Claire GrantSpringfield State Journal- Register
Meet Dr. Sean Crawford, a dentist pushing against narratives and building trust with every patient that steps into his office.
Crawford is building on a history of Black dentists in the city of Springfield, representing the only privately Black-owned dentist practice in the city.
Crawford is approaching the one-year anniversary of when he purchased and began operating his own medical practice, Crawford Family Dental at 1900 E. Sangamon Ave., providing dental care to the North side of Springfield.
“When I was a young kid they’d ask, ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’,” Crawford said. “And I never said dentist, but I never had a dentist who looked like me. I always like to be in public and speak to people as much as possible just so I may inspire someone.”
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Taking the leap
Crawford purchased the practice and location from Paul Sneath in 2023 because he knew what he wanted to do was to use his honed skills as a professional and serve the people of the North side.
“I started thinking about how I always wanted to help people and always liked the medical field,” Crawford said. “I associated for six years at another practice, and I had a desire to have my own practice and it was the perfect fit and the right time … so I took the leap.”
Born and raised in Illinois, as a child Crawford didn’t see professionals that matched his skin tone growing up and had dreamed of becoming a sports lawyer of basketball play. Dentistry wasn’t on the table until high school when his father spoke to him about backup plans after breaking his leg.
Crawford joins a minority of dentists in a primarily white or non-person of color field, as according to the American Dental Association, only 3.8% of the U.S. dental workforce is Black.
“Most professions, either people of color or women could not do those jobs for many years,” Crawford said. “You have to see it. You have to be exposed to it to believe that’s something you want to do. You think a lot of times kids try to follow in their parents footsteps, so if you don’t have a parent who is a lawyer of physician, you never would think it or dream it.”
Overcoming systematic challenges
Starting a private business in a field with so few minorities has its challenges, including Black dentists often making less money than their white colleagues. Access for youth wanting to become dentists is also more challenging for persons of color.
A key driver of racial inequities in access to care comes from centuries of the mistreatment of people from various racial and ethnic backgrounds and as a result, communities of color and low-income areas experience the highest rates of the health, social, and economic costs of dental disease.
Studies in the National Library of Medicine have found Black Americans are undertreated for pain medicine compared to white patients. Because of systematic disparities, people of color and the Black community are more likely to distrust the healthcare system and avoid seeing doctors and dentists.
According to the National Library of Medicine, dentistry has long struggled to equitably distribute care and diversify its overwhelmingly white and affluent workforce, resulting in many communities not having access to providers who represent their identity and/or live in their community.
Crawford hopes to change that and be that representation that matters so kids can see what he didn’t when he was young, a healthcare professional that looks like them.
“I would like to look back in 10, 20 years in Springfield and see 10 or 20 Black dentists, both men and women,” Crawford said. “That we are diversifying our community.”
Early success
While it has only been a year, Crawford has seen substantial growth in his business. As a participating member of the Springfield chamber of commerce, he is also a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and GV Black Dental Society, which is named after Dr. Greene Vardiman Black, who is known as "one of the founders of modern dentistry”.
Crawford sees a future just as bright as the smiles of his patients and according to him, if God wills it, his practice will continue to grow.
“I have no immediate want for (more practices),” Crawford said. “My goal is that we do the best quality at our practice for our existing patients which allows for us to bring in other dentists or hygienists, so we grow.”
Contact Claire Grant at CLGrant@gannett.com, X (Formerly known as Twitter): @Claire_Granted
