May 2021
REALESTATEPLANNINGLAW.COM 718-698-2200
WE KEEP YOU ON THE RIGHT PATH
IN A MANOR OF SPEAKING
DENTIST OR TEACHER? FOR DR. PHYLLIS MERLINO, A TOUGH CAREER CHOICE CAME BACK AROUND!
In both cases, we’re helping set people up for stability and success down the road. He does it by helping them get a house where they can grow and thrive. And I do it by setting young people up for life with good dental habits and great teeth when they’re old enough to leave. Pediatric dentistry wasn’t exactly on my radar after I graduated dental school back in 1994, but over the next few years of general practice, I realized that I was missing out on something big and rewarding, and I made the decision to go back and specialize. I graduated from Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center in Brooklyn back in 1999 as a board- certified pediatric specialist and opened my own practice in 2000. Since then, I’ve seen so many kids, including John’s kids, and I’ve watched those patients grow from toddlers to teenagers to college kids in for their last couple checkups with me. Watching that growth and knowing those kids will have great teeth and be great dental patients for life has just been tremendously rewarding. It’s like the teaching I always wanted to do on a one-on-one level with kids who really need to know this stuff. And I get to help their parents, as well, which is good. After all, not too many 4-year-olds are making their own appointments and driving to my
This month, we’re featuring someone near and dear to our hearts: John’s own cousin, Dr. Phyllis Merlino. Dr. Merlino has been a pediatric dentist here on Staten Island for 21 years and counting, and in that time, she’s collected a wealth of knowledge about taking care of your teeth as well as a philosophy of “things come back around” that I think is admirable. She sees the work she does as having a long-term impact, and that’s how we felt about helping with her real estate needs. I hope you’ll enjoy this letter from her. G rowing up, I wanted to be one of two things, and the first was always a dentist. I can’t believe this, but in fourth grade, I wrote an essay saying just that! The second was a teacher — I liked kids! — but I always knew that dentistry would be a rewarding career, even back then. And looking at my career, I can’t tell you how happy I am to have been right about that. It’s funny because when I think of the work that my cousin John did for me, helping me out with real estate law when I needed it, it’s similar to the way I think about my own job.
offices by themselves! I remember one mother who brought her 6-year-old in. She knew he had bad teeth and began to come back religiously every six months. Slowly but surely, his teeth recovered, and decaying baby teeth gave way to great, strong adult teeth. Now that boy is headed off to college, and his mother and I couldn’t be happier.
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