B-Z

At Columbia Dental, my first 18 months of dental school is with the medical school, in which we share the same classroom and lab with medical students. While I'm so grateful to have the chance to learn about the whole body, I also feel that it's important for medical students to have an understanding of oral health! 

Oral disease is a silent epidemic: tooth decay is the most common disease in the world, periodontitis is number 6 in the world, and both conditions greatly affect, predispose, or exacerbate other health conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes, pneumonia, COVID-19, cancer, and even Alzheimer's. However, the mouth has been historically neglected in a lot of conversations on health, partially because of the segregated dental and medical system (in schools, hospital systems, and insurance policies). Many medical students learn more about the brain, the skin, and the rest of the body, but they tend to know less about the mouth when it’s one of the most important windows and gateways to our physical and mental health.

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This is how and why I started making infographics connecting the contents I made in this class with public health concepts, because--after all, health cannot be achieved without taking on a public health lens!