I Have a Voice: Dr. Noe Mora

Dr. Noe Mora, once a 10 year old immigrant from Mexico is now Dentist running his own family practice alongside with his wife Dr. Edith Mora in Stockton.

“We came here from la Piedad, Michoacán Mexico to the United States for economic reasons; my parents wanted me to have a better life, a better education,” shared Dr. Mora.  Upon his arrival Mora was only fluent in Spanish and had to learn English as a second language.

After graduating from Tokay High School, Noe and his siblings became their family’s first generation college students at Delta College, “my parents believed that my education was a ticket out of poverty.” Dr. Mora gives all credit to his parents, Francisco Mora and Marta Reyes.

“Being the first generation was difficult; because, you had to figure out the system on your own. But it helped that I got a support group.”  His support group included his wife.

Noe met his wife, Edith, during his undergraduate at the University of Pacific where he completed his Masters Degree. “My wife always wanted to be a dentist; she had a passion for it that was instilled in me,” while Dr. Mora was pursuing a medical career, he opted to become a dentist.  He gave a lot of credit to his wife, and his dentist Dr. Ernesto Garcia, “Dr. Garcia opened the doors for me into dentistry, he was my role model… My mentor, he allowed me to shadow him and see what dentistry was all about — it was at that point I really felt in love with dentistry.”

Together Noe and Edith completed their Master’s Degree and moved to the East Coast in pursue of a Dental Degree at the Tufts University in Boston Massachusetts.  As they graduated, they had an opportunity to get a first hands experience to help underserved communities in the State of Maine.

Today, the Mora Dental Group is established at El Dorado Street in Stockton, and they serve patients across the county and neighboring communities.  During his childhood his family owned a business that gave him an opportunity to learn about running his own business, “My parents always had a shop at the flea market here in Stockton,” Dr. Mora learned business concepts from his family, “they don’t teach that in school.”

Furthermore, his family always instilled in him to help underserve communities, a lesson he practices as he donates time at the St. Rafael Clinic and annually he helps the San Joaquin Dental Association’s Give a Child a Smile event — the event last year at the University of the Pacific gave a total of more than $100,000 of dental work to children.

In his daily practice, “the biggest challenge is that our community believes that they only have to visit their dentist when something hurts. But more often than not preventative measures are more effective.” Dr. Mora explained that if patients wait until it hurts the work most likely is going to be more intensive, and more expensive.

As Dr. Mora is a DMD who practices General Dentistry — “it’s a long ride, but worth it.”