Category: Blog

Greetings from Peru. My name is María Claudia Garcés-Elías, a graduate in dentistry from the San Luis Gonzaga de Ica National University. Additionally, I completed an MBA in health at the Andrés Bello University in Chile and decided to specialize in Dental Public Health at the Cayetano Heredia Peruvian University (UPCH). I first heard about this specialization months before joining the rural service that health professionals carry out in my country (SERUMS). Until that moment, I found it difficult to fully understand what public health involved.

Although the SERUMS rural service in Peru is not mandatory for dentists, it is established as a prerequisite for pursuing dental residency. That’s why, in 2018, I embarked on this experience by traveling for a year to Querobamba, one of the 11 districts that make up the province of Sucre, part of the Ayacucho region (located in the central-southern part of Peru). This district is 3500 meters above sea level, 14 hours away from my residence, and accessible only by road, which can collapse during the rainy months. However, adapting seemed straightforward; I could get used to its cold climate, the health center, its workers, and the community organization. I recall that initially, my patients were children who shyly peeked into the office. Over time, they convinced their siblings, parents, and grandparents to seek care. After six months, I believed that I understood how this community operated. The inhabitants of that locality started their day very early and finished it around 7:30 pm; after that hour, the streets were absolutely empty. While on Sundays, they entertained themselves by fishing for trout, picking fruits, or attending bullfights.

Despite being a rural community, I assumed that their essential needs were assured, thanks to institutions located at most two hours away. However, on one occasion, a father and his eight-year-old son arrived at the health center for a dental examination. When the child approached to be treated, I noticed that all of his clothing was dirty, which concerned me and led me to inquire about the reason, even considering possible neglect by his parents. That’s when they began to tell me that they lived in a district four hours away, and to find transportation they waited on the road for someone to take them to the city. On that particular day, they waited since 7:00 am, although the time to find a vehicle was always uncertain. During the four-hour journey on a highly rough road, the child experienced dizziness that caused nausea, resulting in him soiling his clothes. Upon reaching their destination, they did not know where the child could rest and recover. So, the only alternative was to go to the health center, receive attention, and return home as early as possible.

After hearing the story, I realized that my perspective on life in Querobamba was significantly biased compared to that of its inhabitants in the city and the surrounding districts. Overall, the living conditions they were exposed to hindered their access to health services and surpassed any intention of receiving timely medical attention despite being a well-informed and health-conscious community.

After completing my rural service, my motivation to specialize in public health strengthened and led me to research dental health disparities among children and older adults in Peru, my main research focus. Five years after concluding this experience, I understand more and more the scope of action of public health specialists and the needs of rural communities in Peru, including the population of Querobamba. As a final reflection, having experienced rural service or similar activities is essential if you aspire to work in public health. Only through such experiences can one gain a profound and empathetic understanding of the field, enriching the ability to contribute significantly to improving populations’ health and quality of life.

Greetings from Bangkok, Thailand! My name is Oranart Matangkasombut, and Noon is my nickname. I am currently an Associate Professor in Microbiology, chairperson of the Center of Excellence on Oral Microbiology and Immunology at the Faculty of Dentistry, Chulalongkorn University, and Fellow of the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Thailand in Dental Public Health.

I have always been fascinated by the invisible but vast world of microbes and how their constant interactions with humans affect our health. After graduating from Chulalongkorn University Dental School, I was awarded the Anandamahidol scholarship under Royal patronage of HM the King to pursue my Ph.D. in Biological Sciences in Dental Medicine at Harvard University. This was where I fell in love with molecular biological research working on cellular machineries that regulate gene expression using the budding yeast as a model system.

My postdoctoral research at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research brought my two spheres of interests in molecular biology and oral health together. I was supported by the Dean’s Scholar Award from Harvard School of Dental Medicine to work on the genetic and epigenetic basis of antifungal resistance in Candida albicans, a common oral fungal species that can cause oral and systemic opportunistic infections. The increase in antifungal resistance is a major public health problem worldwide and is among my current research interests.

