Meet the Doctor Dr. Burke JardineDr. Burke Jardine loves doing dentistry. He is passionate about how the art and science can combine to create a beautiful, harmonious, and functional display. His passion for the dental field has pushed him to become a dental specialist. As a prosthodontist, he has significant knowledge, training, and experience performing advanced dental treatments. Dr. Jardine and his wife, Jen, live in a nearby community with their 6 children. They enjoy spending time together as a family doing a wide range of activities. A family night with pizza and board games, a day spent wake surfing on the lake or snow skiing at Mt. Hood are some of their favorites. Dr. Jardine is an avid sports fan, especially college sports, Portland Trailblazers, and the Seahawks. He also enjoys serving others in his community and church.  Jardine FamilyDr. Burke Jardine has always had a great love of figuring things out and fixing things. His mom loves to tell stories about him when he was a kid; like the time when he was just two years old he took his sisters crib apart, with her still in it. As a two-year old, he also somehow found a way to take his bedroom door off. Especially as a young child, Dr. Jardine, was constantly taking things apart to look at the gears and parts, and then hopefully putting them back together. The decision to become a Prosthodontist after becoming a mechanical engineer, and a dentist may not seem like a typical combination. Dr. Jardine has been able to take his passion of figuring things out, designing, and building better things and merge that with dentistry to become a Prosthodontic Specialist. As a Prosthodontist, he can see the big picture of how the mouth works, the small intricate parts of the gums and teeth, and the artistry to create a smile for his patients’ needs that they will love. Dr. Jardine brings his unique training, skills, and talents to the Vancouver, WA area. After a rigorous undergraduate training at Brigham Young University in Mechanical Engineer (BYU – ’96 – ’03), with minors in Chemistry and Mathematics, Dr. Jardine enrolled in dental school (UNLV – ’03 – ’07). After four years of dental school at UNLV School of Dental Medicine, three years practicing as a family dentist, and four kids, Dr. Jardine decided to go back to school for an additional three years. He went on to complete a three-year dental residency to specialize as a Prosthodontist (LSU – ’10 – ’13) at LSU, and even found the time to become a Certified Dental Technician. A Prosthodontist is a dental specialist who has significant more training than a general dentist in most-all aspects of dentistry, particularly implants, implant restorations, cosmetic makeovers (esthetic dental specialist), dentures and other complex dental prostheses. Often dentists, patients, and other dental specialists in the area refer their patients to Dr. Jardine for specialized dental care and treatment needs. Selected highlights and awards
Why I am a Dentist, Prosthodontic Specialist, & Certified Dental TechnicianMany people over the years have asked me why I decided to become a dentist, prosthodontic specialist, or a dental technician. The answer is a little long, but I hope I did the topic justice: When I was growing up as a kid in a small town in Northern Nevada I wanted to become an astronaut. As I grew older and went through high school and continued my education at Brigham Young University, I found I really enjoyed mathematics, physics, and chemistry; and I had a talent for those subjects. While at the university, I decided to study mechanical engineering. During my university education years I had two profound experiences that forever shaped my professional pathway. The first experience occurred when I was twenty years old. I interrupted my studies to serve a church mission, and lived in the Philippines for two years. I happened to meet a family with a 10-year-old boy with a cleft lip and cleft palate. At the time I wanted to see if there was anything I could do to help him. I discovered a non-profit humanitarian medical group, called Operation Smile, which travelled to the Philippines. It was a team made up of many different doctors and volunteers that travel to different countries from the United States to provide various medical care to those in third world countries. I excitedly filled out an application and submitted it. I was surprised and elated a few weeks later to receive a letter explaining the young boy had been accepted into the program. I rushed over to the family’s humble bamboo hut the next day to tell them the wonderful news. Operation Smile had proposed to completely cover all medical costs, including the costs for the young boy and a parent to travel to Manila, stay in the hotel during the medical treatments, several additional days for recovery, and all meals during the trip. All they asked for in return was a donation of 500 Filipino Pesos. I was completely devastated when the family told me they thought the donation of 500 pesos was too much and they wouldn’t do it. At the time, it was roughly the equivalent of the father’s income for working three full weeks. It was doable for them. It was certainly within their grasp. I went back to my apartment that night very upset about the whole situation. While there, I noticed a letter my grandmother had just sent to me. I opened it up, hoping to have some good news to help me temporarily forget the day’s events. I was surprised to see