Alumni interviews

Crystal Chang (Class of 2015, Patient coordinator)

Clinical Assistant Professor in Dental Medicine & Surgery at Stanford University Hospital

Could you tell me a bit about the work that you do right now?

I currently work part time in hospital dentistry and part-time in private practice. I did a GPR after dental school, because I knew I wanted to get more advanced training in general dentistry. During my residency, I did a rotation through Stanford and I joined the team right after.

What aspects of your current specialty/practice/pt population are the most enjoyable/challenging?

I think Stanford is a little unique because we see people from all different types of backgrounds. We get some patients who travel from a few hundred miles away and have never seen a dentist. On the other hand, we also see local patients who have very high dental IQ and an established dental care routine, so we really have the whole gambit. The variety is very refreshing--we can see kids or grandpas or anyone in between.  

How has your residency experience shaped your current practices?

My residency experience really prepared me for working in a hospital setting. With a GPR you learn how to communicate and coordinate with other MD’s, DDS’s, or health professionals. For example, I can talk to an otolaryngologist, an ears nose throat surgeon, about why teeth are important or what they can do to take care of teeth. In return, they can tell me how they approach issues in the head and neck region. This way, we can understand each other’s point of view and I can hopefully bringing positive attention to oral health.

What has CDC taught you about the community and how do you continue to be involved with the community that you're a part of?

I initially wanted to do CDC not only because it benefits the community and addresses a gap in dental services, but also because it helps you work on skills that you might use while working in a community clinic or running a dental practice. CDC is very hands-on. I remember going to the homeless shelters and screening people, which was helpful to learn about basic medical history. 

I think CDC also taught me that dentistry can be incredibly misunderstood. People have this idea that they probably should take care of their teeth, but they don't know how. It comes down to how you’re brushing your teeth and what you’re brushing your teeth with. I think there's a lot of misinformation out there that can be seen on social media or TV. I was always surprised that some patients don’t realize that drinking 5 cans of coke is bad for you. We see a lot of patients who have a lot of fear coming to see the dentist or that grew up thinking that dentists only pull teeth. 

Hospital dentistry is a lot about education--why it is important to maintain your teeth and how it impacts your immune system. We try to give patients resources to help themselves when they get out of the hospital, which parallels what is done at CDC. At CDC, you step in, you fix the patient’s dental issues, and then give them the tools to help themselves.

What's one of your favorite memories at CDC?

I remember carting supplies up and down the hallways from sterilization and coming in early and staying later to clean up and set up for the next week. I loved seeing all the patients in the waiting room. There was a real tangible sense of helping others. It was nice--talking to the patients, meeting people, and hearing their stories. You show them why you like teeth, and why you think teeth are important.

Valentina Zahran (Class of 2016, Director)

5th year OMFS resident at University of Pittsburgh UPMC program

How have the skills or experiences you've gained at CDC carried into your practice/work today?

I was really passionate and excited to be director of the clinic. I put my heart and soul into CDC and built the denture program. That was really cool, to see an idea materialize into something real, to have an idea, write the proposals, meet with Dr. Dellinges, and make everything happen. It was the only role where I really felt like I had a lot of responsibility that I never had before.

I think that’s something that’s translated to residency because as you ascend the ranks, there are more and more people who look to you to teach, to walk them through surgeries, to be the person they call when they have questions and don’t know what to do. I learned how to look at different coordinators and ask “What is your learning or working style and how can I adapt to fit you best?” I learned how to deal with and motivate different personalities. 

In residency, when there are days that I get frustrated with patients who have lower health literacies or try to refuse surgeries that they need because they don’t understand or are scared, I regularly reflect back on patients that I had in CDC who were frustrated with treatments or didn’t understand what our plans were. I felt like when I was director, I took a lot of time to talk to them and to assuage their fears. I try to draw from that empathy I had, because when I was director of CDC, I was the best version of myself. I was so empathetic and so patient and so understanding. 