After returning to Thailand, I had the opportunity to join the 1st workshop on Clinical Research Methods in Oral Health organized by Prof. Tim DeRouen and colleagues. This was a critical steppingstone that allowed me to expand my research into clinical studies. The advances in DNA sequencing technologies have allowed us to study all the microbes in an environment without the need for cultivation and have opened the doors to novel discoveries related to the human microbiome. Since early childhood caries (ECC) is an important problem, especially in developing countries, we took advantage of this new technology to search for predictive indicators of dental caries in toddlers. The goal was to identify caries-predictive biomarkers in the salivary microbiome of caries-free toddlers so that we can provide effective targeted preventions of ECC before its onset. We collaborated with Prof. Waranuch Pitiphat’s team at Khon Kaen University and Prof. Ana Lucia Seminario at UW to conduct this study within a longitudinal cohort that followed over 500 one-year-old children for 2 years. Our work was the first to have identified 4 bacterial taxa and developed a model that could help to predict future caries in 1-year-old children. This work has been recognized by the 2022 young investigator award from IADR Pediatric Oral Health Research Group (POHRG) to Dr. Ratcha Raksakmanut, our PhD graduate and the first author of our article recently published in the JDR.

I continue to enjoy bringing together molecular microbiology and oral health in my research. Our group’s research interests span across disciplines, including oral microbiology, oral fungal infections, fungal-bacterial interactions in dental caries and endodontic infections, DNA repair and bacterial genotoxins, antimicrobial drug resistance and adjunctive agents, hyposalivation, and the impacts of oral microbiome on oral health. As a full-time faculty, I value the stimulating interactions with highly motivated students in both academic and research capacities. I have been fortunate to have had many wonderful mentors and collaborators.  Now I am happy that I can also join the team to share my experience as a mentor in the new D43 training grant’s international workshops on Clinical Research Methods in Oral Health.

My name is Marco Antonio Alarcon Palacios, and I am a Master and Specialist in Periodontics, a proud graduate from the prestigious Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH) in Lima, Peru in 2000. From the very start of my career, I discovered a passion for Periodontics, as this field allows you to improve overall health and aesthetics, offering a rewarding opportunity to make a positive impact in the lives of patients.

Upon completion of my master’s degree at UPCH, the need to learn and pursue a practice based on evidence-based dentistry skyrocketed. This thirst for learning led me to seek intensive training at internationally renowned institutions such as the International Team for Implantology (Boston, 2011) and the Osteology Foundation (Lucerne, 2012). Armed with this cutting-edge experience, I decided to revolutionize Periodontics and Oral Implantology in my country by introducing innovative research courses.

In 2013, we held the first “Evidence-Based Periodontics and Oral Implantology” congress, with inspiring international speakers who motivated our students to deepen their research and share the results of their studies. The result has been extraordinary! Since then, our UPCH group has published around 20 indexed articles on Web of Science, a testament to our commitment to advancing knowledge not only within our university but throughout Peru. In fact, we are extremely proud to be the third country in Latin America in published articles, according to the latest Scimago ranking.

 

Together with our exceptional research team, we have achieved not one but two remarkable scientific products, aimed at improving the health of our population. First, we developed the “Periodontics Clinical Practice Guide” in collaboration with the Peruvian Ministry of Health, providing guidelines for the treatment of periodontitis and gingivitis in the Peruvian population. Later, that same year, we presented the book entitled “Management of Peri-implant Pathologies”, focused on meeting the needs of patients with edentulism, who require dental implants. This publication was awarded the “Hipolito Unanue” prize, the highest scientific recognition in oral health in Peru.

Last year marked an exciting new chapter in my career when I assumed the position of President of the Peruvian Association of Periodontics and Osseointegration. My mission is to advocate for oral health through gum health care and bring the latest in periodontics to the entire country through the prevention, promotion, and treatment of periodontal diseases – disorders that significantly affect the quality of life of countless people. Today, I am also pleased to contribute my expertise to the Timothy A. DeRouen Center for Global Oral Health at the University of Washington.

Hi, I’m Jenipher Ober-Oluoch, a pediatric dentist who is passionate about dental public health. I would love to see a world where quality oral health services are within reach to all those who need it in a timely fashion, especially for the children with special health care needs.

