ethnicity and dentistry discussion

[oreoson]

Hello everyone,

I know ethnicity is a pivotal factor for dental school admission, and it's been discussed on SDN numerous times, but I want your opinion on potential drawbacks in practicing clinical dentistry as an ethnic minority.

I am Korean, and no, my parents didn't push me towards dentistry haha. I genuinely love dentistry, and I have pursued many other career options including dental school secretary & clerk, and now I am doing masters in dental science. Ultimately, I want to teach, research, and practice dentistry like my supervisor. Although some faculty members at my school, including the former associate dean, are non-dentists, I begin to wonder how far I can go without any clinical experience.

Before I switch over to the clinical stream, I need to assess what my potential clientele/patient pool would be like since dental school education is quite an investment especially for a married man with a newborn.

To determine the degree to which patients are biased towards choosing dentists from their own race, I did some literature research, and not surprisingly, ethnicity of the practitioner does influence the ethnicity of the patients that come to their clinics[Brown LJ et al. (2000). Racial/Ethnic Variations of Practicing Dentists.]
Vice versa, patient's ethnicity influences clinical decisions. [Cabral, Caldas Ade, & Cabral, 2005 Influence of the patient's race on the dentist's decision to extract or retain a decayed tooth.] These findings align with many other anecdotal evidences in the literature, but they are a little bit outdated, and I would like to think that the racial barriers have been mitigated over the years.

So, my question is,
- What is your opinion on racial disparity in dentistry (e.g., racial quota in dental school admission, patients' or practitioners' bias)? is it good or bad?
- all other things being equal, is race a factor in choosing your dentist?
- how comfortable are you with seeing dentists from other cultural/ethnic background? or vice versa how comfortable are you with treating patients from different ethnic background?

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[476515678234896]

-doesn't really matter
-obviously, do you really need a forum of predents to tell you this?
-i see a dentist of a different ethnicity than me and I shadowed him

i think you're making mountains out of molehills, lets calm it down.

 

[Regmata]

A lot of people think asians are inherently smarter for some reason, so I doubt your ethnicity will be a hindering factor. How well you speak English, how well you communicate with your patients and your ability to form relationships with patients would probably play a greater role.

 

[quillow]

I also see a dentist of a different ethnicity than me. I don't think it really matters. Does he do his job well and treat me well? That matters more than his ethnicity.

It's possible that people chose their dentist based on a language barrier, which could translate to choosing a dentist based on ethnicity. If my main language was Chinese, I would probably feel more comfortable going to a dentist who speaks Chinese (which would probably be a Chinese dentist).

 

[THINKOFMYFUTURE]

i think that if your English skills r awesome and ur the type that can reach out to every type of person, the fact that ur ethnically different may serve as an advantage. its good because u have the upper hand attracting ppl of your descent.

ppl seek out dentists because they need treatment above all right? Not because they need a best friend. Therefore most ppl and those that u want anyways, would choose the guy or gal with the best dental skills, how kind they are, how they communicate, etc, rather than because of background.

but yeah, i guess if u act and talk like a foreigner, ppl will choose someone who are more like them, just because it's less of a headache and not as hard to understand what the hell you're doing to them.

that said, regardless of whether u are 'Americanized' or not or of any degree in between, i don't think you'd have a problem securing a good income. just play to your strengths and seek out the right demographics for you.

nothing to worry about really.

oh and ethnicity is not a pivotal factor in admissions, only if ur pitted against a URM, then yes, it is pivotal lol

 

[herkulease]

I also see a dentist of a different ethnicity than me. I don't think it really matters. Does he do his job well and treat me well? That matters more than his ethnicity.

It's possible that people chose their dentist based on a language barrier, which could translate to choosing a dentist based on ethnicity. If my main language was Chinese, I would probably feel more comfortable going to a dentist who speaks Chinese (which would probably be a Chinese dentist).

Language is definitely a factor.

Location plays a factor too. My cousin's office is in an area where the residents are predominantly asian and hispanic. But the medical buildings around there isn't a single hispanic dentist. The nearest one I know of is a 5 minute drive. Not every patient has a car or the money to take the bus so its easier to go the nearest dentist regardless of their ethnicity.

 

[Regmata]

As much as we like to think so, patients typically don't choose a dentist based on their clinical skills. They actually have no idea how good you are or what you are doing half the time. Advertising, referrals, location and dumb luck land you initial visits, what you do from there on out will determine whether that patient stays with you.

Patients tend to judge you on how you sell yourself and your treatment as well as how you make them feel when you are in the chair...not there parallelism of prep walls

 

[oreoson]

Thank you all for your replies.
I have no doubt that ability to communicatite and build rapport with patients is more important than ethnicity, but my concern is that in order to form the relationship, patients usually initiate the process first by coming into your practice, and it might not be easy to do so when people prejudiced.

As for Korean community, we make up only 0.5 % of the population, and it's already pretty much saturated with Korean dentists. Some even fly back to Korea to get treatment for fraction of cost in America. Personally, I know that Korean kids have magnetic affinity for dentistry, and most if not all of my collegues from undergrad are studying dentistry now. lol.

As herkulease mentioned, language is one huge factor too. I shadow a Brazillian geriatric dentist at a retirement home, and most of her patients are monolingual Chinese, and they rely on Chinese volunteers to translate for them, but it's out of question for private practices.

 

[quillow]

As herkulease mentioned, language is one huge factor too. I shadow a Brazillian geriatric dentist at a retirement home, and most of her patients are monolingual Chinese, and they rely on Chinese volunteers to translate for them, but it's out of question for private practices.

It's not really out of the question for private practice.

I job shadowed a dentist who spoke Vietnamese. Another dentist there spoke Chinese. He had some assistants who spoke Russian and an office manager who spoke Spanish. They all spoke English as well. So they were able to cater to anyone who spoke one of those five languages. I think that really helped them draw in patients who didn't speak English as their first language.

 

[hopefullyadent]

I think that RACE DOES MATTER in somewhat. It can prevent ppl from coming to you, given that there are many racist people in this country. Personally, I would never go/not go to a dentist based on his ethnicity (Im a minority), but many people would. Also the fact that you are ASIAN means that you will have A LOT OF Asian people that will come to you purely because you are Asian. As evidenced by numerous gigantic Asian cliques in undergrad, and a variety of other indicators that I don't want to name, because people might get mad at me. So because the Asian community is big in Cali, you don't have to worry about client base. How would you fare with white people/other races? That depends on how good you are, how you market yourself, whether your in a good location, etc. Like I said I'm a minority too, and this question does linger in my mind. Oh and also please people, don't get mad or try to act like some smart alec because people of minority (like the OP and me) are asking questions like this. We aren't trying to find an excuse for not being sucessful. Its a legitimate concern considering all the recent racism in America (george allen BARELY lost his senate race; barbara boxer; my own experience living on BOTH the east coast and west coast)

 

[NobodyCanStopMe]

interesting topic though. I did notice a lot of korean pre dents as well as korean dentists around but not AS many korean pre meds and MDs relatively speaking compared to other ethnicity. For example, when i look at a dental or med class, there are always some chinese in almost equivalent proportions. However, when i look at a med class, i dont see as many koreans as in a dental class. Also, I notice more Caucasian population in a given med class than a dental class.

HMM...y is that?!

 

[ChubbyBaby]

.... ethnicity of the practitioner does influence the ethnicity of the patients that come to their clinics[Brown LJ et al. (2000). Racial/Ethnic Variations of Practicing Dentists.

There may be a correlation, but i'm not sure this is causation. I.E. black people come from black communities, and they are probably more likely to go back to their community to work.