Bridge Work

Commander and Dr. David Quintero will soon take over the family dental practice after a stellar career in the U.S. Navy
David Quintero and family

This fall proved a memorable season in what was already an extraordinary life for Dr. David Quintero.

Quintero — who spent a decade on active duty in the U.S. Navy and continues to serve in the Naval Reserve — was promoted to the rank of commander and later this year will assume ownership of his family’s dental practice at Quintero Periodontics in the Atlanta suburb of Dacula.

“I’ve been so fortunate with the opportunities I’ve had,” says Quintero (BBA ’06), who earned a marketing degree while at the Terry College.

A self-proclaimed “military brat” whose father George is also a Navy veteran and periodontist, Quintero’s introduction to service came long before his decision to enter the military or the medical field. As a young man, Quintero — who left active duty in 2020 — joined his father on numerous mission trips, providing critical dental care in underserved areas, including Venezuela, Peru, Bulgaria, Mexico, and Trinidad and Tobago.

“My father took me on quite a few mission trips. On one trip, we went to the jungles of Venezuela when I was in high school, and I extracted my first tooth,” he says. “I don’t know if the patient was more nervous or if I was more nervous.”

After graduating from UGA, Quintero attended the Dental College of Georgia at Augusta University on the Health Professions Scholarship Program, a service scholarship offered by the Navy. Upon graduation he began his Naval career, which led him to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center where he earned a specialty certificate in periodontics.

Quintero served and deployed on the USS Bataan for two years and also spent four years at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Yokosuka, Japan, an experience he considered transformative.

David Quintero Japan
Dr. David Quintero and his family in Japan.

“I had the option to go to San Diego or Yokosuka, and my wife and I decided to continue the adventure, so we moved to Japan,” he says. “We loved it so much we extended it a year — four years in Japan. It was a great duty station for my family and for me professionally.”

While in Japan, Quintero was named the head officer of the COVID-19 Asia-Pacific Region Task Force, leading a team that developed a comprehensive tracking system and managed the correspondence and public health lab notifications for 223 commands composed of 40,000 military, families and contractors. In addition, Quintero and his team ensured and allowed for the deployment capabilities of nearly two dozen Navy warships by testing, tracking, quarantining and contract tracing all COVID-19-related cases.

“We were making sure our forces were healthy and mission-ready, given the pandemic,” he says.

And Quintero counts his time at UGA and the Terry College among his most memorable experiences. While in Athens, Quintero was in the Honors Program, was a Presidential Scholar, held membership in the Delta Epsilon Iota, Phi Kappa Phi, the Arch Society, Blue Key and Golden Key honor societies, and took part in Leadership UGA. “My time at UGA was awesome,” he says. “And I dove right in. I made the most of it.”

Quintero points to his Terry experience as being integral to managing the family business.

“It was fantastic, especially now,” he says. “It’s helped in many ways. They don’t give you a lot of business experience in dental school. And having that (business) mindset has been very helpful, moving into private practice and feeling confident, especially with marketing.”

Honored in 2020 as a UGA 40 Under 40 recipient, Quintero is not looking back at past accomplishments but says there are still plenty of items on his personal “to do” list.

“My personal current military goals are to achieve the rank of captain and hit my 20-year mark (in the military),” he says. “If I can do that, I’ll feel I accomplished what I set out to accomplish — I lived abroad, I deployed, I had a successful career and I served my country well.”

David Quintero with US Navy