Less than 4% of dentists are Black. This South Florida family wants to change that

Miami Herald

a day ago

North Miami dentist Roger Phanord remembers the moment he decided to get into the field. He was 7 years old and lived with his mother in Harlem, New York. He had a toothache, but their family didn't have much money, so they visited a man who practiced dentistry in his kitchen.
He went home without any pain.
'I thought that was an amazing experience,' Phanord, 63, told the Miami Herald. 'And ever since, I wanted to do dentistry.'
Roger Phanord and his twin sons, Kyle and Kevin, are now practicing together at North Miami's Phanord and Associates, a dental clinic with 12,000 active patients, a number Roger says is uncommonly high for a general practice. The three men are part of a small fraction of Black dentists in America, who make up less than 4% of all dentists in the U.S. Through mentorship, the family seeks to increase that number and help diversify their industry.
Roger Phanord and his family moved to South Florida in the 1980s, and he attended Miami Killian Senior High School and 'played soccer like most Haitians do.' After studying at Florida International University, he graduated from University of Florida's dental school in 1987.
Finding work at a local clinic was difficult, but that changed in June 1988 when he opened his clinic on Northwest 119th Street.
'I made sure that it was a large enough facility where all the Black dentists would graduate and have a place to come in and work,' he said.
Kyle and Kevin Phanord, now 31, spent much of their free time as kids at the dental clinic and worked there as assistants during the summer.
After the twin brothers graduated from University of Florida's College of Dentistry in 2020, they immediately knew they wanted to join their father at the North Miami practice.
'We're able to see what our dad was able to do, and working with him is just a blessing because we get to learn a lot from him,' Kyle Phanord said.
For Kevin, his close relationship with his brother made it that much easier to join their father at the clinic. The brothers were roommates in college and had the same major and similar goals. They finish each other's sentences and act in a way that shows they grew in the same womb.
The Phanord brothers grew up familiar with Black professionals like their father but realized as they got older that other Black children may not have the same experience.
'My brother and I looked at it as, we could continue the legacy, and we could help the next brother and sister coming up,' Kyle Phanord said.
After their graduation from dental school, the brothers began mentoring Black college students interested in dentistry and said they have since helped 20 students be accepted into top dental programs at universities like the University of Florida, Tufts and Howard.
Kevin Phanord said he ran into one former mentee in a North Carolina airport and was humbled by the interaction.
'He was pre-med, then he switched to pre-dental after meeting us,' Kevin said. 'He's like, 'You guys will never know how much you changed my life. I really appreciate it.''
Mentees shadow the twins at work and also receive recommendation letters. The letters are extremely important in a competitive dental industry.
'The biggest thing I think is important is having pre-dental students shadow. So having them come and see what we do on a daily basis and see how we create treatment plans to see if that's actually the field they want to go into,' Kevin Phanord said.
Roger Phanord said the passion for helping others that he passed on to his sons stems from a personal mission that supersedes dentistry. He estimates that in his nearly 40 years as a dentist, he's helped 24 dentists set up their own practices or work at his business.
That was by design.
'Every doctor that ever worked with me never had a contract,' he said. 'They could open tomorrow across the street. There's not that fear of competition.'
Family business
For the Phanords, working alongside family is generally a positive experience but can also present unique challenges. All three Phanord men have outgoing personalities and sometimes have differing views when it comes to how they will treat patients. There are periods when they can go days at a time without speaking to each other.
'At times, it's brutal,' said Roger Phanord. 'But ultimately, our ultimate goal is what's best for the patient. So it works out because we all have the same goal.'
To Roger, that means working in his clients' best interests instead of his own, advocating only for dental work that is necessary.
'I could double or triple my income on any given year or any given day if I choose to, but then you got the ethical boundaries and then you got your own personal moral boundaries,' he said. 'I'm not going to advise the patient to do anything that I wouldn't do to a family member.'
A new member of the family could potentially carry on the family's dentistry legacy someday. Kyle and his wife, Chemika, a pediatric dentist, recently welcomed their daughter, Naomi, to the world. Kyle Phanord believes the exposure his daughter has to her family's work could lead to an interest in dentistry.
'I think that exposure matters and representation matters,' he said. 'She sees that Mom and Dad are both in the field. There's a high possibility that the legacy can continue.'
As Roger Phanord prepared to see his next patient on a recent afternoon, he reflected on the work he's done to move his family and people like them forward.
'I don't want to be the only one that makes it. I continue to live my life that way,' he said. 'And for me, it's been nothing but blessings.'