He started as a Physical Therapist. Now, he’s a dentist and commander in the U.S. Navy.

Colin A. Eliot, DMD, MA, MS, MS PT, feels he uses his Physical Therapy every day, even though he hasn’t practiced since 2008.

Eliot, who now serves as a Director of Dental Services for the Navy, says the military was always in the back of his mind. Originally, he wanted to work in physical therapy for a branch of the service, but that proved to be a difficult task.

Still, he attended PT school at UK — and even though he would head in a different direction, that experience proved more than worthwhile.

“It certainly was an advantage during my later education; Dental School gross anatomy was more of a review due to the in-depth training I received in PT school,” he said. “More importantly, my PT degree and time as a hospital-based PT made my oral pathology residency a little easier. In the second year of residency, we're ‘on loan’ to the hospital and treated more like physicians than dentists. The medical knowledge gained in UK CHS made that second year of training much easier since being in a hospital felt normal as a PT.”

In his current job as a health care leader, he said that having the background in PT means he understands a larger scale of clinic operations than the typical dental director, not only the rehab department but also just having far more experience interacting with nursing, medical, nutrition, and other aspects of healthcare.

“My background has prepared me for additional leadership positions by leveling out the learning curve,” he said.

And even though he decided to go a different way in his career — there were more opportunities for a dentist in the military — he’s happy with his circuitous journey.

“It’s hard to say specifically why I’m glad I earned the degree,” he said. “I’m definitely proud I earned the degree. PT school is a challenging program, with competitive selection and a thorough curriculum.  I learned a lot in school and made some excellent friends. The experience broadened my horizons and gave me a solid foundation for the current course of executive medicine.”

He also learned he was a huge fan of pathology.

“My favorite class in physical therapy school was actually called Biology of Disease,” he said. “When I was in a hospital as a rehab physical therapist, I enjoyed reading the medical charts rather than just reading what procedure the patient had. If I’d never heard of the disease the patient had, I’d go home and learn about it.

“So, it became sort of a natural progression that there is a subspecialty of dentistry that is head and neck pathology,” he continued. “And I chose to go that route.”

All in all, he said he was thankful for his entire journey.

“You can't really reach the pinnacle of your military career unless you kind of branch out and do other things,” he said. “They don't hire you to just be a dentist. You get promoted based on what you know and do as a naval officer, so there’s certain benchmarks that you have to achieve. Leadership is a big part of that, and I ended up studying at the Naval War College. My graduate school experience at UK really prepared me for the education that followed.”

He now runs three dental clinics and is responsible for about 20,000 patients in Hawaii.

“I am still proudly representing the University of Kentucky,” he said. “The College of Health Sciences prepared me for dental school even though they’re two completely different programs.”