If you’re from San Diego, or if you’ve spent more than five minutes in the airport, you can’t help but see symbols of this city’s history scattered throughout its landscape (no, craft beer isn’t our historical legacy, although that may be the impression from the inside of terminal 2…. I digress). Sure, San Diego is basically an infant when compared to ancient cities like Tikal or Rome, but San Diego has a rich and modern history that goes far beyond the tales associated with sugar cubes and popsicle sticks that made up our problematic 4th grade Missions projects. The history of San Diego is illustrated by its people.
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As a native to America’s finest City, I can point to the names of people who were touted as change makers in our city all throughout my education and I can assure you that none of them were dentists. Many moons later, as the proud Executive Director of the San Diego County Dental Society, I find the omission of this piece of our city’s history to be a lost opportunity (no disrespect to my 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Lundberg, if you’re reading this). The role that dentistry plays in the creation of a modern city is a story of its own. Stories of dentistry in San Diego history include people who brought ingenuity and promise to a burgeoning town through their dedication, skills, and compassion. As some of the City’s first entrepreneurs, San Diego’s earliest dentists broke through racial barriers, improved the quality of life for their fellow San Diegans and established professional standards that remain today.
Old Town wasn’t always known for its margaritas. In 1858 you might have been looking for someone to extract your aching tooth and Dr. Frederick Painter would have been your man to do it. According to the book San Diego County Dental Society 1887–1987, by Dr. Thomas Baumann, the period between 1821–72 heralded innovations including the first gold filing, nitrous oxide, ether, and porcelain teeth. Without these critical treatments we can only imagine what would have become of the many people who helped build America’s Greatest City.
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A few years later in 1895, another great advancement occurred when Emma Read applied to become a licensed dentist, only to be told that it was useless for her to take the exam because it would establish an intolerable precedent. Not one for taking no for an answer, she persisted and passed the exam, and went on to become the President of the San Diego County Dental Society for five terms. Dr. Read paved the way for many women who would eventually enter dentistry. Side note: according to the American Dental Association, as of 2021, dental school enrollment is a 50-50 gender split. Thanks Emma!
In 1935, Dr. Jack Johnson Kimbrough hitchhiked to San Diego after hearing of a lack of black dentists in our town. He went on to become the President of the NAACP and an activist who fought to end racial prejudice. He was reported to have organized a sit-in at the U.S. Grant in 1948 to protest segregation. He was credited for helping to organize Time Saving and Loan Bank to facilitate loans for increased home ownership in all parts of San Diego by all races and was recognized by President John F. Kennedy in a reception honoring outstanding leadership.
Fast forward past dozens and even hundreds of other inspiring stories to 2023. The San Diego County Dental Society is in its 136th year. With a membership base of nearly 70% of the dentists in San Diego and Imperial Counties, a robust program of continuing education, advocacy, social events, and day-to-day support for its members, the SDCDS has a marked place in San Diego’s history and its future. Many of our leaders in dentistry are nominees seen in this issue. It is my hope that their stories and many more of accomplishment, compassion for others, fortitude and dedication to the advancement of the profession will become shared stories for others to learn from. The stories that make up the past and future of dentistry deserve to be told, and perhaps even have a place in terminal 2 (Commission for Arts & Culture, are you reading this?)
The Best Gym in San Diego Isn’t Really a Gym Anymore
Earlier this year, Fit quietly dropped "athletic" from its brand, from Fit Athletic Clubs to simply Fit, and started calling itself something new: a social wellness club.
There’s a version of San Diego that lives in two extremes. On one side, the 5 a.m. crowd: biohackers, marathoners, people who’ve already logged a cold plunge before your alarm goes off. On the other, the after-dark crowd, the ones chasing sunset happy hours and late dinners with friends. Everyone seems to be either optimizing or unwinding, and most of us feel like we’re failing at both.
Fit, San Diego’s reigning Best Gym for the third year running, has built its entire identity around erasing that divide.
Walk into one of Fit’s three San Diego locations on a Tuesday afternoon and the lines blur fast. Someone’s mid-set on the squat rack. Someone else has a laptop open at a café table a few feet away, half-working, half-people-watching. A group is trading plans for the weekend’s event by the recovery lounge. Nobody’s in a rush to leave.
“We’re not competing for the same people,” says Emily Waybright, Public Relations Manager at Fit, addressing the arrival of a national luxury gym chain in San Diego this year. “We don’t really feel like we’re in the gym category. It’s this unique thing.”
That unique thing has a name now. Earlier this year, Fit quietly dropped “athletic” from its brand, from Fit Athletic Clubs to simply Fit, and started calling itself something new: a social wellness club.
It’s a small wording change with a bigger idea behind it. Fit was never built around escaping the workday. It was built around the people who genuinely like what they do, and who want workouts, work, and friendships to happen in the same place instead of three separate ones. Because sometimes red light therapy with a stranger turns into weekend plans.
