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W. 34th St. Los Angeles, CA 90089 September 2012

The Voice of the Student Body at the Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC
In This Issue: 3 4 5 6 7 8 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 MOBILE CLINICC CDA ADEA AGD ASDA DSD DHOP KDSA 2015 PSI O SNDA DENTAL EXPLORERS DBTC ASB NBME VDSA

September 2012 Editor-in-Chief: Ronald Lee Chung Vice President of Internal Affairs
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In This Issue:
MOBILE CLINIC CDA ADEA AGD ASDA DSD DHOP KDSA CLASS OF 2015 PSI O SNDA DENTAL EXPLORERS DBTC ASB NBME VDSA USC Dental Mobile Clinic Trang Pham, 2013 Senate Bill 694 Suspended Ronald Chung, 2014 An Intro to ADEA Chapin Densmore, 2014 Academy of General Dentistry Bethany Kum, 2014 American Student Dental Association Edward Davis, 2015 What Does It Mean to Be A Delt? Andrew French, 2013 Dental Humanitarian Outreach Program Marco Savittieri, 2014 Korean Dental Student Association David Kim, 2015 How to Surive Your D2 Year Lola Stanson, 2014 Psi Omega Garry Van Genderen, 2014 Student National Dental Association Joshua Golden, 2014 A Crash Course in the World of Dentistry Cecilia Liu, 2013 Dental Business and Technology Club Brendan Vahey, 2014 Presidents Address Chris Chan, 2013 National Board of Medical Examiners Joseph Park, 2014 Vietnamese Dental Student Association Tiffany Nguyen, 2014

925 Magazine The Voice of the Student Body at the Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC

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September 2012 Trang Pham, 2013

USC Dental Mobile Clinic had a great Spring and Summer trimester this year, teaming up with health care programs such as Young & Healthy to serve over 300 uninsured and low-income pediatric patients at clinics in McFarland, Bakersfield and Escondido. Equipped with five dental vans with 15 dental chairs, the program relies on student volunteers. We have been very fortunate to have students from the DDS, ASPID and DH classes of 2013 and 2014 dedicate their time during the weekends to deliver dental care to these communities. The majority of the patients that are seen at our clinics are children of migrant workers who need extensive restorative work and would otherwise have no access to a dentist. Mobile Clinic provides patients with comprehensive care that range from cleanings, simple

extractions to fillings. John Wiens, co-director of the program, who has been attending the clinics regularly for the past two years, continues to stay involved because, Mobile Clinic not only fixes the immediate oral concerns in an underserved population, but also equips them with the knowledge necessary to maintain their oral health for years to come. The work the volunteers do on the weekend is priceless. We are looking forward to the 2012-2013 school year with upcoming clinics on October 19-20th in Montebello and November 9th and 10th in Duarte. For more information on Mobile Clinic, please contact John Wiens at johnrwie@usc.edu or Trang Pham at trangmph@usc.edu.

The USC Mobile Clinic provides more than $1 million worth of dental care annually at no cost to the patients. More than 90 percent of children visiting the USC Mobile Clinic are seeing a dentist for the first time. Services provided by the USC Mobile Clinic include oral examinations, X-rays, dental prophylaxes, nutritional counseling, fluoride treatments, sealants, amalgam and composite restorations, stainless steel crowns, extractions and minor oral surgery.

USC Dental Mobile Clinic

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Senate Bill 694 Suspended

Ronald Chung, 2014

California Dental Association

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In late August, SB 694 was unexpectedly held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. The committees action stemmed from concerns about the longterm fiscal implications for the states general fund of creating a state office of oral health and a state dental director position with private dollars. While 20th District State Senator Alex Padilla did explore ways to resurrect the bill in this years session, there simply was neither the time nor the consensus needed to do so successfully in the final two weeks of session.

CDA will continue to be supportive of Senator Padillas effort regarding the workforce study as long as it remains in line with the policy parameters established by CDA over the past year. The CDA advocacy team will use the months prior to the special session to continue discussions with the fiscal committees and the Brown administration in an effort to resolve concerns about the office of oral health/dental director prior to the introduction of new legislation.
Pictured from left to right: Sahar Hamedani, Andy Soderstrom DDS, Daniel Davidson DDS, Payam Zamani, Alexandria Grabowski, Sally Paredes

