Statement of purpose for Orthodontic Program

“My incisors began tilting shortly after my orthodontic treatment. Could you help me with it?” asked a young lady sitting in the dental chair. My knee-jerk reaction would have been a referral to the orthodontics department had I not done a comprehensive examination first. It was shocking for me to find that she had severe periodontitis at this young age. None of her periodontal conditions would have happened if her previous dentist respected the importance of bone biology and bone health principles. I have since seen other similar cases, sympathizing with those patients whose orthodontic treatment plans were not holistically constructed. I realized that orthodontics is not just about giving patients a beautiful smile; in any situation, orthodontics treatment helps properly align teeth to promote functional and balanced occlusion without seriously compromising the periodontium. Wanting to improve the patient’s esthetics and function, I grew a passion for orthodontics. To be able to offer the patients not only esthetics-oriented but also holistic treatment, I decided to pursue a residency in orthodontics, with long-term career interests in dental education and dental technology.

For me, learning has to precede any decision-making process. Hoping to expose myself more to orthodontics, I participated in a monthly orthodontic seminar about the treatment plans for real-world cases. To better prepare the treatment plan discussion, I delved into orthodontic journals and textbooks. At the same time, I actively observed orthodontic residents during their appointment and considered how I would treat this patient if I were the provider. I believe that the best way to learn is practicing; therefore, I chose to take an elective orthodontic course to treat a real-life patient with Invisalign. Interested in craniofacial development, I participated in research and co-authored a paper about how tissue engineering scaffolds could be a potential treatment for craniosynostosis. This experience ignited my interest in treating patients with craniofacial abnormality; I pictured myself being a member of the interdisciplinary team that provides life-changing treatment to those patients in the future. I aim to become an evidence-based orthodontist who keeps current with the newest guidelines and technologies in the field, improves clinical judgment by reviewing other orthodontics cases, and consistently summarizes what could be improved from finished cases.

Furthermore, I have a long-term goal of improving dental education. I hope to educate the public about basic orthodontics principles to help them make reasonable judgments for proper orthodontic appliances. While working as district commissioner for ADEA CORSF(ADEA Council of Students, Residents, and Fellows), I actively collaborated with my colleagues in a team to found the ADEA District 6 student board that better organizes district-level events and builds connections between schools. We started from scratch. Now, the district board has been running for about one year and has held online events about curriculum design and dental school applications that attracted dental students and pre-dental students all over the nation. In addition, I wrote articles on LinkedIn that demystified orthodontic treatment for an online dental startup, Runningtooth.

Last but not least, I am inquisitive about the role of technologies in the future of orthodontics. Serving as the technology chair of my dental class, I have enjoyed the challenge of solving technical problems within a limited time. To delve further into technologies in orthodontics, I attended various webinars about the newest technologies in orthodontics. As 2020 witnessed the COVID-19 pandemic, dentistry was one of the health-care fields affected by lockdowns the most. However, the pandemic also propelled the field to evolve rapidly. I believe that teledentistry will make orthodontic treatments more efficient and accessible in the future. With an entrepreneurial spirit, I participated in Optimize, an incubator program. My pitch included research on patient’s opinions about teledentistry and the development of an app that could help patients form good oral hygiene habits. Following the pitch,  I sent out a survey to ask about people’s opinion in regard to habit-forming App and received about 50 responses already.

Orthodontics is my number one career choice–it leads to my second, third and fourth career choices. Researchers study craniofacial development; teachers improve patients’ oral health awareness; entrepreneurs apply technologies to make orthodontic care more accessible. I see myself combining all three roles skillfully by becoming an orthodontist. I am excited to enter the orthodontics residency and look forward to joining a program that would provide me with a well-rounded training and well-administered environment to achieve my goal of uniting all my pursuits into a fulfilling career.