The Use of Personal Skills in Achieving a Goal of Becoming a Dentist

Things that challenged my manual dexterity and hand eye coordination such as LEGOs thrilled me as a child, and my love for challenges has led to my goal of becoming a dentist. Every time I played with LEGO I felt as if my hands were glued to the pieces. I could sit in my room for hours building skyscrapers, castles, and spaceships. There was no greater feeling than that of having completed a piece of an art for particularly difficult ones. As I grew up, my love for LEGO made the transition to plastic model aircrafts, which required tools, more skills and better manual dexterity. Unlike LEGOs, making plastic model aircrafts was not finished with just assembling plastic pieces, but required further steps such as trimming the pieces, painting, drying, and applying decals. There are some similarities in dental treatment and building a plastic model airplane. As a person who has a cavity needs a filing by using composite, it is necessary to fill in any gaps between parts using a putty filler material when assembling a plastic model aircraft. Also, one of the most demanding parts was applying tiny decals, which were only a few millimeters long. In order to apply them I had to cut them out perfectly and dip them in water for a few seconds until the decal separated slightly from the backing paper. I finally, had to slide the decal off the baking paper on to the model very carefully using forceps.

Building plastic model aircrafts allowed me to achieve greater manual dexterity through countless hours of making them and as I have trained my hands to move carefully and precisely, I am determined that I want to use them to help others. Great manual dexterity is required to build a plastic model, and this manual dexterity bears a direct correlation to dentistry. When trying to undertake a new piece of model, the initial excitement overwhelms me and accomplishing a beautiful piece provides great satisfaction. Similarly, in dentistry, when a patient has a problem, the dentist will assess and treat the individual. On many occasions, I have found that the dentist is eager to start the procedure and pleased with the work and the well-being of the patient. Shadowing in different dental offices gave me a desire to enter the field of dentistry as I have participated with professional oral health care providers in the field and observed a wide range of procedures. I feel that dentistry will afford me the opportunity to do something love, working with my hands. The manual dexterity involved in dentistry is only a part of what makes the profession wonderful. To a further extent, a dentist must have a humanistic instinct and physical health to provide care to others.

Since sophomore year, I have been helping others through community service and volunteer work such as habitat for humanity, and participating in activities with elders at local senior community facility. These events helped me to realize that I want to continue helping people through dentistry in the future and it has given me the rewarding satisfaction of playing important role in someone else’s life. Getting an opportunity to be part of Alternative Break Trip to Heifer International, Arkansas, helped me see another part of the world that we usually cannot experience on our daily lives and broaden my perspective about our world today and changes that are important to be implemented. Under the trip tile ‘Understanding the Global Impacts of Hunger and Poverty,’ our group spent a night at the urban slum, which was literally made of pieces of old board. All we could depend on was a little sleeping bag and the body heat of each other over the cold night. There was only minimum amount of water, resources, a handful of rice, and no electricity, so we need to figure out how to make a fire and utilize those limited resources to live. Even though it was just over single night, it was my life changing experience that made me think several things to consider carefully in the future. I felt like I was privileged compared to those who live in such desperate circumstances every day, since I live in a house that are surrounded by four walls and ceiling, eat at least two meals a day, have resources that I can get whenever I want. Furthermore, one of the most rewarding parts of the trip was our group tried to adapt what we learned from there to the real world and incorporate into our life by planning weekly volunteer trips for our school and community so that we could succeed our meaningful experience.

Taking a path to being a dentist would be harsh and intense sometimes. However, being determined and carrying such precious experience in my mind, I have equipped myself with the characteristics and necessary traits to be a dedicated health profession and am ready to take those challenges.