Fit’s philosophy traces back to its founder, who started the brand nearly two decades ago after failing to find a gym he actually wanted to belong to. He looked instead to the old-school country club, where people came for a shared interest and stayed for the community. His version was made for a younger generation, minus the golf, plus the loud music.
Which makes it a little ironic that the very award putting Fit back in the spotlight this year is Best Gym.
What does the best traditional gym look like when the definition of a gym is becoming less traditional? It’s a fair question, and Fit’s answer is that the fitness industry itself is shifting. The 45-minutes-in, 45-minutes-out model is giving way to something closer to a genuine third space, the kind of role the office and the bar used to play before remote work and changing nightlife habits rearranged how people spend their time
For Fit, community isn’t a marketing add-on to fitness. It’s the through-line. Members aren’t just paying for a treadmill; they’re paying for an entire day of social wellness that’s built on performance, recovery, connection, and a plan for the next event on the calendar. That’s a much harder membership to walk away from.
Ambition and ease aren’t opposites here, they exist side by side, where passion and play share the same morning. On September 12, Fit is hosting Sol, a full day wellness festival at Fit Social. The morning focuses on wellness classes and vendors and then the evening is a full party with multiple DJ sets and an open bar. Think of it as a kick-off to locals’ summer in San Diego.
Ready to see what a social wellness club actually looks like? Visit fitclubs.com, or follow along at @thefitclubs on Instagram.
Growing up, Laika Nur, MD, Scripps Clinic sports medicine specialist, loved watching beach volleyball when the Association of Volleyball Professionals tour came to her hometown of Chicago. A talented volleyball player herself, she remembers sitting in the stands all day, and once, even got a couple autographs. Years later, Dr. Nur was attending a professional event focused on women’s sports, and the discussion turned to a new professional women’s volleyball league. The general manager and coaching staff for San Diego’s team, the Mojo, happened to be in attendance, and Dr. Nur took the opportunity to ask them if they needed a team doctor. Flash forward to the Mojo’s inaugural 2024 season, when Dr. Nur officially became the team physician. Click here to read more about Dr. Nur and how she incorporates lessons she learned on the court into her practice.
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Your feet and ankles probably aren’t something you give much thought to—until something goes wrong. Orthopedic surgeons at Scripps Clinic are on the leading edge of foot and ankle reconstruction, treating patients with sports injuries, deformities, traumatic injuries and other conditions. That includes repairing torn Achilles tendons with a minimally invasive procedure that shrinks the incision site to less than a centimeter, and performing advanced ankle replacement on some patients with ankle arthritis. Read more about Scripps’ innovations in foot and ankle care here.
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Mai Vue was just 34 weeks pregnant when she delivered her baby. Her pregnancy had been complicated, and she’d had a recent second trimester pregnancy loss, which led to her receiving specialized care from Sean Daneshmand, MD, a Scripps Clinic perinatologist who oversees high-risk pregnancies. Dr. Daneshmand and his team took care of Mai during her pregnancy, through the birth of her healthy baby girl and beyond. Mai was part of a program Scripps launched to provide support to new moms in the weeks and months after delivery. The postpartum program, known as Scripps Health’s Fourth Trimester Continuum of Care, provides care for women with high-risk pregnancies to optimize their health after childbirth and reduce the risk of complications in future pregnancies. Click here to learn more.
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It’s estimated that one in five people in the U.S. will develop skin cancer at some point in their lives. When you factor in living in a sun-soaked city like San Diego and the outdoorsy lifestyle that comes with it, that figure can jump to as high as one in three, which makes early detection and intervention all the more important. Dermatologists at Bighorn Mohs and Dermatology Center are using innovative imaging methods and advanced surgical techniques to diagnose and treat skin cancer. For certain cancers in sensitive spots, like the face, dermatologists perform Mohs surgery, removing skin tissue layer by layer until reaching healthy, cancer-free tissue. They also use a process called immunohistochemistry to view tissue samples taken during Mohs surgery in far greater detail than previous methods. Read more about how Scripps is advancing skin cancer care here.
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When endurance athlete Isaac Sanchez learned he had cancer, he felt blindsided. He was healthy, surfed often and was training for an Ironman triathlon. But he had to put that on hold to undergo treatment. His physicians at Scripps Cancer Center developed a plan to treat the cancer in his tonsil and lymph nodes that included six-and-a-half weeks of near-daily radiation and weekly chemotherapy. He also worked with a Scripps Cancer Center dietitian to enhance his nutrition to promote strength and healing. Today, Isaac’s back to doing what he loves. Read more of his story here.
For more nutrition, wellness, and healthy living tips, sign up for the San Diego Health newsletter here.
