As a dentist, Dr. Krystelle Duvert has spent many years helping her patients maintain healthy teeth and show off a beautiful smile, and now she has brought her services to Plant City.
Duvert is the newest family dentist at the Plant City branch of Monticciolo Family and Sedation Dentistry.
Vincent Monticciolo established the dentistry, comprised of 11 offices in the Tampa Bay region, including Dunedin, Hudson, Land O’ Lakes, New Port Richey, Plant City, Seminole, Spring Hill, St. Petersburg, Tampa, Valrico, and Tarpon Springs.
She considered applying as a lead dentist for the Land O’ Lakes office while it was being constructed. At that point she had been working at another practice. However, she said that her new and current position as lead dentist at Monticciolo happened at the right time and at the right place.
“Plant City was an opportunity of course, but it’s a familiar opportunity,” Duvert said. “I kind of feel like it really was meant to be. Plant City’s a fit all around.”
Her first love was aviation and she wanted to become a pilot. However, she was eventually steered toward dentistry.
She is originally from the Caribbean island Grenada. There she worked as a teacher. She moved to Florida in 1992 and attended the University of South Florida, graduating with a degree in chemistry.
Duvert then moved to Washington D.C. after enrolling in dental school at Howard University.
After she graduated in 2004 and obtained her license, she briefly worked in D.C. before returning to Florida.
Over the years, Duvert has worked throughout the Tampa Bay area as a dental assistant, a dental hygienist, a practicing dentist, and has not only worked in offices, but in lab settings as well.
At Monticciolo, she and her staff do what they can to better accommodate patients, especially when they’re hesitant about going to the dentist.
“A lot of patients come here already knowing that we have the ability to deal with them at any level of fear,” Duvert said.
She noted that forming a connection with the patients is critical in gaining their trust. She relates to many as she herself is afraid of being injected with needles. When it’s time to administer them, she comforts patients the best way she can.
It has to be a team effort in order to better accommodate the patients, Duvert noted.
“I lucked out…I do have the best assistants,” she said.
Stephanie Gray is one of those assistants who recalled meeting Duvert.
“She was very welcoming, very friendly, and very easy to get along with, [and] talk with,” Gray said. “She can start a conversation with anybody and really make you feel like you’re fitting in. I felt at home when I started working here.”
Duvert initially met Monticciolo during the mission project Dentistry from the Heart, of which he is the founder. It is a non-profit organization that provides free dental service to those who cannot afford it. To date, it has raised and donated over $25 million and has served over 500,000 people.
Duvert also dedicates her time to Mission Smiles, an organization based in Tampa that partners with churches and ministries to provide those at the poverty level with the same kind of care. She has been involved in charitable work in the U.S. and abroad.
“I’ve jumped through a lot of hoops to get to this point,” Duvert said. “I think that’s why my heart is in mission work because we depended on people, missionaries from Europe, from the U.S., to come down and get so many services, and giving back is just something I’ve grown with.”
She recently started working in real estate, another field that she has become passionate about.
Duvert didn’t have much growing up in Grenada, but her family instilled in her the importance to persevere to reach her goals, she said.
That advice is what she wants to impart to others who may be considering work in dentistry but are apprehensive.
“One step today is better than where you were yesterday,” she said. “There is nothing that you cannot do. You set your goals no matter how small, how big they are. Success is measured in all different types of ways. It’s not always about money.”