Dr. Charles Wood

College Friend

“SMC gave me a great background; on a par, easily, with four-year universities. It was a terrific education.”

“I knew I was going to be a dentist when I was 5 years old,” says Dr. Charles Wood—former surfer—who now runs a successful practice on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica. “I never went through the ‘who am I?’ stage,” he says. “I always knew exactly what I wanted to do.”

But his certainty about career direction didn’t in any way limit his curiosity about the world. “Dentistry opened the door for me to provide dental care to the poor,” says Wood. He has spent years traveling to tiny villages—from Southeast Asia to Afghanistan, from Guatemala to Haiti—providing dental care to people for whom a bad tooth can mean death.

“I was able to teach a lot of emergency surgery techniques to the poor people in isolated jungle villages,” says Charles. And he feels fortunate to be able to contribute to quality health care, whether it’s in his local community or to the global village. “I was head of dentistry and oral surgery at St. John’s Hospital for three years,” he says of a time when dental care was regularly given to those in need. “But sadly, that program is cancelled now,” he adds.

Charles still spends as much time as possible sailing and surfing the waters where he grew up. He’s still in love with Santa Monica. “People here are just terrific,” he says. “And it’s absolutely the best town to live and work in.”

His “sense of community” means a lot to him, and it’s part of what he enjoyed most at SMC. “There’s a real sense of ‘belonging’ at SMC,” he says, “because you see people that you know. And that just makes it all very comfortable.”

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