8/9/2019 Dr Laura Torrado

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Dr. Laura Torrado

- In a profession dominated by neither women nor Hispanics, Dr. Laura Torrado’s dentalpractice in midtown New York thrives.

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When Laura Torrado was a girl living in Uruguay her dentist was a woman. Not realizing howunique it was to have a female in that position in 1970s South America, she decided thatdentistry might be a career she could pursue. Her dentist ran her practice out of her homeand Torrado thought it would be wonderful to have both her family and work located in thesame place. But it was more than just convenience that excited her. Torrado had an affinityfor the sciences and the perfect blend of her love for science and family seemed to lie in thedental profession. She was shy at the time, but knew she would overcome that eventually.“Dentistry had everything that I liked tied up together,” Torrado recalls.

So, she began a path that would lead her to her dream. Except fate intervened, in the formof a military coup against the Uruguayan government. Her uncle had already fled in to the

United States in the 1950s and when several of her father’s friends and co-workers weredeported or were “disappeared,” her parents decided that they too must emigrate ratherthan live in fear. But Torrado stayed behind to finish her education. It was a difficult time.“You never knew when you were going to get a visit from a couple of soldiers just to lookunder your bed,” she says now.

She visited her family as much as she could before eventually moving to the U.S. to stay in1987. She graduated from New York University and went into practice in 1989. But, finding aposition in an established dentist’s office was a challenge due to her ethnicity and hergender. She was offered positions, but at the salary of a hygienist. The barriers sheencountered only firmed her resolve.

That doesn’t mean she didn’t receive encouragement along the way. While working for adentist in the early 1990s, she received the type of confidence-booster that can beinstrumental in any young professional’s life.

One day, the lead dentist was taken ill and was not able to come in. Rather than contactpatients asking them to reschedule, Torrado saw her full slate of patients as well as the leaddentist’s, treating them efficiently and with care. Upon hearing this, the dentist told her thatit was time for her to set out on her own. “That was a real eye opener. “ Torrado says.

So she started to look for a practice that was for sale. The one she found ended up having aprime location on Central Park South. The previous occupant had been there 35 years.

Torrado needed only to update the equipment. “It was almost too good to be true,” she

says. “It was perfect.”

While having a great location made for a solid start, keeping up to date on the latesttechnology and having an outstanding staff is what has helped Torrado’s practice soar.

Dentistry, like other medical professions, has experienced a major upheaval in the pastdecade or so. “There’s no more runny material in your mouth to make a mold of your teeth,”

Torrado explains. “Instead we scan teeth and send the lab the image of them through theInternet.”

8/9/2019 Dr Laura Torrado

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Keeping a happy team of employees has also been critical. She believes in clarifying anemployee’s function right from the start. “When I hire someone we enter into an agreement.Our roles are clearly defined and everybody knows their role.”

In the future, Torrado would like to see her practice become more specialized, taking onmore challenging restorative cases. She also plans on visiting Guatemala to do somevolunteer dentistry next year. Perhaps her visit there will inspire a girl in the same way thatshe was once inspired. Then again, it’s quite possible that’s already happened.