When Agueda Garcia Paredes was growing up in California, she dreamed about working in the medical field. After a few detours along the way, she’s doing just that as endodontics program coordinator in the University of Colorado School of Dental Medicine (CU SDM) Department of Diagnostic Sciences and Surgical Dentistry.
Healthcare was always Garcia Paredes’ passion. In high school, she took classes in digital dentistry. Later, she studied for and passed the emergency first responder exam.
“I wanted to be a doctor or a nurse,” she said. “I always wanted to help people.”
But as the eldest child of a single mother of six, Garcia Paredes needed to help support the family. So, putting her medical dreams on hold, she took a warehouse job after graduating high school.
Eventually, she found her way back. After moving to Colorado with her husband, Steven Bonilla, in 2012, Garcia Paredes got a job with the CU SDM. Bonilla also works at the school as purchasing support services lead.
Over the years, she served in a variety of administrative capacities, including phone screening and front desk duties in the General Practice Residency and Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery clinics.
“There was a need for somebody at the front desk who spoke Spanish,” said Garcia Paredes, who eventually earned a certificate in medical interpreting. “So many Spanish-speaking patients don’t understand dental terminology, and I was able to translate and explain things to them like root canals and extractions.”
After holding several program assistant jobs with the Department of Diagnostic Sciences and Surgery, Garcia Paredes assumed her latest role in the Division of Endodontics earlier this year. It was a new position that she was eager to make her own.
“The program coordinator’s responsibilities were split between five different people before, and they wanted to have one person in the job to make it easier to manage,” she said.
Partnering with Colorado Dentists
One of Garcia Paredes’ main responsibilities is to manage the Division of Endodontics Save a Tooth program where Colorado dental providers can refer patients who, because of financial constraints, are considering a tooth extraction instead of a root canal.
As an alternative to tooth loss, the Save a Tooth program offers root canal treatment for the price of an extraction ($102) in the CU SDM Student Clinics. Supervised by faculty, students can either provide a permanent build-up and crowns following the root canal or leave a post space at no additional cost. Patients then return to their providers for additional care. Launched in December 2019, the program has completed 474 endodontic procedures in 422 unique patients.
For Save a Tooth, Garcia Paredes works with external providers to coordinate referrals, schedules patients, assigns them to specific dental students and tracks their progress. She also helps patients determine which treatments they can afford. As the sole program coordinator, she was able to track down patients who previously fell through the cracks.
“I reached out to patients who were seen for consultations but were never scheduled for appointments,” she said. “These are people who shouldn’t wait for treatment because their tooth can fracture. Then, they wouldn’t have a choice about losing it.”
“Being in this position is perfect — I’m doing what I wanted to do with helping patients,” she said.
Outside of work, Garcia Paredes and her husband, who were high school sweethearts, are busy raising four children, ages 16 months to 16 years. She is also a huge fan of anime and attends the Fan Expo in Denver every year with her family.
Born in Mexico, Garcia Paredes is particularly proud that she became a U.S. citizen in 2012, the same year she moved to Colorado. That experience shaped her dedication to helping patients from Hispanic and low-income communities in particular.
She credits her many teachers with encouraging her to never stop helping others, regardless of how impossible the odds seem. “Save a Tooth was just an idea,” she said. “Now we have patients saving their teeth instead of having them extracted. Unless you continue to try, you never know if something’s going to happen.”
The CU School of Dental Medicine is hiring a variety of clinical and administrative positions. Join the team: CU Dental Career Opportunities.