Safari is the Swahili word for voyage. My time in dentistry has been a voyage. The journey towards providing service, not necessarily healthcare, to children started way back as a child when I would accompany my mother, who was a teacher, to various community activities. I was drawn towards helping the children who were struggling with tasks. Later, during my training as a dentist, I was able to see the burden of disease among the children during the community outreach activities and in the clinical teaching sessions. Upon qualifying from the dental school, I was deployed to work at one of the government hospitals where the oral health disease burden was huge! The clinic had limited resources and offered basic curative oral health care with minimum preventive programs. To improve the situation through advocacy and research, I actively participated in the Kenya National Dental Association, the Kenya Association of Paediatric Dentists, the East and Southern Division of IADR and Paediatric Oral health research group of IADR. I was motivated to study public health, pediatric dentistry and later specialized in Epidemiology with a goal to better understand general disease distribution, the oral health needs of the child patient and how to make it better. I needed to make sense of the numbers and inform policy. To date, my country Kenya has made tremendous steps towards oral health advocacy and there is increased efforts and opportunity towards this end.

I joined the University of Washington’s TABASAMU grant team when I was pursuing my Epidemiology career at the Georgia State University in Atlanta, Ga. I have since moved from Georgia to Rwanda where I teach Paediatric Dentistry at the School of Dentistry, University of Rwanda. I am excited to be part of the TABASAMU program in Kenya that seeks to understand the interactions between oral health and HIV infection. The Research training and mentorship program will greatly impact the research capacity in Kenya, the Eastern Africa region, and beyond. We recently concluded focus groups with 44 potential mentees drawn from various regions within Kenya. Through these future oral health researchers, it’s my hope that we will continue to crunch the numbers to inform the interventions that would improve the clinical picture within the Kenyan population.

Dr Jenipher Ober-Oluoch BDS, MPH, MDS (Paed dent), Epid, FADI, FPFA, FICD
Senior Lecturer & Departmental Lead, Dept. of Paediatric Dentistry & Orthodontics
School of Dentistry, College of Medicine & Health Science
University of Rwanda, Rwanda

My first encounter with a dentist was as a child.  I don’t remember much other than the feeling of numbness after the procedure.  I had other trips to the dentist as a teenager which ultimately led to pursuing dentistry at the university.

Growing up, I thought everyone visited the dentist when they had teeth problems.  However, this notion was shattered during the clinical years in dental school when I came face to face with the reality of dental disease burden.  Seemingly young people like myself who had already lost teeth due to dental caries not to mention the pain they persevered with because of lack of access to dental services.

During the clinical years in dental school, we were fortunate as students to participate in many dental outreach programmes in various parts of the country over the weekends.  As a student, one is never prepared to see the amount of dental disease in those populations.  There was a lot of dental caries, periodontal disease, and edentulism secondary to extractions to treat dental caries.  What stuck out was the lack of dental services in those rural areas and if there were present, the facilities are run down and dilapidated.

Subsequently I graduated and was employed by the government in a rural facility.  Despite having the knowledge and skills to provide curative services, I realised that patients often presented late when the only treatment options available were either extractions or root canal treatments.  In my mind, I thought it better to educate the catchment population around the hospital to prevent dental disease and providing education about early diagnosis and treatment.  However, no such programmes existed at the time.

I later enrolled for a postgraduate degree in paediatric dentistry at the University of Nairobi.  I was exposed to the high dental disease burden in children who presented late and often required extensive treatment which few could afford.  During the course we were introduced to aspects of public health with a focus on dental health and its relationship with general well-being.  My interaction with dental public health specialists during this time also kindled my interest in prevention being better and cheaper than curative services.  Writing a thesis was part of the course and this introduced me to carrying out research and its importance.

As a practising paediatric dentist interested in carrying out research, I have been fortunate to have wonderful mentors, Prof Kemoli and Prof Ana Lucia Seminario.  They have linked me to research opportunities and guided me.  Most notably, they provided guidance and invaluable help when I applied to be a Fogarty fellow.  Although I was not successful, I appreciated immensely the opportunity and ‘hand holding’ I received.  Most recently, I was part of the initial cohort of trainees for the DeRouen Center at University of Washington for training young researchers in Kenya and Uganda on publishing manuscripts.  This was a wonderful programme where I learnt a lot and was fortunate to publish my manuscript based on my postgraduate thesis in a leading dental journal.

