About Robert L. Fritz, DDS
Robert Fritz, DDS’75A, joined the LLU School of Dentistry Department of Restorative Dentistry as an assistant professor in October 2013. With a major assignment in the clinic, he finds himself wanting to emulate the teachers who helped him when he was an LLUSD student. He cites the example of the late Dean Judson Klooster, DDS, whose membership in the Academy of General Dentistry prompted him to join that organization in 1976. Dr. Fritz became a fellow of the Academy in 1982 and later joined the Academy of Dentistry International. He subsequently served on various boards in the Southern California Academy and in the California Academy of General Dentistry where he has met many dentists in leadership positions. As a dentist Dr. Fritz treated his first patients in 1975. He began as a six-month associate dentist in Lancaster, California, while commuting part-time to his growing practice in Camarillo, California, where he practiced for 28 years. For clinical professionalism he relied on his fine dental education but, as he says, “I didn’t know what I didn’t know about the business side of things.” He very much affirms the current curriculum that considers the business side of dentistry. There’s no doubt, however, that Dr. Fritz honed personal business skills during an appointment to manage a dental group at a federally qualified health care clinic in Visalia, where he served as vice president of dental affairs. A move to the Fresno-Visalia area is a significant part of Dr. Fritz’s story.
