Dr. Burnett is currently a member of the Coastal Cascades Dentist Society council and was integral to the merger of the membership of the Southern Willamette and Lane County Dental Societies. He also serves on the Oregon Dental Association Board of Trustees. He serves on these boards to express his gratitude for the opportunity to become a dentist and to say thank you. Why did he decide to become a dentist in the first place? A friend suggested that he should become a dentist. At first, he resisted the idea, but he liked the idea of working with his hands and making a decent living. Most of all, the pursuit of dentistry was a challenging goal for him to achieve.
Dr. Burnett was born in Missoula, lived in Utah while his
father worked at Weber State, and he went to dental school at Case Western
Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Early in his career, he worked as a
dentist with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ Tribal Health
Department.
Dr. Burnett ended up in Oregon after he and his
wife decided not to move back to Utah due to the high number of dentists there
and to avoid snow. After working in Eugene with a friend, he ended up finding a
dental practice in Corvallis in 2001. The practice seemed like a good deal, but
he struggled to rebuild the practice during economic turndowns associated with
9/11 and 2007. He recommends that new
dentists pay attention to Return On Investment (ROI) before making big
purchases. Regardless of the initial challenges, Kent has enjoyed being a
dentist. The favorite part of his job is chatting with long-time patients and
seeing them through all the many stages of their lives. He thinks this is funny
because he generally likes being alone.
One of Dr. Burnett’s favorite activities outside of work is
taking a quiet scenic drive and continuing his family's tradition of “grey-lining,”
which involves traveling on less-used roads to discover unique places. He also
enjoys gardening and enjoys the challenge of growing a vast variety of
different plants. Once, he grew a 12 foot tall Greenhouse to grow bananas.