The more I continue practising as a paediatric dentist I realise the big gap that exists in patient education and advocacy and the lack of preventive programmes.  I hope that by continuing to do research in dental public health I will be able to address some of these gaps and influence change in a positive manner.

My name is Jorge Castillo and I am originally from Lima, Peru. I finished dental school at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Perú . My interest in Dentistry arose from my dad, who is a Pediatric Dentist, trained in the 60’s in Pediatric Dentistry at the Eastman Dental Center in Rochester, New York, with a brilliant career in Peru, both professionally and academically. Since I was a dental student, my favorite specialty was Pediatric Dentistry. Restoring dental health for children and enjoying when a child finished their dental appointment with a big smile, especially because I was an anxious patient when I was a child, were determining factors for me to choose pediatric dentistry as the specialty I wanted to follow. Also, during my years of dental school, I had the opportunity to treat various types of patients in various places: the dental clinic at the university, in the poorer areas of Lima, and in the remote communities of Peru. That reaffirmed my interest in doing good things for our children.

After finishing my dental degree, I was fortunate to begin graduate studies in Pediatric Dentistry at the University of Connecticut and do a Masters of Dental Sciences at the same University.  The years at UConn were wonderful and I was lucky to have faculty such as Norman Tinanoff, Jim Crall, Andrew Poole among others.  When I returned to Peru, I began my career as a faculty member in my dental school in Lima and working in private practice with my father and my sister.

A few years later, I was accepted to start an orthodontic program at the University of Washington.  My training in Orthodontics was incredible and here I was also fortunate to have top faculty members such as Vince Kokich, Peter Shapiro, Greg King, Don Joondeph, Greg Huang among others.  A requirement for the program to which I had applied, was to do a Master of Science in Science.  Through Dr. Doug Ramsay, I had the honor of working with Dr. Peter Milgrom who was my mentor during those years. I had the opportunity to work with him in Public Health projects in the Department of Oral Health Sciences and in the Dental Fears Research Clinic. That experience was the one that finally shaped my interest in research and finding solutions to the oral health problems in children.

When I returned to Peru in 2000, my career was consolidated. I returned to private practice with my father, I began a new cycle of teaching in the postgraduate course of Pediatric Dentistry of the UPCH and I began to be invited to give courses and conferences in various cities in Peru, and many countries around the world. I have been fortunate to give courses and conferences in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela, Mexico, United States, Canada, Spain, Portugal, South Korea, United Arab Emirates, Taiwan, and Iran. Soon I will visit South Africa and India.  In addition, I began to get involved with institutions beginning with the presidency of the Peruvian Society of Pediatric Dentistry and then of the Peruvian Society of Orthodontics.

My relationship with the UW held firm and I became an Affiliate Assistant Professor at the Department of Oral Health Sciences, a position I hold now. That opportunity led to many joint research projects between the University of Washington and the Peruvian University Cayetano Heredia, and the exchange of students and faculty between the two universities. One of the most important milestones was the organization of the Latin American Workshop on Clinical Research Methods in Oral Health, thanks to the leadership of Dr. Timothy DeRouen and Dr. Ana Lucia Seminario. This activity was held twice in Lima and the lectures were given by faculty members from the University of Washington. We received a large group of students from various parts of Peru and Latin America.

In addition to that, I started my international career as a board member of the International Association of Pediatric Dentistry. I was president of the IAPD from 2013 to 2015 and that was a wonderful opportunity, not only to meet people from all over the world but also to get to know the oral health situation of children globally. I am currently in a second term as president of the IAPD and we have very important plans to promote children’s oral health around the world.

Almost two years ago, I was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. For me it was a hard fight against the disease, but finally and after a few months of treatment I was able to succeed and now I am recovered and with all the strength to continue working hard. I want to thank everyone who was involved in my recovery. When you go through a difficult time in your life, like a did, you end up appreciating life and the people around you, much better.

There are so many plans for the future, in my professional and personal life. As a Member of the Board of Directors of the UW Timothy A. DeRouen Center for Global Oral Health, we will continue working with Dr Ana Lucia Seminario and the DeRouen Center with projects designed to improve oral health in our population. Thanks to the DeRouen Center for the opportunity to work together.