An Introduction to the American Dental Education Associaton

Chapin Densmore, 2014

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The American Dental Education Association serves as the sole national organization representing academic dentistry. ADEA members are comprised of more than 19,000 students, faculty, staff, and administrators from all of the U.S. and Canadian dental schools, many allied and advanced dental education programs, and numerous corporations working in oral health education. At the Ostrow School of Dentistry, each class has an ADEA representative. Each ADEA rep-

resentative serves his or her class for a four-year term. The representatives are responsible for communicating to the ASB council and the student body all aspects of ADEA and for educating the students in their respective class on what ADEA is and the importance it plays for each student. Representatives attend a national meeting in the fall and spring where they interact with students, faculty, deans, and various other members of dental education from around the country to address public policy issues essential to dental education. The current ADEA representatives at USC are Michelle Zin (c/o 2015), Chapin Densmore (2014), Robert Hann (2013), and Austin Baruffi (2013). All of these representatives also hold ADEA positions on the national level, including Robert Hann who is this years President of the Council of Students, Residents and Fellows. For more information please feel free to contact any of these reps or visit www.adea.org.

ADEA
American Dental Education Association

Bethany Kum, 2014

The Academy of General Dentistry of USC is a club that helps you distinguish yourself from the competition. As a student member, you can receive up to 25 continuing education (CEs) units towards a Fellowship Award (FAGD), which you can earn after graduation. The FAGD is the only achievement-based merit awarded to general dentists. Our goal as a club is to provide our peers with the tools to become motivated, successful new dentists. We provide lunch-and-learn events throughout the school year and give all members a chance to determine presenters and topics for specific areas of the dentistry. The club has brought to USC many insightful practitioners to present to us a wide range

of topics including: types of dental insurances, private and mobile dental practice start-ups, practice management, and oral surgery for the general dentist. We are always eager to listen to these professionals because they are more than willing to share with us their years of experience and words of wisdom. They show us what to look forward to in regards to dentistry and what they would have done differently in becoming new dentists. We are grateful for their time and effort. This year we are reaching out to more practicing dentists around USC, which has never been done before with this club. By being a member of AGD, you will have an advantage over other students by networking with dentists in all specialties. This club appreciates the value of continu-

ing education and we want to emphasize that to our peers. We see that there is always a value in attending a multi-disciplinary study club to discuss and coordinate complex cases. With this knowledge and exposure, we feel it will help us as students to become wellrounded dentists. Being a fairly new club, we love to have every students input to guide us in the right direction in order to improve and make this club bigger and better. We hope you will help allow this club to grow and expand by joining our student group. We feel it is important to be a part of organized dentistry and continuously keep the idea of lifelong learning as a theme in our careers regardless what path we choose in life.

The Academy of General Dentistry

925 Magazine: The Voice of the Student Body at the Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC

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American Student Dental Associaton

Edward Davis, 2015 If you are passionate about dentistry, public health, the future of organized dentistry and clinical dentistry, then opportunities available from being an active member of the American Student Dental Association (ASDA) is the prefect place to start. The mission of ASDA is to: Protect and advance the rights, interests and welfare of dental students. It introduces students to lifelong involvement in organized dentistry and provides services, information, education, representation and advocacy. But its not only an opportunity to become even more involved in a career that you love, it also is chance to discuss these topics with dental students from around the country. One of the best opportunities that ASDA offers is the chance to work in concert with other intelligent, like-minded dental students who love dentistry and are passionate about its future. It truly allows leaders to interact and work with one another on national level. Coming up this year, ASDA members will be holding is first ever National Leadership Conference in Chicago, IL, where ASDA will be holding leadership workshops helpful not only for ASDA chapter members but helpful in operating a dental practice as well. Also, March 2013, the ASDAs Annual Session will be held in Atlanta, GA. Annual Session is an opportunity to attend or present research that has been done in the past year, attend workshops regarding anything from dental politics to dental specialties, and the prestigious 2nd Annual Gold Crown Awards. This is a very exciting year in ASDA, for more information of all things ASDA log on to www. asdanet.org.

