Annndddd we're back in business!

Hey peeps!

I know it's been over a year since my last post, but boy have things changed! I'm now in my third year of dental school and things are getting crazy in many ways.

First off, I'm finally seeing my own patients! After two years of lectures and pre-clinical madness (well, the lectures continue on but there are fewer, and the madness is perpetual), I'm responsible for living, human beings. Treating patients is such a privilege. I'm so thankful to be where I am today.

Secondly, time is flying by faster and faster! I feel as if I've been saying this for a while now, but every year/month/week passes by at an increasingly alarming rate. I need to catch my breath every now and then. In similar news, I'm turning 25 next year -- that's hitting a quarter of a century, folks! Almost 25 consecutive years of living ... what an honor! #blessed

Finally, I think I'm starting to see the bigger picture! I've always prided myself on being able to step back and take a bigger look at things, but in retrospect I probably didn't know what I was saying and probably wasn't doing this. Oh well! But really, I'd like to think that things have changed. Life is short and we need to do more things that we really enjoy.

Anyhow, less sappy and more real. I'll try to resume posting here at some point, but since beginning this blog oh so long ago I've begun to diversify my online presence. If you click around here and there I'm sure you'll find my digital footprint. Where it leads to, no one knows!

In the meantime, a new idea has come to mind and I'm going to plant the seed as a new blog. But don't worry, folks -- the one you're reading now is staying here, forever!

E

El Monte Health Fair

Hey peeps!

Last Saturday, UCLA's Pediatric Dentistry Club participated in a community health fair/screening in El Monte and I finally got to do more than Oral Hygiene Instruction (OHI)! Under the guidance of Dr. McCreedy from UCLA  Pediatrics, us first years and second years also provided oral screenings.

Interestingly, our neighboring booths included a cosmetology station that offered free manicures, pedicures, and facials (not to mention a beauty kit raffle), as well as an exceedingly active Zumba troupe lead by a fearless leader. Quite an interesting sight.

Although we were initially expecting mainly children, we also saw a fair number of adults. In addition, the health fair also provided us with the fantastic experience to work with an extremely diverse and receptive community. I probably spoke, or attempted to speak, more Spanish and Chinese than I did English!

The hosts at the local church were also tremendously generous. The lunch was a pleasant surprise and the hospitality was like no other. Thank you, El Monte, for a rewarding day!

E

Saturday all-day crew (9am-3pm) with Dr. McCreedy!

Keeping busy!

Baby Teeth

Heya folks,

Below are some flashy pics of my recent preparations (aka drillings) and restorations (aka fillings) on ... BABY TEETH! For those of you wondering, Baby teeth are also known as primary teeth, milk teeth, and deciduous teeth.

The first thing I noticed was how incredibly small baby teeth are. It's quite an intuitive and obvious thing to notice, but it was only when I began making my preparations that I realized how minuscule they were, and consequently how little room there was for error. For the past few months we've been busy drilling away at adult teeth. As such, when we switched to working with baby teeth, the transition was more challenging than anticipated.

Mistakes were magnified; boxes were made too deep; isthmuses (or rather, isthmi) were made too wide; plenty of these bad boys were bought. I probably ended up making at least 5 of each!

Restoration on tooth #I

Preparation on tooth #S

Also, these pics were taken with my iPhone 5 (random).

Getting there!

E

Birthday status

Below is a lovely early birthday gift that I received from the fabulous Michelle!

It's a personalized, stainless steel bottle opener (er, tooth extractor?). I greatly appreciate the aesthetic tooth design as well! :)

Yesterday marked the final day of winter quarter exams, today marks the first day of spring break, and tomorrow marks my birthday. Thank you, Michelle!

E

Will not be left unused

How to Get Into Dental School !

Long overdue, but coming soon!

After winter quarter finals.

E

Dental Anthropology and Forensic Dentistry

Dental Anthropology and Forensic Dentistry

Eric C. Chen

Do you ever idle around and channel flip until catching a split-second of CSI or NCIS, only to realize one hour later that you’ve watched the entire episode? Have you ever wondered how the ‘science’ actually works in real life in comparison to what happens in all those addicting, romanticized crime dramas? More importantly, have you ever seen a dentist solve any of these murder mysteries?

If you answered ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to any of the aforementioned questions, please continue reading.

But seriously, although television has yet to see a bright, young – and attractive – UCLA dentist solve an incredibly complex case on NCIS: Los Angeles, the field of forensic dentistry has long been a driving force in the handling of dental evidences to assist and solve innumerable cases around the world.

Before we begin, let’s consider some interesting and relatively unknown pieces in dental anthropology that relate to forensic dentistry.

For starters, considerable metric variation in dental anatomy has been documented across various worldwide populations. Sources of variation range from the genetic such as sex-based and population-level factors all the way to the environment such as stress and diet factors. The usage of modern technology in the form of calipers and computed tomography have enhanced our understanding of dental anthropology. Furthermore, the abundance and preservation of teeth as historical records further attest to the reliability of dental records.

Sexual dimorphism, for instance, is greatest dentally in human canine crowns. Differences also exist in dental tissue proportions with females having relatively more enamel than males, and males having relatively more dentine than females.

In addition, as shown from a 2005 study where researchers at the Department of Anatomy and Biological Anthropology at Japan’s Saga Medical School examined dental variation across 72 human populations, differences in mesiodistal and buccolingual crown diameters as well as odontometric shape factors exist across worldwide populations.

If we further consider non-metric variation of dental traits such as shovel-shaped incisors and the cusp of Carabelli, even more can be determined from a given dentition. Shovel-shaped incisors, where the maxillary central incisors physically resemble miniature shovels due to prominent lingual marginal ridges, are found more often in people of Native American and Asian descent; the cusp of Carabelli, a small additional cusp on the mesiolingual cusp of maxillary first molars, is found more often in people of European and African descent. These traits represent just a fraction of myriad dental traits recognized in dental anthropology.

Now to the fun stuff. How does dental anthropology translate into forensic dentistry?

It turns out you can reconstruct criminal events, identify remains, and even examine bite marks, just to name a few things that forensic dentists do. The application of the science of dental anthropology to the legal process centers around the identification of remains to assist in detecting a crime, and even the identification of dental records to determine the sex, age, ancestry, and even stature of an alleged perpetrator or victim.

For example, forensic dentistry has helped convict serial killers and rapists in many prominent criminal cases through substantial bite-mark evidence where the perpetrator was known to bite their victim.

Outside the justice system, forensic dentistry has done even more. After the 2011 Tohuku earthquake and resultant tsunami that devastated Japan, hundreds of dentists voluntarily rallied to match dental records with unidentified bodies. By checking the type of treatment and dental work done on the teeth of the bodies and using biometric identification techniques, dentists were able to help countless families come to terms with and properly bury their lost loved ones.

Without a doubt, dental anthropology and forensic dentistry can be used in a multitude of fascinating and beneficial ways to aid us not only in our understanding of the human condition, but also in the triumph of justice and the rebuilding of our weathered communities.

Although largely unknown to the general public and unlikely to be revealed on a crime scene show like CSI or NCIS any time soon, it is the unspoken, meticulous work of thousands and thousands of dentists around the world who remind us of the humility and significance in which we must serve in our esteemed yet humbled profession.