Why I became a Dentist. It started with a Gamecube.
When people ask me why I became a Hixson dentist, they expect a clean answer. A single moment. A decisive pivot.
The truth is messier. And more interesting.
The Kid Who Loved Going to the Dentist
Most kids dread the dentist. I was the opposite. Every time my mom took me in for a checkup, I felt this little surge of excitement. Getting out of the house and into that office felt like an adventure.
And my orthodontist had a GameCube.
I didn't grow up with video games at home, so walking into that waiting room and seeing a console I could actually play was about the best thing in the world to a kid who just wanted to try Mario Kart.
But something deeper was going on too. My uncle worked at that same dental office. He started as a hygienist, became a dentist, and eventually an oral surgeon. Everyone who walked through those doors talked about him. "Dr. Moretta is amazing." "He did my surgery."
Watching how someone could be that respected and that loved by their community; that was all I needed to know at 10 years old. I wanted to be a dentist, right here in Chattanooga.
I just didn't tell anyone yet.
Dinner Table Medicine
My dad worked in the ER. My mom worked in the ICU. Dinner at our house meant clinical conversations: trauma cases, overnight shifts, the rhythm of a hospital. I grew up around all of that, and it was cool in its own way.
But I always gravitated toward something smaller.
The hospital meant seeing someone once, maybe for a week, and then never again. I wanted the opposite. I wanted relationships that lasted years. I wanted to know my patients' names, their kids' names, what they did on vacation. A smaller network. Closer connections. That is what being a true Hixson dentist means to me.
Dentistry gave me that.
The Quiet Pivot
Somewhere in late high school, I just decided. I'm doing this.
I wasn't the kid everyone looked at and said, "Oh yeah, he's going to be a dentist." I didn't really announce my plans to anyone. I just put my head down, did well, and kept moving forward.
I briefly considered nursing, following my parents into the hospital world. But every time I pictured my future, I saw a clinic, not a ward. I saw people I'd known for years, not 12-hour shifts with strangers.
The Mission Thread
My uncle didn't just practice dentistry locally. He took his skills overseas: Bangladesh, rural clinics, places most people have never heard of. He'd come back with stories that stuck with me for a long time.
I fully intended to follow that same path. When I met my wife, she knew we were probably going to end up somewhere outside the US, helping people who didn't have access to care.
Life has a way of rerouting you. But I still work with an organization that supports more than 400 dental offices and clinics overseas; places that genuinely need the help. That thread never really went away, and it shaped the kind of Chattanooga dentist I became.
What It Became
Dentistry doesn't have TV shows. There's no Grey's Anatomy for root canals. Compared to emergency medicine, it can look quiet from the outside.
But our office is anything but dull.
There's laughter every day. Patients walk in anxious and walk out smiling; many tell me Brush House is the first dental practice that actually made them comfortable. We crack jokes. We actually like each other. The staff at Brush House genuinely enjoys being here, and you can feel it the second you walk through the door. It is one reason why local families searching for a caring Hixson dentist keep coming back.
I didn't become a dentist because of some grand calling. I became a dentist because a 10-year-old kid walked into an office with a GameCube, heard people talk about his uncle with genuine admiration, and thought: I want that.
Turns out, 10-year-old me knew what he was talking about. And today, as a Chattanooga dentist running Brush House Neighborhood Dentistry, I get to live that out every day.
Dr. Gustavo Moretta Brush House Neighborhood Dentistry — Hixson, TN
Looking for a Hixson dentist who truly cares? Call Brush House today and experience the difference.
