RSDM Class of 2025 Student is an Artist at Heart

Before dental school, Rebekah Webster spent workdays in a small, windowless laboratory designing machines that would analyze medical samples. She enjoyed working with her hands, but not the workplace — or her advancement prospects. “I did a lot of soul-searching in 2020,” Webster said. “I didn’t like the trajectory I was on.” She knew the research would eventually help patients, but “I wanted direct patient care to be part of my career.” The Nashville native, who sang in a contemporary rock Christian band for years, landed on a career in dentistry. “My mom thought it was so random, but it made sense,” Webster said. “Dentistry marries my desire to treat people with how I enjoy spending my time. The level of focus I have when working with my hands is very serene.” Webster wanted to attend dental school near New York City, but not in the Big Apple: she’d earned her bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering at Columbia University, but thought Manhattan would be too distracting for dental school. She has family in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. She set her sights on Rutgers School of Dental Medicine. “It stood out among other schools, with a reputation for graduates with strong clinical skills,” she said. “I knew it would be a challenge, and that’s what I was up for.”  As a child, Webster liked going to her dentist’s jungle-themed office, with televisions overhead. She didn’t mind having braces either, because they gave her beautiful teeth.

Webster said she enjoys the didactic aspect of dental school, the classes in microbiology and gross anatomy especially, more than she expected. But the hands-on work is her passion.

Creating veneers, crowns and grills, decorative tooth coverings is what she enjoys best. “I like making people feel beautiful,” the 27-year-old said. 

Webster is a jewelry-maker, sculpting earrings out of polymer clay. The business, Shop Silent, began as a way “to practice her polymer modeling and hand skills in a creative way while in dental school,” according to the website. One of her designs is a sterling silver pair of tooth-shaped earrings, called Tooth Huggies. Not surprisingly, they are popular with her fellow dental students.

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