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Statement of Purpose
“I’m embarrassed to smile,” she said. “I made some bad choices when I was younger, but I’m off drugs now and I want to set a good example for my daughter.” “There’s no reason to be embarrassed; we’re so glad that you’re here. And what a great example you’re setting for your daughter by taking care of your oral health now!” I said as I leaned her back in my dental chair and adjusted the light so it wasn’t in her eyes. “Let’s take a look.” When she opened her mouth, my heart dropped. Methamphetamine usage had destroyed her oral health and not a single tooth could be saved; this 25-year-old woman would have to be in dentures for the rest of her life. I told her the news and she nodded sadly. Though I have only been practicing clinical dentistry for two years, I have already been overwhelmed by the poor state of oral health in my patients and seen too many sad cases like the one above. Dental caries are completely avoidable, yet, all too often, patients of all ages come into the clinic in an irreversible state of infection or decay. Many of my patients grew up without access to dental care, never received prophylactic care, and only come to the dentist when they have reached a level of pain they can no longer handle. At that point, the only treatment options left are likely painful and expensive. I would like to see better outcomes for my patients and eliminate the unnecessary cost, pain, and disease. I notice many problems in our current dental care system but feel powerless to stop them. I know how to treat one patient at a time but I do not know how to most effectively and efficiently treat a community. I would love to learn how to do the research to discover which problems are the most prevalent in my community, how to create effective community programming, how to use my resources in the most efficient way possible to do the most good for the most people, how to affect policy to advance dental health, and how to objectively measure the success of my programs. I am hoping these are the things I can learn during my time at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. I have always been interested in healthcare and felt compelled to address social and economic inequalities in access to and quality of care. I have always been interested in food systems, healthcare policy, advocacy for the disenfranchised, education, and preventive healthcare. However, it wasn’t until my senior year of college that I took a class that tied together and gave a name to these seemingly disparate interests of mine: public health. My experiences in the field of dentistry have only fueled my passion for public health by exposing to me the raw reality of the current U.S. dental system’s failings. I feel that my educational background has set me up for success in the field of public health. Before I came to the University of Louisville for my dental education, I attended Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs, where I graduated with highest honors with a BS in Nonprofit Management. I hope that my experience with nonprofits will help me in my future in Public Health, whether I end up opening my own 501(c)(3) or simply collaborating with nonprofits in my community. In addition to my dental education and nonprofit education, I also had the opportunity to do research at IU; I worked at the Center for Cell and Virus Theory (http://sysbio.indiana.edu/) under Dr. Peter Ortoleva. Together, my research experience, my practical and academic experience in the nonprofit sector, and my background of demanding science and math classes in undergrad and dental school make me a good candidate for the rigors of a public health degree. I have been asked why I want to study Public Health as opposed to the specific Dental Public Health programs that are available. I feel that the dental health crisis in the U.S. has arisen in large part because dentists are insulated from other healthcare fields. I feel that more collaboration among healthcare professionals can only help our patients. I have seen some wonderful examples of holistic healthcare collaborations from the Free Medical Clinic in Iowa City, Iowa and the Lee Specialty Clinic in Louisville, Kentucky, where I worked as an extern last summer. Dental health is related strongly with health of other parts of the body; one example is that periodontal disease and heart disease are highly correlated. Since dental health does not exist in a vacuum, neither should dental public health. I joined the Navy in 2014 to pay for dental school, and I will be working as a dentist for the Navy for the next 4 years. Since I will be working full time and do not know where I will be from year to year, the online format that Johns Hopkins offers will be perfect for my career and my schedule. I’m looking forward to my time in the Navy, as I think it will be a great time for me to hone my clinical skills and learn more about how centralized health policies affect large populations. Once I have honored my commitment to the Navy, I plan to focus on public health work. My current vision is to open a public health clinic. I would like to work closely with other healthcare providers such as physicians, nutritionists, addiction specialists, social workers, psychologists, and pharmacists, ideally with all of these professions working together in a single site. I would like to devote a large chunk of my time to educational programming and to research. My main topics of research will likely include identifying the various barriers to care among different populations and how best to combat them, how to affect patient behaviors positively, and which education techniques are most effective at producing change. I am hoping to solidify my plans for my future public health work throughout the next few years as I develop the resources I need to be successful in this field.
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