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DS
Andrew French, 2013 By now I am sure the new 2016 freshman class (man its crazy there is a 2016 class already) has been given a brief overview of the professional greek system at USC School of Dentistry. For those who are not familiar with it consider this your formal introduction. At USC there are three co-ed professional fraternities that are meant to serve their members academically, socially and also provide a network of dental peers/mentors. The three fraternities include: 1) Delta Sigma Delta 2) Psi Omega 3) Alpha Omega. During the Fall semester each of these fraternities put on countless academic/social events and by now you have had opportunities to meet upperclassmen members of each. Now comes the challenging question you may be asking yourself: Which one do I join or do I even join one at all? Only you can answer this question, but allow me to help guide you in your choice. Dental school is extremely challenging and nearly impossible to tackle on your own. Having an organization to guide your next four years will help you in ways you cant even imagine right now. When attempting to decide where you best fit it is of upmost importance that you expose yourself to all three fraternities. Get a feel for which upperclassmen you mesh well with because they are going to be the ones helping you out academically and enjoying the fun times socially with. On paper these fraternities have many common similarities, however there are also major differences. Allow me to introduce you to my fraternity, Delta Sigma Delta. We are better known as the Delts and we pride ourselves on providing balance. The dental students that find ways to dominate academically while also living the dream socially tend to enjoy their four years of dental school most. We have a legion of upperclassmen waiting to pass on years of knowledge, tips, tricks and dental secrets all with the goal of making the new 2016 class better dentists than we currently are. We want to ensure the future generation of USC dentists that are Delts are stellar and will continue making USC Dentists among the best in the world. Here are some things to expect from the Delts: -review sessions from Delt upperclassmen before each clinical and written exam you take. -review packets that summarize PBL cases and help focus where you should study -a network of upperclassmen dedicated to helping you anytime you are struggling -we meet with each member individually to find out what their goals are beyond dentistry such as specialities then lay out the path they need to follow to achieve these dreams -a 14 week summer course on NBDE Part 1s that covers the challenging topics most people hate -access to our personal Delt Sim Lab at the House 24/7 -many exclusive social events where the Delts subsidize most of the costs or all such as Delt Thanksgiving, Mammoth trip, summer BBQs, Delt Vegas trip, Delt Annual Regional Meeting, Delt Nationals and many others. -opportunities to meet Delts from other dental schools. We are very close to UCLA, UOP, ASDOH and Western

Delta Sigma Delta

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What Does It Mean To Be A Delt?

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SD
-joining looks great on a resume and there are opportunities to get involved within the Delts as officers -we are offer community events such as teaching children how to brush their teeth in elementary schools. -a house key that gives you access to the Delt Lab -members have the opportunity to park at the Delt House for $150 a semester instead of over $400 at PSB -members are able to tap into the Delt network of dentists around the world when seeking a to find a job -many other things, but overall you are joining a family of peers dedicated at helping you become the best dentist you can be. All of this, endless advice/teaching from me (if you havent noticed yet I love teaching) all for $300 one time, not monthly, not annually, not ever again. That grants you a lifelong membership. Dental school is challenging, there are people around you waiting to help make it more enjoyable and turn you into a superb dentist. Dont try to go it alone!

Marco Savittieri, 2014

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The USC Dental Humanitarian Outreach Program (DHOP) has a mission to deliver USCs quality of dentistry to underserved communities around the globe. USC-DHOP fosters a passion to educate impoverished populations in oral hygiene and caries prevention, so that they can carry that message to a younger generation. Our objective is for local and international humanitarian groups, USC dentalstudents, faculty and alumni to come together with the common interest of providing the highest quality of periodontal treatment, operative dentistry, and oral surgery to those that need it most.

Every year, we attempt to extend our reach. In 2009 and 2010, we organized efforts in Copan, Honduras. In 2011, our brigade served over 600 people in the deprived suburbs of Cartagena, Columbia. In December of 2012, approximately 40 dental students, 6 dentists, and several RDHs and RDAs shall be embarking to Nairobi, Kenya. Our aim is to provide dental health care services to over 800 individuals at 2 locations in our 10day adventure. Volunteers will experience new challenges that will present the opportunity for both personal and professional growth.

Dental Humanitarian Outreach Program

925 Magazine: The Voice of the Student Body at the Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC

September 2012 David Kim, 2015

Hello USC Dental Class of 2016! My name is David and on behalf of all of us here at KDSA, wed like to first congratulate you on your success so far! I just wanted to once again extend a warm welcome and tell you how thrilled we are at the prospect of you guys joining us! Its hard to believe it has been a year since CPR training, instrument sorting and general freshmen confusion. Im still working on the surviving part but I do know that KDSA has been an valuable asset to me throughout my dental career so far. The academic help Ive received from resources and upperclassmen mentoring goes unparalled and the alumni networking through KADA (Korean American Dental Association) has been largely helpful. Even more awesome are all the friendships that have

formed and now all of us here at KDSA want to extend the same warm welcome we received to you guys! The picture above is a party thrown every year for new freshmen KDSA members by KADA. They really go out of their way to ensure that you feel welcome and know that you have a strong alumni group behind you. For those of you who missed the first welcome meeting, dont worry! There will be plenty of opportunities to become a part of our KDSA family! Come see why we have over a 100 members and dont worry, you dont have to be Korean to join. Hope to meet all of you soon!

Korean Dental Student Association

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1) How do I survive post. fixed?

