World Champion Dentist
AEW Wrestler and Professional Dentist Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D., Visits Hunt School of Dental Medicine Students
When All Elite Wrestling’s Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D., speaks on the microphone in front of thousands of wrestling fans, she has them wrapped around her little finger.
Tuesday morning, she spoke to about 40 Hunt School of Dental Medicine first- and second-year students, and they were just as enraptured by her story of pursuing and succeeding in two simultaneous careers: dentistry and professional wrestling.
Dr. Baker, in town for the AEW Dynamite/Rampage event Wednesday at the El Paso County Coliseum, visited the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso campus to learn more about the Hunt School of Dental Medicine and Texas Tech Dental Oral Health Clinic.
She marveled at the state-of-the-art and cutting edge equipment and technology available to dental students in the Texas Tech Dental Oral Health Clinic where students, under supervision of faculty, offer high-quality dental care for our Borderplex community. She also was impressed that first-year students are already seeing patients, whereas other dental schools typically wait until the students’ third year.
"If I ever had to go back to dental school, this is the school I'd go to," Dr. Baker said. "Everything is so advanced and so new."
A first for any dental school in the nation, students begin clinical training and patient interaction during their first semester. The Hunt School of Dental Medicine is also the first and only dental school in the nation that requires Spanish language courses, preparing students to remove language barriers as they provide improved access to oral health care for residents of the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Texas Tech Dental Oral Health Clinic opened its doors for patients in fall 2021. Since then, the school’s inaugural class of students and supervising faculty have experienced over 5,000 patient visits for screening and treatment and more than 7,100 hours of clinical care. The clinic also provides students with the opportunity to learn more about the residents who live in nearby neighborhoods and their oral health care needs.
“I’m blown away with how amazing this school is,” Dr. Baker said of the Hunt School of Dental Medicine. “My advice to everyone here at TTUHSC El Paso is to focus on all your goals. If it’s dentistry and professional wrestling, like myself, you can do both. I know when you’re in school, it’s really important to study, get good grades and really be present in the moment because you want to retain everything for your career. But you still must have time for yourself and other hobbies, goals and interests, too. You should immerse yourself in that because it’ll make you happy, too.”
Dedicated to both professions, Dr. Baker balances caring for patients at her practice in Florida and traveling to AEW events across the country.
During her meet-and-greet with students, Dr. Baker answered questions about how she balanced dental school and wrestling events. She was asked if the two worlds ever collided.
“Oh, yeah. I took my finals with a black eye,” she said of being injured in a match. “But you just deal with it.”
Dr. Baker did not wrestle on Wednesday but was ringside during a match between her tag partner, AEW Women’s World Champion Jamie Hayter, and The Bunny. Dr. Baker is one of the company’s most popular athletes, regularly appearing in advertisements and posters.
Dr. Baker studied at the University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine, where she earned her Doctor of Dental Medicine degree in 2018. While attending dental school, she wrestled on the independent circuit, leading to her signing with AEW in 2019. During her tenure with AEW, she has held the Women's World Championship and won the inaugural Owen Hart Memorial Tournament.
About the Hunt School of Dental Medicine
The Hunt School of Dental Medicine opened in 2021 and is the only dental school on the U.S.-Mexico border, and the first in Texas to open in more than 50 years. The dental school prepares students for the future of dentistry with high-tech simulation and an advanced fabrication laboratory.
The Hunt School of Dental Medicine is housed in Medical Sciences Building II, a new building on the TTUHSC El Paso campus where students train in the school’s Dental Learning Center. The center features 80 stations equipped with high-tech simulation manikins and a fabrication laboratory where students craft dental appliances using 3D scanners and advanced CAD/CAM machines. This state-of-the-art facility allows students to practice modern dentistry for 2025 and beyond.
About the Texas Tech Dental Oral Health Clinic
As part of efforts to improve the accessibility of oral health care in the community, the Hunt School of Dental Medicine offers reduced-cost dental care in its 38,000 square-foot public dental clinic. The clinic comes equipped with 145 treatment chairs where students work with faculty providers to deliver high-quality oral health care to Borderplex residents.
The Texas Tech Dental Oral Health Clinic expects over 60,000 patient encounters annually once the first four classes of the Hunt School of Dental Medicine have begun their training.
Historically, residents throughout West Texas have had difficulty finding affordable care, leading to poor dental health and conditions that can quickly become serious. In El Paso in particular, only 50% of residents visited a dentist in 2017.