Greetings from the City of champions, Eldoret in Kenya.

My journey in chasing after that elusive smile for my people started back when I was in high school. From that far back I wanted to be a dentist, to be among the chosen few in Kenya to deliver  much-needed oral health services. In the year 2000, I joined the only Dental School in Kenya, located at the University of Nairobi, to pursue a degree in Dentistry. I was among the 22 dentists who graduated in the class of 2005. While in 3^rd year, I attended an outreach camp in the countryside and what I saw broke my heart. Severe periodontitis, tooth mobility, migrated teeth, halitosis and an abundance of caries. Some didn’t even have teeth! Many of the patients we saw had never seen a dentist. Through my undergraduate studies, I went for many outreach dental camps throughout the country, and the situation was the same – the young and the old from all walks of life streaming in looking for that much needed dental treatment. Unfortunately, most of the time we only offered pain medications and an occasional extraction, with the teams frequently discussing which teeth to intervene. While the smiles were elusive for the patients, they still appreciated our humble interventions since no pain was worth it for them. Access to the opportunity to have that smile was scarce to so many of my country folks. Therein my interest in public health, prevention and oral health promotion was born as it occurred to me that through public health interventions, I could help prevent the advanced disease cases we were managing.

With every extraction I did or helpless case I handled, my interest in oral health research would grow.

During my internship in 2006, I visited the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI– the largest health research organization in Kenya) to enquire about their research activities in the field of oral health. To my surprise, they did not have an oral health research department despite oral health being a problem in Kenya. Fortunately, KEMRI requested me to write a paper on the burden of oral diseases in Kenya and justify why this should be an agenda for the institute. On completion of this paper and justification, I was offered a job at the Institute with the primary task of driving the oral health research agenda. This I did, though it was a challenging task. Oral health was just not getting the attention it needed! I sat through many scientific reviews for protocols in all other health areas. It was rare to see a protocol on oral health for review.

While at KEMRI I wrote and got approval for several oral health proposals but getting funding for implementation was not easy. Interest in oral health at the Institute began when the World Health Organization (WHO) declared oral trauma and malignancies noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) – NCDs were considered a global threat.  With intramural and extramural funding, and together with partners, we were able to initiate various research studies including collating oral tumor burden using data from the Kenya Cancer Registry and prospective cohort studies in persons living with HIV, amongst others. I also undertook an MSc in Public Health to improve my knowledge and skills in research

With time I managed set up and actualize the oral health clinical and research department at KEMRI. The department was equipped with the requisite dental chair, equipment and consumables. It is currently in place, with two dentists. The two dentists have carried on the dream of having oral health research on the table having done research on oral health and preterm birth and oral health and Miraa (KHAT).

In the year 2014, I moved to academia and joined Moi university, the second Dental school in Kenya. Through teaching at the University, I have been able to contribute to training of dentists and have more impact on dental public health. I lecture in the department of Community Preventive Dentistry and Periodontology. During my seven years at the university, I have managed to be impactful through driving health promotion and outreach activities. I chair the collaborations committee through which I secured collaborations that have improved capacity in the school though equipment and skills transfer.

I also participate actively in the Community Based Education and Service program (COBES) a flagship course in the Moi University College of Health Sciences. In the COBES training the students go through community activities through their five academic years of study. In the 1^st year the students learn modules on proposal writing and various aspects with regard to community engagement and research. In the 2^nd year they are attached to rural health centers where they do community entry and diagnosis research, in the 3^rd year the students develop proposals in areas they noted gaps in the communities and finalize these reports in the 4^th year. In the 5^th year the students are attached to level 5 hospitals where they learn day to day hospital management and administration. The fifth-year students develop proposals and do research on specific gaps they note as they work in the facilities. As faculty, I engage with the students through the various activities in the COBES program.

The oral health disease burden is significant in Kenya, with limited access to quality treatment for the patients. There is opportunity to build capacity in dental public health so as to reduce the burden of disease through research, oral health promotion and preventive programs. The major challenge is in funding for oral health.