Try to finish projects early. This goes for any class. Mistakes tend to happen at the last minute. Keep up with class lab work as it is assigned so things dont start to pile up. Do things right the first time. Repeating projects and sign-offs is a waste of time. Think about applying everything you do in sim lab to a real patient, because by the time you get into clinic you forget a lot of little details that are necessary to know when you are working on a patient. This can be as simple as remembering the steps and materials of cementation. Take your work to be evaluated by multiple faculty and do not avoid the faculty that grade critically. It is more important to get constructive criticism than an easy sign-off. You should take advantage of the education you are paying for, and remember that school is the best place to make mistakes. Keep in mind that no matter how stressed out you feel, everything really will work out in the end. 2) I dont have any perio pts. Help! Just be patient and talk to upperclassmen in clinic. There will be plenty of emails sent out as the weeks progress. Use your time wisely when you dont have patients. Take all

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Lola Stanson, 2014 of your workshops and get your sign offs in the meantime. Dont stress too much about finishing. Patients will cancel and take multiple appointments to complete treatment. This happens to everyone, but eventually everyone will finish. 3) When should I start studying for boards? Dont start too early. If you want a leg up my best advice is to keep everything you learned in anatomy fresh in your mind and do your best to actually learn and retain the organ systems that come up in your pbl cases. Any dental decks or board questions you memorize early will be forgotten by the time boards roll around. I would start studying seriously 2 months before you plan to take the boards. Realize it takes a few weeks to get into serious study mode so there will be some transition time before you can commit to studying 8 hours a day. Group study is VERY helpful. Form a small group you can depend on and discuss the material you are studying. Pathologies and mnemonics stick in your head much better when you have discussed them with others. Also, choose your study material wisely and stick to 3 or 4 mediums. I would recommend decks and First Aid. Dont get caught up trying to use every resource available or you will just waste time and get overwhelmed.

Attn: Class of 2015

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How to Survive Your D2 Year

Psi Omega
Garry Van Genderen, 2014

When making the decision of which fraternity to join many questions will run through your head. The main one will be what benefit will I be getting if I decide to join a fraternity. At Psi Omega you will get academic support from your upper classmen, access to exclusive members only social events throughout the year, a key to the house and the lab so that you can work on your projects when the sim lab is closed or escape the sim lab for a bit and play some music while you work, and most importantly you will find a great group of friends that you will have for the rest of your life. Our tailgates and especially our alumni tailgate are the greatest example of these life long bonds that form. Every year people fly from all over the country to come back and enjoy another USC game with some of their closest friends ever.

up and so that we could get together and have a great time. Losing money on each member is only ok because our members are our best friends and when you ask the upperclassmen who are in Psi Omega they will echo this sentiment. We are a networking fraternity we are all moving into the dental field and our classmates will be involved in hiring us, firing us, and referring patients to us. The more people that you are good friends with the easier your life will be later on. We network by sharing the best memories of our lives together. Joining Psi Omega was one of the best decisions Ive made in my entire life, and I hope you can say the same thing one day.

In the course of four years we lose money on every member that joins. Its a fact that we are well aware of, but we are in no rush to change. The purpose of getting people to join is not to make money, but to build a community and to make dental school the best four years of every members life. I have included a list of events that the house has put on last year, as this year will be very similar, but those events are only the house sponsored events. There have been countless unofficial Psi Omega events where one of our members just called everyone

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September 2012

Student National Dental Association

Joshua Golden, 2014

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925 Magazine The Voice of the Student Body at the Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC

At USC, the Student National Dental Association (SNDA) creates a tightly-knit family environment that provides resources and a support system for its members. SNDA was founded in 1970, chartered at USC in 2009 and is the largest minority student organization, nationally. This organization was created to represent the concerns of minorities in dentistry, elevate the global oral health concerns of underserved communities, and enhance educational and financial opportunities and public policy awareness, as well as recruit underrepresented minorities into the profession through advocacy and mentorship. To promote the mission of SNDA, we have general meetings once a month on Mondays to discuss various dental topics with local

dental professionals and other guest speakers. Additionally, we provide networking opportunities and socials such as theme park outings, bowling, karaoke, and mixers, as well as fundraisers such as our famous peach cobbler and crowd-pleasing Summer Snow Kone sales. We also perform various community service initiatives around the Greater Los Angeles area such as OHI demonstrations in local elementary schools and partnering with the Angel City Dental Society to provide free oral health screenings to neighborhoods like Compton, Watts, and Inglewood. All in all, SNDA is much more then the club that sells delicious peach cobbler, we are a family that gives its members enriching and memorable experiences that last a lifetime.

