As a child, they looked like monsters trying to hunt me in my dreams. No matter how basic and painless the procedure was going to be, the fact that I had to visit a dentist, used to make me terrified and trembled. Once, I remember waiting at a patient area while crying and begging my older sister to take me back home just to avoid a simple tooth cleaning procedure, while she was astonishingly looking at me and wondering if I had lost my mind.
My fear of visiting a dentist started to lessen overtime as I grew older. However, I still used to experience some mild anxiety prior to each appointment to visit my dentist. During my early college years, as my old dentist had to leave the town for a period of time, I was referred to visit a young dentist who had just graduated from a dental school. My first visit to my new dentist, made a big difference in my overall view of dentists and dentistry. For the first time, I was seeing a young dentist on his late twenties with incredible friendliness and enthusiasm. During our first introduction, I no longer had any anxiety or nervousness. I started to feel really comfortable around my new dentist. During each visit, I started to learn something new about his pursue in becoming a dentist and interesting facts about dentistry.
As I started to gain more knowledge about dentistry and comprehend what dentistry was all about, my interest started to peak.As a result, I started volunteering at a dental clinic serving the low income and homeless patients. While interacting with the patients and performing hands-on work on the patients under the supervision of the dentists, I started to truly enjoy the satisfaction of performing an art work on a patient's mouth and witnessing the appreciation the patie...
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... on how I should enhance and improve my manual dexterity in order to be ale to perform a satisfactory job both inside and outside of dental school.
Coming from an underprivileged immigrant family and as a first generation college student, I see a lot of responsibilities on my shoulders. In addition to appreciating and helping my parents for all their hardship in supporting me through all the ups and downs in my life, my ultimate goal is to give my service to my community and the people in need. And what is the better way to serve and support the ones in need than by improving their oral hygiene and their overall health. No matter how big the challenge is going to be, I am willing to give it my all, because nothing in this world can replace the satisfaction of seeing your patients acknowledge your work in improving their oral hygiene and ultimately their confidence.
Dentistry is a fascinating profession for its approach to patients, restoring function as well as es-thetic. I believe that Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery is the most important specialty in dentistry and medicine which combines art with science. It is appealing when patients leave the Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery (OMS) clinics not only with good function and esthetic, but also in a better psychological status. And I find the AAOMS’s motto “Saving Faces.. Changing Lives..” very insi...
Transforming her patient’s oral health is her main focus, and Dr. Nitta is highly skilled in cosmetic dentistry. She and her staff will work hard to improve your smile, whether that means applying veneers or implanting a perfect porcelain crown. Dr. Nitta knows visiting the dentist can be stressful and even embarrassing for some, and she strives to make her clients feel relaxed and comfortable.
Dr. Gary Silva and his team are highly trained and experienced in providing restorations for all sorts of dental issues. We offer complete and partial dentures, tooth-colored fillings, crowns, bridges, and more. Dr. Silva’s unique background gave him real restorative experience early in his career. For more than 20 years, Dr. Silva has been offering patients the chance to gain a beautiful, functional smile with his restorative dentistry.
I am fortunate that my experiences have made me aware of these things so that when I do return to these communities as a dentist, I can not only better serve my patients as a provider, but I can also be a leading advocate for the change that is so desperately needed by the individuals in these communities. As I continue along my career path in dentistry, I intend to keep volunteering in dental clinics in underserved communities as well as participating in formal organizations such as Saving Smiles to more effectively address these issues as well as enhance my understanding of the dental field. Perhaps while I serve in these communities, I can inspire and support future health professionals that will continue to advance the incredible changes that our health fields are currently
Ever since I was a little kid, I have loved going to the dentist. I was never scared, not even when I went for my fillings and wisdom teeth extractions. Mostly all the hygienist I have had so far have been friendly, patient and always ready to help with a big smile on their face and that is what attracted me towards this career. I want to help people in need that cannot afford the services.
All the various factors that lead me to dentistry amounted to just a part of my decision to become a dentist, the other half of my decision came from the simple question, “(w)ill this be a satisfying career for me?” A satisfying career, to me, is defined by whether or not I can use my career as a means to assist others and experience a sense of accomplishment and self-gratification in helping others. The notion of a satisfying career was one that came through personal experiences. Being a former Medicaid recipient, I was thankful to those that worked in the public health sector to help those in need, including myself and my family. Through my past experiences, I felt obligated to reciprocate the resources and assistance that I had received. At the end of my career, I hope to reflect back on my career and experience a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment for having helped others throughout my career; this is what will amount to successful career, from my point of view.
