Erin Marshall: Tooth Mom Extraordinaire

Dentist, Mother, and now Children’s Author, Dr. Erin Marshall’s journey in becoming “Tooth Mom” started back in college on a medical mission in the Philippines. It was there she found her passion for dentistry and made it her career. Her school’s connection with HealthPoint allowed Erin to do rotations at our Auburn and Kent clinics as a fourth-year dental student in 2013 and later, as a float dentist in 2015. Under the guidance of Dr. Lee Ann Jinguji and Dr. Charles Lee, Erin felt a part of the team and was able to approach them for advice as a new dentist and mother. Some advice Dr. Charles Lee shared with Erin included, “Think of this as a group practice, we are here to support each other.” 

The idea of “Tooth Mom”, began back in 2020 after Dr. Marshall had her baby and realized that there weren’t a lot of books out there about children’s teeth. Erin thought, “there were not a lot of options online so then I’ll make my own.” The hardest part of publishing her first books, Let’s Brush Our Teeth and ABC’s of going to the dentist was going the self-published route. For Erin, self-publishing included finding an illustrator, relearning Photoshop to design the layout of the book, and finding a company to print the books. However, we were also curious where the name “Tooth Mom” came from and according to Erin, its exactly what we thought. She confirmed, “Tooth, because its dentist related and Mom, because I’m a mother.”

If there is one thing, Dr. Marshall would want parents to know about their kid’s teeth it would be, “Brush for 2 minutes, twice a day (morning and night) & floss daily!” As for when we can expect a new book, Erin says we will have to stay tuned!