Meet the NorthStar VETS Team: Danielle Mendelsohn, VMD, DAVDC

Danielle Mendelsohn, VMD, DAVDC is a member of the Dentistry and Oral Surgery team at NorthStar VETS. In this blog post and video below, she talks about how she got into veterinary medicine, the types of cases she sees, and how she combined her three medical passions into one.

How Dr. Mendelsohn got into Veterinary Medicine
We caught up with Dr. Mendelsohn, who was performing an oral exam on a cat in Robbinsville. Dr. Mendelsohn recently joined NorthStar VETS, working with dental oral surgery patients, and her interest in veterinary medicine first began when she was a child riding horses. “I was always around veterinarians who were treating my horses, so I would spend a lot of time with them, and my mom had a huge love of animals. We took in pretty much every stray animal whether it be bird, cat, dog, or turtle. I grew up loving animals and wanting to care for them, and it came naturally from the time I was little.”

Dr. Mendelsohn’s Education
Dr. Mendelsohn went to veterinary school at the University of Pennsylvania before choosing to specialize in dentistry. “In veterinary school, I didn’t really know if I wanted to specialize or in what I might specialize. After leaving human dental school, I wasn’t really sold on going into animal dentistry as well. I was raised in a dental office because my dad and my cousin are both dentists for people. However, it was a natural progression for me and I felt like I came full circle when I went on a rotation at the University of Pennsylvania. I loved everybody on the service, I loved all the cases I was seeing, so I explored that a little bit further. I realized some of my interests in veterinary medicine were dentistry, emergency and surgery. Dentistry brought all three of those together. I love surgery and emergency, and this allowed me to do all of those in one.”

The Types of Cases Dr. Mendelsohn Sees
Dr. Mendelsohn sees a wide variety of different cases each week. “The types of cases we see will be anything from a case of periodontal disease or bone loss to inflammation of the gum tissue. On an emergency basis, we’ll see fractures, broken jaws, or masses that need to be removed or biopsied. Sometimes teeth need endodontics, or root canal therapy. It’s really anything you see on the spectrum at your human health dentist. We cover all of those specialties as well.”

Learn more about the Dentistry and Oral Surgery service at NorthStar VETS

Danielle Mendelsohn, VMD, DAVDC
Dr. Mendelsohn is a New Jersey native. She obtained her undergraduate degree from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, PA. Dr. Mendelsohn received her veterinary degree from the University of Pennsylvania. After graduation, she completed a one-year rotating internship at Bergh Memorial Animal Hospital in New York City. Following her internship, she worked as an emergency veterinarian in Manhattan before starting her residency in Dentistry & Oral Surgery. Dr. Mendelsohn began her residency at Red Bank Veterinary Hospital in NJ and completed her program at the Hospital for Dentistry and Oral Surgery in North Carolina. She is excited to join the dentistry team at NorthStar Vets and return to New Jersey.

Dr. Mendelsohn is passionate about veterinary dentistry and her interests include maxillofacial fracture repair, endodontics and oral surgical oncology. Outside of work, Dr. Mendelsohn enjoys spending time with her family, watching football and riding her horse.