Certain individuals avoid the dentist at all costs, choosing to live with cavities, gum disease and more, as they fear the chair more than anything. Others put off visiting a dental practitioner until the pain has become so overwhelming they can no longer live with it. This phobia is more common than many people realize, and it is shown in oral health statistics. This doesn't need to be the case, however, thanks to sedation dentistry. Dentists use sedation for those dentists who experience anxiety, whether they are simply having a cavity filled or need to have their teeth cleaned.
I can remember being a little boy sitting at the piano in church, listening to the preacher talk of how Jesus washed the disciples’ feet, which symbolizes the idea that we are here to serve. That message profoundly resonated with me throughout life. It was not until I began accompanying my grandmother to her multiple dental visits that I was able to see how I could put this calling of service into action. I saw firsthand the significant positive impact my grandmother’s dentist was able to make in her life, which encouraged me to want to learn about the field of dentistry. I then started researching dental health and learning of the importance of oral healthcare and how it affects the entire body. I then began to learn of how patient access to proper dental care was limited because of several factors such as, financial barriers, transportation, and dental fear, especially in the underserved minority communities. Given the shortage of black dentists, I realized I could make a positive difference by being an inspiration to those in the community, as well as serve in a professional career that would provide needed healthcare to the community. This is when I began to develop such a strong passion for
I decided to do my research report on dentistry because it is a perfect blend of science and art. It is a science in that you must fully comprehend on the different types of diagnostic and procedures you are doing. It is an art in that you are constantly working with your hands to create a beautiful smile. The impact you make on helping a person achieve an impeccable smile is not one to compare with materialistic things like money or cars. People often mistake dentist as only doing practices when in fact they could do more, like research. I was fortunate enough to have been given the opportunity to interview Dr. Sarah Pham, DDS, a close family friend who practices dentistry in her own private office in Los Angeles, California. Dr. Pham was
In the Dental Hygiene field, many challenges come about every day and during different situations. Every day there are new challenges and unusual situations that occur in the dental field, but one challenge that continues to come about and has been a big dispute over the years is the ability to provide beneficial information about oral health care for the underprivileged. For the individuals that are not fortunate enough to pay to have services done in the dental office, lack the knowledge of how important good oral health care is. They do not receive the one on one conversations explaining the significance of taking care of your teeth and gums that the patients who can afford to make appointments and receive essential services do. That
In dentistry, anxiety is categorized into two: dental phobia and dental anxiety. A person with dental phobia tends to avoid treatment maybe because of unpleasant experience in the past. Dental anxiety relates to the psychological and physiological variations of a non-pathological fear response to a dentist’s appointment or treatment. Individuals who cancels, avoids, or postpones dental visits are the anxious patients (Bhola and Malhotra, 2014).It is a major dilemma in pediatric dental practice and it exists in a considerable proportion of children and adolescents. According to the study of Gao et al (2013), about 6-15% of the world's adult population avoids dental care due to dental anxiety
Patients feel fear not so much from the actual pain but from the lack of control that they feel lying in a dental chair. That creates a lot of anxiousness in some patients, as they don’t feel helpless. Most dentists continue treating all patients in a similarly assuming that they all have similar pain level and will handle the procedure in the same way. Dentists should be mindful of their patient’s level of tolerance and make them aware of the entire procedure ahead of time so that they are able to handle the unexpected situations. They should take time to ensure that the patient feels comfortable at every step. Use of medications and wide array of techniques can help patients eliminate pain and anxiety and making dental visits a pleasant experi...
This was due to the fact that some of my friends absolutely hated going to the dentist. When I was in elementary school, remember hearing comments like “I have to go to the dentist today. I hate going to the dentist!” Where in my mind, every time I went to my dad’s office, I was intrigued by all the drills, suction machines, and especially that tiny little vial that made your mouth feel funny. Being a young and impressionable kid, I always wanted to do what my dad did, except I wanted to make going
AS a dentist one should be strongly determined to devote selflessly for the betterment of mankind .Patient usuall...
Most of us take for granted our yearly dental check-up and there is a surprisingly large number of people who avoid going to the dentist and are even afraid to step into the reception area of a dental clinic. Perhaps this is due to the fact that some of our visits to the tooth fairy doctor turn out to be such a traumatic experience that mars our lives forever, or it could simply be our mental prejudice talking us out of going into that clinic and taking essential care of our precious teeth.