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J.T.’s Personal Statement
5 interviews, 3 acceptances, school: UoP

“In ceramic art, there is a concept called the “happy accident.” It is an unexpected deviation from the plan that brings about a better outcome. Chipping my tooth on a microphone was my life altering “happy accident.” It was the precursor for a series of events that has led me to pursue a career in dentistry. Unlike some of my friends, my interest in dentistry is relatively new. However, my clinical, classroom, and voluntary experiences in this past year and a half have fostered and grown my interest exponentially.

Before dentistry, I was going to be an English teacher. My early volunteer and teaching-related activities were geared toward that goal. I built strong relationships with my students and had early successes tutoring kids such as “Rachelle” and “Aaron” in remedial writing courses. I swelled with pride watching them graduate and move to the next phases of their lives: a future physical therapist and politician respectively.
Classroom teaching, however, was a different experience. I felt that my good rapport one-on-one with the students never translated into an ability to teach in a whole classroom setting. I realized I was in the wrong profession. I felt useless as a classroom teacher and left school each night feeling emotionally drained and deficient.

Then fate brought me “Writer’s Workshop,” a seniors’ career and community service course. While helping students research how to become policemen, engineers, and nurses, I secretly searched for a new career path for myself as well.

With a burgeoning interest in health and nutrition and a resolute attitude to test my varied health career interests, I began taking science courses. Certain fields arrested my attention more quickly than others. Working alongside health educators, administrators, nutritionists, and physicians in several organizations, I learned about their daily work experiences. I worked with clinic administrators but found the bureaucracy disenchanting. I shadowed physicians and PAs but found their usually overbooked and rushed patient schedules unsuited to my personality. Before I knew it, a year and a half had passed.

That is when a serendipitous slap in the face by a microphone chipped my tooth and woke me up to the possibility of dentistry. Uninsured and without a regular dentist, I asked a friend studying dentistry to suggest a doctor. I went for a new cap but learned I also had two visits worth of cleanings and caries to fix. As painful to my pocketbook as these visits were, the time I spent in the office led me to consider dentistry, a field possessing everything I had been seeking.

My dentist spent as much time with me as she saw fit and never seemed harried or rushed. Moreover, she took time to find out about the person beyond the caries, plaque, and chips. In three office visits, we found out each others’ opinions about having children, good Thai and Vietnamese food, horseback riding, shoulder exercises, ceramics, and school politics. After learning why I had returned to school, she encouraged me to observe her and her husband, an orthodontist. Over a year later, I have now observed a dozen different dentists in varied clinical specialties. I found that dentistry incorporates many of my interests: sculpture, ceramics, and chemistry. More importantly, the small office atmosphere and generous time one has with patients was what I had been seeking yet found lacking in other health fields.

I now take preventive dentistry courses and participate in two pre-dental clubs. I try to fill areas of need. At SDSU, I am now working on new oral health outreach programs to middle and high school students. As a preschool coordinator and class clinic leader, I’ve given hygiene demonstrations to many students and children. A warmness washes over me as I recall one preschooler who whispered “I like you” in my ear after I gave his class a hygiene lecture.
I find myself passionately throwing my efforts into dentistry, eager to learn. I recently watched a dental study group do gold restorations, attended a lecture on dental implants, and took the UCLA wax-up course. This summer, I will be continuing to volunteer in two dental offices, work in the UCSD student-run free clinics, and take a partial denture lab course. I hope that I can continue or exceed the superb level of skill and community outreach of the dentists I have met. I know if I try hard in dental school and my practice, I can make a difference in the health of those in my communities.”