution Racing, a NASCAR team.
The couple has known each other since junior high. They dated briefly while Satterfield-Siegel was a senior in high school and Siegel was a freshman at Notre Dame. They broke up, met each other 12 years later, fell in love and got married. They have three children.
Though life is hectic for these two highly energetic professionals, that doesn’t get in the way of nurturing their relationship.
The couple makes it a priority to carve out time for one another.
“We used to have date nights. But now it’s like we have Costco nights,” she smiles. “It’s those simple, basic things that you share. We just try to include each other in whatever we are involved in.”
Satterfield-Siegel says it’s great that she and Max were friends first.
“No matter what transpires between us, I can still have a conversation with him as a friend. That’s so important,” she says. “He is so supportive of whatever I want to do. Max is willing to put everything on the line for me. I can honestly say there is nothing he wouldn’t do for me.”
She’s right where she’s meant to be. She loves being a mother, and she loves pediatric dentistry.
“When you’re passionate about something, you need to include it in your life to be a complete person,” Satterfield-Siegel says. “To be successful, you need to know how to balance all those things.”
