Orthodontist Dr. Matthew McNutt’s story: Patients often ask what led me to a career in orthodontics and I have repeated this story enough times that I thought, why not write about it? My journey to become an orthodontist began December 28, 1994. If you are a child or teen patient in my office, you know it is only a matter of time before I will say, “Always listen to your mother.” The start of my journey is a direct result of following that advice.” I was born in Oregon. I lived in Washington, Montana, Arkansas, Idaho, Florida, Illinois, Alabama and then Connecticut. My family moved to NC the summer before my junior year of high school and I am a proud graduate of Athens Drive in Raleigh NC, class of 1993. Two days after high school graduation I was off to Army bootcamp as an immature teen, not yet ready for college. At the end of 1994 I was visiting my parents for a few days while on leave from active duty Army service. The young me was looking forward to seeing friends and relaxing. However, my mother had other ideas on how my time would be spent. Growing up it was common for her to assign an essay for me to write, sometimes as punishment for some boyhood foolishness. As only a mother can, my mother assigned me to spend a day writing an essay aimed at helping me focus on my future plans and profession after military service. As you can imagine, with the little vacation time I had, I was not enthused about this assignment. Besides, didn’t my mother realize that I was an “adult” now? Little did I know, this essay would change the course of my life. I wanted out of this assignment and quickly began making a list of jobs that interested me to make my mother happy. In her wisdom, she instructed me not to write about or research any particular profession or job. Instead, I was to write about the attributes and qualities that one would experience in an imaginary job and write about the things that would be important to have as a part of my everyday work life. And so I wrote. Here are the highlights: this imaginary job was one where I would set down roots and stay in one community, as our family had moved so many times during the course of my childhood. Try moving to a new school every 2-3 years with the last name McNutt! This job would not be in a large corporation working behind a desk and it would not require travel. My father worked for a large corporation and traveled away from home about a third of the year. This imaginary job would allow me the opportunity to be my own boss and have independence. Work would entail art, science, working with my hands, helping people and making a difference in the community. At this imaginary job there would be people of all different ages and all walks of life. It would afford me the opportunity to take good care of a then imaginary future family. At the end of the day, sitting together at the kitchen table, I watched my mother finish reading the essay. She placed it face down on the table and sat quietly for less than a minute. Then she said, “I think now I understand you better. I want you to cancel your plans with your friends. I am going to call your orthodontist and ask if you can spend all day tomorrow with him before you leave to head to Fort Bragg. I think you might find that his work matches what you are looking for.” That moment changed my life. The next day, my orthodontist was a willing and gracious host. I spent the entire day carefully watching and asking lots of questions. The orthodontist loved his work and talked at length about his training and how satisfying it was to help people in this way. By the end of the day, a spark had been lit. What started out as an idea, turned into dream and then one day became reality. At the Fort Bragg post library, I thumbed threw a college catalog and learned that eleven years of college education was required to become an orthodontist. As daunting as this seemed I decided to go for it. After I completed my three years of active duty in the Army, I began undergraduate studies at NC State. I decided that the best way to be sure that orthodontics was a good fit would be to work for an orthodontist. I met a wonderful local orthodontist who came to campus to speak to students and was lucky enough to be hired for a job opening. In 1996 I started my orthodontic career, working three years as lab tech and a clinical assistant for the three doctors at this practice. This opportunity was a blessing on many levels and I did not fully understand until later just how much it impacted my future. In fact, because of this job, I also hire college students to work in our paid intern program as they prepare to enter dental school. During these formative years at NC State, I also worked as a graphic artist for a local company, often getting up every Wednesday at 3 AM to go to my office to knock out my weekly assigned projects to draw pictures and to do lettering signs by hand, before heading off to class at 8 AM. Add to that four years of NC National Guard service and hours and hours of studying. Needless to say, my first four years of college kept me plenty busy. After graduating from NC State, it was off to four years of dental school at UNC Chapel Hill, followed by another three years of orthodontic residency, again at UNC. Both of these programs were considered to be the number one top rated in the world at the time. The citizens of NC are often not aware that the dentists and specialists that come out of UNC are amongst the best you will find anywhere. During my three years of residency, I also worked weekends and vacations as a general family dentist. I continued this after orthodontic residency up until the Spring of 2010. Working as both a general dentist and as an orthodontist at the same time gave me tremendous perspective on comprehensive interdisciplinary patient care. Back to orthodontics…I began practicing in residency in 2004 and in 2007 I began private orthodontic practice in Cary, North Carolina. Again I was blessed in ways that I did not fully understand until later, as I worked in an office with a very experienced orthodontist who had been a part time professor in the orthodontic program at the University of Michigan for 13 years. She was an expert in the early treatment of young children and during the four plus years we shared an office together, I learned a tremendous amount. During that time I also opened my own independent office in Clayton, NC. At the end of 2011, I then opened my own independent office in Cary. Ever since I have continued my orthodontic practice working in both Cary and Clayton. I have now been working in orthodontics in some capacity since 1996. I have a greater appreciation for how hard our team members work, having literally been in their shoes. I started out as the lowest member of the team, taking out trash, cleaning toilets and emptying the spit trap from the suction machine. My team philosophy is that although our roles are not all equivalent, all of us are equal in the importance of our contributions and are deserving of the same respect. This is why to this day you will hear me answer the phone on a regular basis, I will help you make your appointment, you will see me vacuuming in the office, and yes… sometimes still cleaning the bathroom in reception at lunch time so that parents do not have to suffer through what some eight year old boy with poor aim has done to the potty. So naturally the question is, has orthodontics been all that I had hoped for and imagined? After that fateful day of essay writing, how has it all turned out? Am I glad that I listened to my mother’s advice? The answer is that it has been better than I could have ever imagined and at the same time, there are significant challenges that come with my job that you cannot anticipate until you are doing the job. At the end of the day, I am grateful for my mother’s wisdom and I am still chasing this dream every day, because I never stop learning and I never stop being inspired by what we accomplish with our patients. I have a wonderful wife who is also my partner in running the business of the offices and she has been with me for every step of the way going back more than 26 years at this point. We have been blessed with the adventure of five children. We have also been blessed with an incredible team we call our work family. I am hopeful that the best is yet to come. It is a humbling privilege to have cared for multiple generations of children, to see former patients bring their children in to see me, and now hearing their parents speak of soon bringing their grandchildren to see us. Being able to share the joy and the challenges of this adventure together with our family at home and our family at work is truly fulfilling. Thank you for taking the time to read this. Sincerely, Dr. Matthew David McNutt, October 28, 2022