it was actually a birthday card, and there was 20 dollars inside. I was so excited I could hardly sleep a wink that night. At that time, 20 dollars was roughly equivalent to 1000 pesos. The young boy could have his surgery, thanks to my grandma’s generosity. I hurriedly went to their house the next morning and was surprised to find their hut vacant. Come to find out, they had gotten so embarrassed at telling an American they weren’t interested in doing the medical surgery that during the night they moved to another part of the city. Although I had several people looking for them to try to give them the money for the donation Operation Smiles had requested, I never saw them again. For me, I hope finances are never the sole reason why treatment of this nature is not completed. The second life-altering experience isn’t quite so dramatic as the first. After returning to the university, I interrupted my studies again, this time to work as a mechanical and structural engineering extern at Pratt & Whitney in Hartford, CT. I worked for them for six months and had a wonderful time. The main project I was in charge of was to redesign a cover plate that goes in the engine of a fighter jet. The cover plate was a disk that spins about 5000 times a minute, and has holes drilled in it to allow some air to flow through, but not too much air. The airflow is vitally important to maintain so it can cool the engine. Unfortunately the cover plate was cracking and had to be replaced too often. The military wanted it redesigned to increase the life of the spinning cover plate. I jumped into the project headfirst and thoroughly loved every minute of the project. I had to use very sophisticated computer mathematic models to analyze the problems, and then propose a new solution. Ultimately my design was accepted and implemented. It was a resounding success. I was able to increase life expectancy of the part five times longer than the military requested, and reduce weight of the part, while maintaining the same volume of airflow. For those who are not familiar with airplanes, weight is so critical that whenever possible redesigns like this must be done without increasing the part weight. To me this is engineering design at its best. The easy solution would have been to thicken the cover plate to make it stronger where it was cracking. This, however would increase the weight. It was fulfilling to recognize that if I put my mind to it, in my own small way I could do something to help others. As my externship concluded and I headed back to Brigham Young University to finish my Mechanical Engineering degree, the experience with the boy with the cleft lip, cleft palate kept coming back to me. I reasoned that I could do a lot of good for others designing the best, safest, most fuel-efficient airplane. I wanted to do something to help others, but with a more direct human interaction. These two experiences led me to consider and ultimately pursue an advanced degree as a Doctor of Dental Medicine (DMD). Several years later, as I was practicing dentistry in Arizona, I began reflecting on the thousands of people I had met and all the different ways I had helped them. It was incredibly fulfilling to note I had been a small part in helping others. However, it was also very poignant to recognize that for some, as a general dentist I was very limited in the services I could offer them. I had read about dental implants, and had heard some about some of the different prosthesis that could be made, but as a general dentist I hadn’t been thoroughly trained to be able to offer these services to others. There are many courses available to begin learning about implants, but I didn’t want to just be able to do the simple treatments. Also, I didn’t want to have just a superficial understanding of implant dentistry. I reasoned, if I truly want to offer the best type of medical treatments available, I needed to go back to school to do an intensive three year training in implant and aesthetic dentistry. Although it was an incredible sacrifice to take four kids and my wife away from our comfortable lifestyle, I never could have understood how much I didn’t know, and how inadequate my learning would have been had I only taken weekend courses to learn advanced dental implant concepts. For example, a general dentist that is very interested in continuing education will amass approximately 3000 – 3500 hours of continuing education over the course of their career. By doing the advanced Prosthodontic Specialty Residency and Certified Dental Technician, I amassed approximately 15,000 hours of continuing education. Further, I didn’t want to spend a whole career to get enough training to just get to a point where I could start doing advanced, complex dentistry. I wanted to get the advanced training now so I could use those knowledge and skills to help others over the course of my career. Over the years I have practiced here in the Vancouver, WA area, I have noticed there are many good doctors in the area. We are very lucky to have so many dentists here that pursue additional education the way they do. When it comes to specialty dental procedures, like dental implants, esthetic veneers, and dental implant restorations, there is often a significant benefit of seeing a specialist who treats the difficult problems day in and day out as compared to only doing a few specialty procedures here and there. |
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