Increasing the pool of oral public health specialists through training and increased awareness of funding opportunities may improve the situation. Efforts to have collaborations in oral health would go a long way in addressing the gaps we face.

It is my hope that as time goes by, I will continue to impact in an even greater way on the oral health agenda and indeed improve the research, promotion and prevention of oral health in Kenya and beyond.

I am proud to work with the Arcora Foundation, the foundation of Delta Dental of Washington. Our vision is that all people can enjoy good oral and overall health, with no one left behind. Through advocacy, programmatic work, and grantmaking, Arcora Foundation focuses on prevention and access in underserved communities where disparities are significant—specifically Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). We are a passionate, creative and committed team that cares deeply about the work we do and the communities we serve.

While our work is interesting (really, it is!), it doesn’t always lend itself to good cocktail party conversation. Typically, when I begin to talk about what I do, people’s eyes glaze over, they start asking about dental insurance, or they tell me they need to refresh their drink. Though others may not find oral health particularly glamorous, Arcora Foundation’s work improves, and sometimes saves, people’s lives.

My personal journey into dental public health began at the University of North Carolina, where I got my master’s in public health, focusing on health behavior and health education. In one of my first epidemiology lectures, the professor talked about one of the most effective public health interventions ever: community water fluoridation. I became motivated by the sad reality that not all people experience access to equitable health care and treatment. I believe that: 1) healthcare is a right – not a privilege; 2) our systems are flawed and need much help and attention; 3) behavior change is VERY difficult; and I could go on – but a major area of hope is in prevention!

Prevention saves money and improves people’s health. So preventive health has been my career (and personal) focus and passion. Following graduate school, I moved to Seattle where I began working in the Group Health Cooperatives’ Center for Health Promotion. I felt fortunate to land with this group who was doing amazing preventive-based work which included a robust smoking cessation program, cancer screening programs, patient education resource development and most notably planning for a future in healthcare with an electronic health record rather than paper charts. One project I worked on with the Center’s well-child committee, updating the well-child visit templates to prompt healthcare providers to address key prevention areas with their young patients. I have a confession here: Kaiser California shared their well-child templates with me, and Kaiser’s templates included questions about children’s oral health. Sadly, our pediatric committee decided that we shouldn’t include oral health questions on our template. The committee didn’t recognize the importance of oral and overall health since dental was not part of the Group Health system of care.

(But there is good news! Today, I am pleased to report that I work with this same medical system to help them with oral health integration, including training their residents.)

After my time at Group Health, I moved to the UW Child Health Institute, where I worked with medical teams across Washington to help them integrate best practices into the care they provided through quality improvement. From there, it was an easy transition to Arcora Foundation (Washington Dental Service Foundation at the time) to continue to support medical teams across WA but this time focusing on the integration of preventive based oral health services into well-child visits. This seemed like it might be a short-term project, but as we have come to learn, good oral health is key to good overall health, and many children (and adults) who have trouble accessing dental care in dental clinics can do so in a medical office.  Turns out, this short-term project has been my passion for the last decade plus. At this point, I consider it my life’s work.

My work is challenging as medical teams have so much to address with patients, and oral health needs might not be as urgent as others during medical appointments. But I am happy to be part of national and local efforts to make oral health part of medical providers’ standards of care. I now consult with partners across the country who have similar programs. In 2014, the US Preventive Services Task Force made fluoride varnish a grade B recommendation, showing the evidence and importance of this work.  I am training and coaching more medical education training programs – including residencies, ARNP and DO programs – every year. My future ambitions are to get further upstream by reaching students in all medical fields. In the meantime, I continue to support large and small medical teams across Washington to address the leading preventable chronic condition of childhood: oral disease. I feel so fortunate to get to work with amazing medical teams across the state who are doing such great work in caring for children and families. They all have so much work on their plates. I am always impressed and awed by their dedication and big hearts for the important work that they do.

In closing, I’d like to share Lisa Lee, MD, FAAP’s perspectives on delivering oral health services in medical settings. Dr. Lee is a partner of mine and an oral health champion.

