Personal Reflection Essay: My Journey In Dentistry

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It gives me a sense of pride to reflect back and write about my adventure, where working hard and staying focused has made me the person I am today. Until now I have seized every opportunity I could to increase my knowledge, think critically about my field, to be a better student, a responsible professional and a humble citizen. I entered dentistry when I was not really sure what I wanted to do in life. All that I was sure about was to be best in what I chose to do. Entering the dental school not only made my family proud of seeing their daughter be the first member in the extended family to be a healthcare professional but also put a big responsibility on my shoulder, which at first seemed daunting. When the sound of congratulations faded, …show more content…

With ups and downs in my career and my personal life, I have become stronger, more modest and grateful for all the chances that life offered. I have always been one of the top 10 students in class. But, I wasn’t able to perform my best in my third and final years of dentistry due to some distractions at home. But my mother always encouraged me with the thought that a failure is life’s way to make you better at something, for which you must keep trying. Holding on to that thought, I worked even harder and not only proved my merit in my second attempt, but got a better conceptual understanding about the subjects than most students around …show more content…

This directed me towards taking one of the most important decisions of my life of coming to the United States to pursue Masters of Public Health (MPH) and learn from the pioneers who have successfully integrated it in the society with positive results. I wanted to apply my knowledge beyond the borders of dental hygiene education and learn sophisticated methods to address the co-morbidities and healthcare access inequalities, as I have seen in a lot of my patients. My interest in mathematics compelled me to choose Epidemiology major and learn statistical software to study disease burden, distribution and trends. I volunteered in George Washington University (GWU) ISCOPES- Adult health literacy team, where we attended Emory transitional house and educated people about various health topics including oral health. During my MPH, I did my practicum at Washington DC, Department of Health on “Analysis of utilization of dental home linkage and preventive dental services among DC Medicaid children less than 3years of age for calendar year 2014” using Statistical Analysis System software (SAS). This project gave me an insight about the Current Dental Terminology codes and the trends in service utilization in a subset of the U.S. population. I was graciously honored with Practicum Research Fellowship Award by my school for my

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