Quinlan Park Dental has new Steiner owner

By SARAH DOOLITTLE, Four Points News

Steiner Ranch dentist Sumita Chakraborti has sold her practice, Quinlan Park Dental, in order to focus on her family while her husband undergoes treatment for a rare and aggressive cancer.

The practice, located in the Quinlan Crossing shopping center, is now owned by Dr. Shalini Sagi, also a Steiner resident.

Selling the practice will better allow Chakraborti to focus on her husband, Mark Singh, and their two children, Mia, 8th grade, and Anand, 4th grade.

Still, Chakraborti wants to assure patients that they can continue to expect the same level of care and service.

“I am involved. This has just been a little bit of a crazy whirlwind… Mark’s heath is unpredictable, which is why (Dr. Sagi) is here to make sure that everything is running smoothly,” she said.

Singh, who turns 41 this week, was diagnosed with cancer August 2016 and has been undergoing various treatments ever since. His symptoms were gradual, and he was initially misdiagnosed as having food allergies and acid reflux from stress.

Once doctors determined what was actually wrong, the mystery of what had caused his cancer remained.

“He’s never been a smoker and it is the cell type found only in smokers. So it didn’t quite make sense,” said Chakraborti. His doctors theorized that Singh, having grown up in Beaumont, Tex., was exposed to carcinogenic petrochemical pollutants.

Over a year into his cancer fight, which is, in Chakraborti’s words, “traumatic. It’s chronic,” Singh’s challenges extend beyond the medical. “He’s so private. He doesn’t want anyone to know there’s anything wrong with him,” she said.

The two have been married almost 16 years. They met at the University of Texas and married before Chakraborti started dental school. When she got pregnant unexpectedly while still in dental school, Singh quit his job to be a stay-at-home parent. He made the same decision when their second child was born and again when Chakraborti opened the Steiner practice five and a half years ago.

Chakraborti’s roots run deep in this community. “I’m from here. I went to elementary at LISD all the way through high school. So I’ve been here forever.”

She’s thrilled to have found Sagi to take over Quinlan Park Dental. The two dentists seem compatible in every way, and both see the serendipity in their meeting, despite the unfortunate circumstances.

When Sagi first moved to Steiner two years ago, she “gave Sumita a call,” but Chakraborti had already hired someone. “Then we got in touch around four months ago and we started talking,” Sagi said. She is a graduate of the University of Illinois School of Dental Medicine and has practiced dentistry in Illinois and Texas for the past 10 years.

“It all just kind of fell into place,” said Chakraborti. “All of a sudden when I really needed the right person — it sounds so cliché — there she was.”

Sagi officially started at the practice on Nov. 13. She and her husband Vivek have three kids, Vishal, 9th grade, Arnav, 4th grade, and Arun, 2nd grade.

This is Sagi’s first time to own a dental practice, and she looks forward to the challenge. She’s grateful to have Chakraborti available to offer help and guidance.

There have been challenges getting Sagi certified with all the various insurers, but the process is underway and both expect a resolution soon.

Both are grateful that patients, “have been supportive. They understand,” said Chakraborti. “It was, obviously, a heartbreaking decision for me. But I feel at peace with how everything ended up because I know that the practice is cared for, my patients are cared for. I’m still able to be a part of it. But I’m still able to take care of my family like I need to.”

The kids are home with their grandparents for now while Singh and Chakraborti head to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City for additional testing.

“(At Sloan Kettering,) they are going to take a look at him. They have specialists up there (in Mark’s form of cancer). We’ve been to Mayo clinic. We’re at Austin Cancer Center right now. But I think that we need to see a specialist, and I don’t know how long it’s going to take.”

Chakraborti knows that, for now, “Time is a precious commodity,” and is, “so grateful that I could, in peace, hand (the practice) over and know that everything was going to be okay.”

She continues, “I really would like to thank (Dr. Sagi). This (practice) has been a huge part of my life, and she has allowed me to go be where I need to be right now.” Staff too, “has been so supportive.”

Sagi has nothing but praise for her colleague and hopes to continue Chakraborti’s legacy.

“Sumita has been great for the community and I want to keep doing what she’s been doing,” Sagi said.

“Nothing’s really changed,” added Chakraborti, who will continue to see patients whenever possible. If patients have questions, they can call or email the practice or her directly.

Chakraborti has also started a private Facebook group where the community can get updates on Mark’s health, “Mark’s Update.”