Meet Dr. Ashley Orynich

Get to know Dr. Ashley! We recently sat down in a one-on-one interview with Dr. Ashley and she took a few minutes to share details about her impressive educational background, how she was inspired to become a pediatric dentist, and what she enjoys doing in her spare time!

I’m Dr. Ashley, and I joined this awesome group a little over a year ago. I’m a pediatric dentist and I’ve been practicing out of state, and recently came back to Texas. I actually have family from Northeast Texas, so in many ways when I came to Texas, more directly from Boston, it was like coming back home.

“I did grow up in South Florida and still have family down there. That’s where the influences of pediatric dentistry were budding! I had a very awesome pediatric dentist, she was a role model, and I also had a lot of cavities when I was younger! So I can definitely relate to going to the dentist every 6 months, only to find out I had another cavity! For some reason I was the only one. Brother and sister – No Cavities! But I now realize a lot more about pediatric dentistry and teeth in general, and realize how that can be prevented, and in ways that some of us are born with certain things that have a higher pre-disposition to cavities. Enough about me, my teeth and my cavities!

I grew up in South Florida. I went to the University of Florida where I got a degree in Food Science and Human Nutrition, it was a Bachelors of Science. I graduated a year early and got accepted to the school of my dreams, which was Harvard! I went to the Harvard School of Dental Medicine. About a year into my first year, I became really interested in Global Health Research. I received a Fellowship and went abroad and did research in Geneva, Switzerland on Oral Health Policy. I continued that by then applying for a joint degree in a Masters in Public Administration, which I got at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

After about 5.5 years as a joint student, I finished my dual degree and that’s where I then applied to Pediatric Residency and got accepted into Baylor – the Texas A&M University Health Science System, Baylor College of Dentistry. That’s how I became connected to this practice. As part of our rotation, we get to visit practices in the area and Dr. Paul Rubin was one of those practices that I came and shadowed. Later on I was co-resident with Dr. David Sentelle and we kept in contact over the years. I practiced for the last 8 years out of state. In the last year I recently came back to the area and joined this phenomenal group and very happy to be part of them!”

“I love the ocean! I have so many little bucket list destinations I’d love going to! I’ve been fortunate enough to work on projects in West Africa and in South America. I taught at a school in Ecuador. I speak Spanish and French. Although I’d definitely would need to brush up on my French, because it’s been a minute… ‘une minute’!”

“I really love music. I think that’ll be with me forever! That’s a passion that hasn’t changed. I’m always into everything … I feel like I’m always trying different hobbies. I’m like the “Queen of Hobbies”! It’s a little embarrassing because I’ll do painting and watercolor. I’d love to get into metal working and sculpture. Take a lot of art is a theme that I have! I love dancing and trying different dances. I recently got introduced to Taekwondo, so pretty excited about that possibility!”

“I have quite a lot of experience working with medically compromised patients and special needs. I find that that’s an area I’m passionate about. I like the cosmetic artistry aspects of dentistry, as well as the hard science. I’ve done a lot of research so I can ‘get in the weeds’ if that’s where you need to go! I try to stay more ‘bullet point’ when I need to but that doesn’t always happen! I think that communication is such a huge piece of being a healthcare provider. And that’s what’s really great about the team that works here at this office. Everybody has unified goals for how we want to provide service. We want to be happy where we’re working and we want the patients and our families that come to see us, to feel that!”

If you have questions or concerns about your child’s teeth, or want to make an appointment for your child’s routine dental cleaning and checkup, please Call (214) 618-5200 during our office hours and our team will be happy to answer questions, schedule an office tour, or book an appointment with Dr. Ashley or one of our other pediatric dentists.