Lasting Impressions | Fall 2016

18 © NSU LASTING IMPRESSIONS Eugenia Johnson, D.D.S., a 2008 CDM alumna, had been a dentist in Moscow, Russia, for 10 years when she attended a dental conference in Sochi, Russia. It ended up being the turning point in her life. “It’s like a Cinderella story. We don’t have the specialty of endodontics,” she said of dentistry in her native Russia. “I studied online and in books, and we had lot of good speakers in Russia at conferences. ese courses cost a lot, so not many could a ord it. I saved some money and participated.” For Johnson, the conference was like buying a winning lottery ticket. Not only was the conference engaging and informative, but she met the world-renowned endodontic specialist and instrument designer William Ben Johnson, D.D.S., who was one of the speakers—and who eventually became her husband. “We exchanged telephone numbers and started communicating. He in- vited me to visit him in Tulsa, Okla- homa. I said, ‘Well, this is something serious,’ ” Eugenia Johnson recalled. “A year a er, I moved to the United States. We were married in 2005.” Ben Johnson, who prefers to use his middle name, said their chance meet- ing was a signi cant turning point in his life. “In Russia and Eastern Europe, 80 to 85 percent of dentists are female. So I might see 300 or 400 women at a conference,” he explained. But his future wife clearly stood out. “At lunch that rst day, I was sitting at the head table. I saw Eugenia stand up. I told my interpreter, ‘I want to meet that woman.’ But the BY JODI NODING to a Home in Oklahoma From a Russian Conference DENTAL SEMINAR LEADS TO A NEW PRACTICE AND LIFE IN THE UNITED STATES. Eugenia Johnson has created a thriving practice, Green Country Endodontics, in Tulsa, Oklahoma.