What has CDC taught you about the community and how do you continue to be involved with the community that you're a part of?

I learned to not judge people. I think that everybody has a story and a journey. It’s important to treat everyone the same way and to give people grace. I spoke to and got to know every patient who came through CDC, and taking time to hear their stories really changed the way that I viewed other people’s circumstances. I think life deals you a crappy set of cards sometimes, and it’s easy to give up on yourself, but I think the patients at CDC continue to put themselves first, prioritize themselves, and seek out resources available to them. They continue to advocate for themselves and that is so awesome. They advocated enough for themselves to get their foot through the door, and so in turn, I think, “What can I do for you, let us do everything we possibly can because you deserve that.” It reframed the way I look at the less fortunate community for sure. 

What made you want to pursue residency?

I’ve wanted to be a dentist from the age of 6. I thought my dentist was the coolest person ever, but when I got to dental school, I actually realized I really disliked dentistry. People were so excited in sim lab, but I was very stressed and even thought I would drop out at some point. I was like, well, maybe I could shadow all the specialties and maybe I can find something within dentistry that I really like. 

I assisted a very cool oral surgery case and as I became an oral surgery junkie, I totally fell in love with it. I loved how you really get the best of both worlds in oral surgery. You get the immediate gratification--like broken mandible, fixed! Abscess, drained! You can see the immediate impact of what you do. But on the other hand you also get the slow progress: seeing someone in the beginning of their treatment plan, like an orthognathic case before the patient is in ortho, and all the workup appointments, the actual surgery, and the post op monitoring. You get these really long term cases as well, and I felt like I had the opportunity to be very delicate and refined with some surgeries, and also larger scale with other surgeries. 

How has your residency experience shaped your current practices?

I think residency is really interesting because you treat 100% of patients that walk in through the door. Being at an academic institution, you don’t have the opportunity to turn people away. I love that, and that’s part of the reason why I loved CDC so much. What are you going to do to help this population that doesn’t have access to anything else within your power?

We treat the sickest people in the tristate area. It can be challenging because you get patients who are so tenuous to begin with, and with that comes such an enormous responsibility. It’s a lovely thing and it’s something we take for granted a lot of the time. Some patients can be kind of rude or really grateful, lovely people. You get this wide spectrum, and you always do really meaningful work. You’re always adapting, and trying to do the best you can for your patient. A lot of times when you’re sleep deprived, it can be really frustrating. But at the end of the day when I go home, I feel really accomplished knowing I made a difference in someone’s life.  It’s a nice thing to know after all of the years and all of the sacrifice that you’ve made. I want to be the kind of doctor that makes people feel like they were heard and taken care of when they go home.

What aspects of your current specialty is the most enjoyable or challenging?

I love the work that I do--I couldn’t imagine myself doing anything else. But first and foremost, I love the people that I work with, more than anything. For me, six years is a really long time to be overworked and miserable. I wanted to go somewhere where I felt like I was joining a family, where residents take care of each other. The most enjoyable part of my day is working with smart, kind, hardworking, like-minded people, who I feel like I can lean on. Residency is so challenging, and so you need to feel safe and taken care of, and you need people to talk to and a place to recoup and build your morale back up when you’re having a few rough weeks. 

On the residency side, I love being the end of the road for someone. Some patients have been bumped around seventeen times by the time they get to me. And in the end, I’m the one that’s going to do something about it. It’s a little stressful sometimes. You’re getting patients who have lost a lot of hope. I love being that person that’s like “I gotchu. I want to do the best that I can for you.”

The most challenging part of residency is that there’s just so much to know. The jump from D4 year to OMFS intern is so huge. There’s always someone who’s smarter, who knows more, and there’s always a case where you don't know 100% about. A lot of the times that’s exciting, but a lot of the times it can be daunting and put a lot of pressure on people. I think the most frustrating feeling is that like no matter how much I read, how much I try, there’s always going to be a knowledge gap.