A dentist trained in India, observing and volunteering in dental clinics here in the USA, has been among my highest moments so far here in America. I plan to make my permanent home or at least my base of operations. I have been visiting the United States for extended periods since 2010, learning as much as possible, in particular, about how dentistry is practiced in the USA. I have now been living in the United States for an entire year, preparing to enter your distinguished DDS program; I have completed 2 Dental Observerships, one in Massachusetts for two months and the other in Florida for three months, learning everything that I could, absorbing even the smallest of details as to how our field functions in America.
The most vital aspect of my application to your DDS Program is probably the fact that I have five years of full-time experience as a dental surgeon, most recently performing a good many implants and becoming highly accomplished in this area of our field. I am convinced that this will help me to excel in your program. Another salient asset is my track record as a volunteer both in India and here in America.
I seek to continue to advance in the practice of my profession, thinking of myself as a global dentist and a citizen of the world at the service of those who are most underserved worldwide. Throughout the course of earning the DDS Degree in your program, I look forward to advancement, in particular, in my awareness of the plight of the underserved, especially in the Developing World and, most notably, India. In this way, I will prepare myself for making my maximum contribution as a human being and a dentist in the future, dedicated to lifelong learning and creative innovation. While I mainly worked full-time as a dental surgeon from July of 2009 through March of 2014, in addition to the United States, I have also visited England, Canada, and Thailand and learned as much as I could about dentistry on each of my visits.
I currently devote much time to the Cornerstones Hypothermia Prevention Shelter, where I reside in XXXX, Virginia. I cook and serve meals and raise funds for the purchase of thermal garments. Finding the most intense of joys in cooking and serving meals to the homeless and working to keep them warm during brutal winters has dramatically reinforced my sense of personal mission and service to the underserved, and I find myself more and more driven to serve this particular population in the future as a dentist caring for their oral health.
I look forward to deepening my engagement with the homeless and their oral health care needs as a student in your program.
Raised in a family of medical and health science professionals, I have always been passionately engaged with medical and scientific issues. I chose to become a dentist rather than a physician primarily because of my profound respect for the oral health needs that I saw around me growing up in India. Dental distress and disease struck me as especially acute, alongside issues of social justice and human charity. While in dental school, I focused my attention early on, on the fate of millions of my fellow citizens, especially older ones, who have never been to a dentist. Many of these patients not only had no access to dental care, but they also had high rates of tobacco use, accompanied by precancerous lesions in their mouths that made it difficult to chew and swallow. I was elected General Secretary of the student body and used my position to organize camps for the needy, give out dentures, and recognize the good that dentists could do. I worked hard to distinguish myself in the Department of Prosthodontics, in particular, where I organized the dental clinics for charity and wrote to journals and newspapers about dental health to further my commitment to outreach. I continue to be motivated by a sense of social responsibility first and foremost, and I see this as the cornerstone reason for my worthiness in earning the DDS Degree in the United States.
After graduating from dental school, sI assisted oral maxilla facial surgeons in outpatient procedures and surgeries at XXXX Medical Hospital in XXXX, Punjab. I soon found myself organizing blood donation camps and dental check-up camps in association with multiple organizations in India both. At the same time, I was still a student and then a practicing dentist. I am most grateful for the joy of so many happy patients who had not received dental care in many years, if at all, finally smiling, eating, laughing, and talking with ease once again. Organizing and participating in camps to bring free dentures to the impoverished was one of my cornerstone responsibilities and something that we thought of as a most important social obligation. Encouraged by my peers and college faculty, I came to America. I began assisting Dr. XXXX in the United States to benefit from your advanced state of the art in the area of the dental practice, gaining hands-on experience in this new land, and a chance to participate in research as well.
I presented a research paper on periodontal surgery techniques and indications at XXXX Institute of Dental Sciences and Hospital. I have also given many research papers while in dental school and also after graduation. I have further interest in researching the epidemiology of periodontal diseases and the use of mass media in periodontal public education. I have presented lectures on the prevention of caries, brushing and flossing, and dental care for infants and children during my tenure with XXXX Medical Hospital. Working as a qualified dentist in oral surgery has allowed me to hone skills that I can use in my activist endeavors to alleviate pain and spread modern dental health resources where they are sorely needed.
Your program will advance my ability as a dentist to a whole new level and greatly expand my capacity as a scientific investigator as well. I thank you for considering my application.