SHEETS FAMILY KEEPS STRONG DENTAL RECORD

Several of their relatives are sure glad Russell and James Sheets chose dentistry.

If the brothers hadn't gone to California years ago and became dentists, brother-and-sister Jay and Susan Sheets -- and their internationally renowned second-cousin Cherilyn Sheets -- wouldn't have had any footsteps to follow.

The three were reunited Friday as Cherilyn Sheets spoke to area dentists at the Southeast Dental Society fall meeting. Jay Sheets is a local oral surgeon and Susan Sheets is a pediatric dentist in Cape Girardeau.

Cherilyn Sheets maintains a full-time private practice in Newport Beach, Calif., while making dozens of speeches throughout the year on esthetic and restorative dentistry and implants. She is an educator, clinician and author.

Jay and Susan Sheets owe it to their grandfather's brothers, one of whom is Cherilyn's father.

So is dentistry something that's in their blood?

"I'd love to say that it is, because it would make a great quote," Jay Sheets said. "But what happened is that they actually opened the door and gave us all an opportunity. I never would have thought of it."

Over two summers in the early 1970s, Jay Sheets, who admitted he had no idea what he wanted to do with his life, went to California to work in his great uncle's office.

"I liked the working environment and getting to know the patients," he said. "It seemed like a good fit."

Then when he finished dental school at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, in 1976, he talked his sister into going into dentistry while she was studying medical records administration.

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," joked Jay Sheets. "But she always had to one-up me. I knew that she would get bored with that, so I told her to become a dentist."

Susan Sheets liked dentistry, but chose a different specialty -- kids.

"I love children," she said. "I have plenty of patience with kids but none for adults."

Cherilyn Sheets explained that the reason so many in the family are dentists is twofold.

"All of us were exposed to the profession from a family's bird's-eye view," she said. "And we saw how impassioned and involved they were in dentistry and we wanted that for ourselves."

This isn't necessarily the end of the line for the mix of Sheets and the dental profession. Susan Sheets has one child and Jay Sheets has two.

"I'd be happy if my son became an oral surgeon," Jay Sheets said.