Pediatricians take the time to listen to our patients and their caregivers, to meet our families’ needs and to engage them in preventative care. They trust us as we strive to create a safe environment of open communication and education. As pediatricians, we are instrumental in teaching our families how nutrition can affect both dental and health well-being and how proper brushing and using fluoride can keep our teeth healthy from an early onset. This education helps to reinforce the Dental Profession’s Optimal Oral Health message as we collaborate with them. Let’s continue to be champions for both the health and dental well-being of our patients! 

Lisa Lee, MD, FAAP South Sound Pediatrics

 

Hello from Boston! My name is Elizabeth Alpert, and I am pursuing a path in dental public health. Beginning dental school, I envisioned a career in clinical pediatric dentistry, but I soon realized how quickly goals change with experience and exposure to new perspectives.

As a dental student at the University of Buffalo School of Dental Medicine, I had the opportunity to participate in numerous outreach events throughout the city. Although I grew up in the area, I was unaware of the reality of barriers to oral health care among different communities. This was my first exposure to the concept of social determinants of health – “the conditions in the places where people live, learn, work, and play that affect a wide range of health and quality-of life-risks and outcomes” (CDC). The importance of public health resonated more and more deeply, and I began to seek experiences beyond Buffalo.

Across the country, in vastly different settings, I repeatedly saw the same theme. Unintended consequences of systems-level policies catalyze inequities and inefficiencies in the US health care system, translating to dental disparities. Ultimately, I realized that the part of dentistry I was passionate about was addressing disparities in access to quality oral health care, which is critical to overall health and well-being.

Through outreach, I also realized how much I loved geriatric dentistry – which further changed my plans for pediatric dentistry. Instead, I decided to complete a GPR in Hospital Dentistry, at an institution with a strong MPH program. During my PGY-1 at the University of Washington, my rotations at different Seattle-based hospitals and medical centers undermined the connection between oral and systemic health. I also began realizing my clinical interest in treating adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities, and I completed a PGY-2 year in Special Care Dentistry. At this point, family obligations brought me to Boston, and I completed my MPH at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Currently, I am dividing my time between teaching, research, and clinical practice as I figure out the next step in my career. I am grateful to truly enjoy teaching dental students at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM) and dental hygiene students at the Forsyth School of Dental Hygiene; collaborating on oral health policy research with the HSDM Oral Health Policy and Epidemiology team; and practicing general dentistry in a private practice setting to strengthen my clinical skills.

For other early-career dental providers who face a similar dilemma – realizing that their true passion in dentistry is for dental public health and addressing population-level issues, rather than clinical dentistry treating individual patients, I’d like to share two main themes from my story. The first is to take your path one step at a time and know that even if is non-linear and impacted by factors beyond your control, following your passion will start taking you closer to the place where you best fit in dentistry. Secondly, develop relationships with mentors who share your core interests and truly care about you as a person beyond your dental skills, and trust their guidance. I am so grateful for my mentors, including Debbie Licata, Ana Lucia Seminario, Kim Espinoza, Ashland Doomes, and Jane Barrow – thank you all!

Warm greetings from Thailand. My name is Sawita, a lecturer in the Department of Oral Biomedical Science, Khon Kaen University (KKU), Khon Kaen, Thailand. I had an opportunity to attend the summer course in 2015 and continued in a long-term training program combined with KKU PhD in Oral Science curriculum, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and KKU. I have had inspiration academic purpose from mentors and friends from many countries since then. We have learned and shared our knowledge and experience in improving oral health/dental school curriculum, culture, etc. In 2015, dental public health was out of my interest (I have backgrounds in dentistry and neurophysiology of cardiovascular response to dental pain in a rat model). I was impressed with clinical and behavioral research methodology, epidemiology, and biostatistics. Integrating all these into my work creates more fun and, of course, benefits my career so that I can distribute them to my patients and students.

I started a project which was new to me both in science and methodology. My project was about the innate immunity function of taste receptors relating to dental caries and periodontal disease in Thai dental patients. Learning new things and developing new skills were challenging. I’ve had struggled along the way. All the mentors in the program were very understanding and provided me with all their support to achieve my goal. I’ve learned academic and life skills from all the mentors. I feel that they work so hard in collaborating between countries/universities. Besides the curriculum, I feel thankful to have them devoting their time guiding me through the journey. I am ready to pay it forward and learn more to help improve dental public health.