It is kind of fun to look back and see all the minute decisions and events that occurred to get you to where you are today. I had to think about this one quite a bit, and you will too if you ever apply and get that first dental school interview. Without further ado, here is my story and path to why I have considered the field of dentistry for my lifelong career:

Growing up, I actually enjoyed going to the dentist. My family took me and my siblings to a children's and adolescent clinic, which probably made things more enjoyable. I remember when the office called our house a week prior to the appointment as confirmation, that I would make sure I flossed and brushed super well. This was for a specific reason which I will go into detail later. As we walked in the office, in the lobby would be a large fish tank full of exciting creatures, stuffed animals, some baby toys, and a circular wheel on the wall which you moved around to get a disc into the center through a maze. The way our family scheduled the exams, all five of us kids would have the appointment at the same time - it was quite bizarre that we filled all the seats in the office.

Anyways, they would call us into the back room and go over who each of us was so we would get matched to the correct hygienist. There would always be at least two of us who would have to get x-rays while the others were free to get the cleanings. I always was amused when my younger brother had to get an x-ray as his eyes would instantly widen. For whatever reason, he couldn't deal with the taste of latex gloves as the hygienist placed x-ray films in his mouth. Sometimes you could even hear bouts of coughing and discomfort across the hall as you were getting your cleaning.

After you got your cleaning the hygienist then would give you a basket of toys and fun objects to choose something to take home. I would always sit there carefully picking each item up and analyzing it. Quite a tough decision for a kid - but some memorable items were a sticky stretchy lizard, Mars putty, and a silver slinky. Each one of these ended up creating their own interesting stories days later.

While picking your gift, the hygienist would be scribbling something on a piece of yellow paper; her back would be turned expertly so to not let you peek. At first I didn't know what this was, but I soon realized that it represented so much more. This half sheet of paper would be the reason why I brushed and flossed so well before appointments. There would be two grades on the paper, one for teeth and the other for gums. Depending on what grade you got it would tell your parents how many spots of plaque or areas of bleeding there were respectfully. It was after the appointment with your "goody bag" that you could see how you did. Each of us would immediately compare with each other, and it was the person with the worst grades that would get jabbed by the rest of us along with a shaking of the heads from mom and dad. For your best interest, you didn't want to have the worst grades.

Once you were done picking your gift, the dentist would come in to check if you had cavities. Luckily, I never did, which probably made my interactions with the dentist that much better. I always enjoyed him asking me about school and what my favorite TV show and other things were.

As I got a little older and the question of what I wanted to do in life became a little more frequent, I began to think about what people in life were most impactful to those around me. I then recalled how my grandpa was able to be in so much less pain once he received a set of dentures and a video in middle school of how a dentist in America travelled around in a van to help those with "Mountain Dew Mouths". To decide if this was the right career for me, I called a local dentist to see what it was like.

To my amazement the job was so much different than what I initially thought. Going to an adolescents office definitely shielded me from seeing what an average dentist did. I had presumed that most dentists sit in their office and pop their heads out to check if you had cavities for five minutes. That was only a fraction of dentistry, as I realized most of the time spent as a dentist is in the procedural side of the clinic. As I gazed beyond the shoulder of the dentist and into the mouth of the patient, I saw so many unique cases that taught me the potential of a dentist. Words like amalgam, impressions, crowns whizzed past my head, but what caught my eye was the technology. The first day of shadowing, I saw a CEREC machine go to work. From a quick intra-oral scan, this four by two foot machine took a block of material and fabricated a crown in under thirty minutes. I could have stood there watching the whole process if it were not for more cases to observe.

In the end I saw dentistry as not only a career to heal others and care for people in the community but a way to combine my interests of manipulating objects and love of technology. I think there are other jobs that tackle some of these interests such as a computer programmer, healthcare worker, or scientist, but only dentistry speaks to all of these aspects.

I have left out a lot of information and other insights I got from shadowing, but I hope that gives you a look into how I got into the field. Time will tell if it was the correct choice, but for now I am gracious to have gotten to where I am now. Let me know in the comments if you wish for me to expand on anything. Ta-Ta!

P.S. Shoutout to my first ever subscriber! I hope you enjoy the content, it means a lot to know someone's reading : )