Cecilia Liu, 2013

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derwent a very competitive application process and were chosen from a pool of hundreds. Most participants lived locally in South Central LA, while some traveled from Bakersfield, CA. Thanks to the volunteer faculty members and our fellow dental students the two-week program successfully ranged from lectures of dental anatomy, emergency medicine, full mouth reconstruction, pharmacology, periodontics, and infection control to hands-on exercises that included waxing, composite build-a-tooth, impressions, sealants, anesthesia, and amalgam preparations/restorations. Not only did the participants learn from the amazing presenters but they also were able to interact with the other members of the USC dental community through a school-wide scavenger hunt and shadowing on the clinic floor. The participants were encouraged to keep a journal of their daily experiences and rounded out the two-week program with What I Learned presentations. They were also tested on their newly acquired dental knowledge in an exciting game of Dental Jeopardy.

A Crash Course in the World of Dentistry

Imagine your two years of preclinical courses crammed into a twoweek program. Well that is exactly what 45 high school students, college students, and recent college graduates experienced from July 23 August 3, 2012 in the annual Ostrow School of Dentistry Dental Explorers Program. With this year marking the 10th anniversary of the program at USC, along the side of Office of Admissions and Student Affairs, Conan Teng (13) and I as Student Directors orchestrated an intense crash course introducing the bright-eyed participants to the dental profession. The goal of the Dental Explorers Program is to assist in the development of a diverse pool of future professionals by introducing talented students, especially those from historically underrepresented, low socioeconomic and/or disadvantaged backgrounds to the dental profession. All 45 participants un-

Overall the Dental Explorers Program proved to be a great learning experience to the participants and also to the student volunteers who were able to share their own personal experiences in the world of dentistry. The program will hopefully continue to inspire many young students to pursue a career in dentistry as it has in the past as many previous Dental Explorer participants have gone to attend dental school at USC or at other schools. A very big thank you to everyone who contributed to the amazing success of the Dental Explorers Program!

Brendan Vahey, 2014

While you are lacing up your dancing shoes for another wild Friday night, the dental students that make up the Dental Business club are planning their clinic financial strategies so they can buy an island off Guam. Not to say that these guys are girls dont know how to party. They Do! Once a month, the Dental Business Club meets secretly and one quickly realizes that the underground-elite dental students are forging progressive ideas amidst sound business models. With that in mind, it is safe to say these students know how to mix business and pleasure.

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the founder of Featherlite, Ron Nguyen(USC Dental School alumni). This was a special meeting that discussed the possibilities of anyone who may want to pursue the process of marketing an invention. Not only did Ron provide some basic strategies for pursuing product design, but shared some stories as to how he matured from a quirky, curious dental student that made his first lights out of sim-lab acrylic to now having a huge share of the personal dental light market sales in USA. The purpose of this club is to have one more group of like-minded, brilliant dental students that share a common bond of financial stabil-

ity through sound financial and clinical decision making. Some of the coming meetings should cover student loan repayment, practice management, and financial strategy. If this strikes your curiousity, go ahead and check out the next meeting. And remember we are paying a lot of money for this opportunity to brainstorm and learn from each other. So the next time you see a well-dressed, humble dental student with a huge beard, let him know, Hey, thanks for helping answer questions that will impact the rest of my life!.Mi casa, Su casa.

The inaugural meeting for this club was March 2012 with

Dental Business and Technology Club

925 Magazine: The Voice of the Student Body at the Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC

September 2012

A Letter From the President

Chris Chan, 2013 On behalf of the Ostrow School of Dentistry ASB Council, I want to welcome everyone back to school. Last year was filled with unforgettable memories and great achievements, and I hope that 2012-2013 will be even better. ASB Council has been planning many events for this new fall trimester to kick things off with a bang. We will soon have a Faculty Appreciation Day to commemorate the dedication that our professors, staff, and administration have shown for us. Lets not forget to celebrate ourselves too as we will host a Student Appreciation Day too. Look forward to a special lunch from one of our favorite Southern California burger establishments followed by a Vendor Fair with a prizes raffle. ASB Council will also soon undergo a changing of the guards as new officers will be elected and organized dentistry representatives will be appointed. It is my hope that you give them all your support that you have shown me and my ASB Council over the past year. it when an upperclassmen helped me. Finally, just a quick reminder that ASB Office Hours will continue to be held every Wednesday from 12-1 PM in Room B-47-C. Feel free to stop by to bring up anything or just to chat. Enjoy the fall trimester everyone!

Furthermore, please join me in welcoming the new DDS Class of 2016 and DH Class of 2014 to our school. You may have seen new faces wandering the hallways and the SIM Lab packed full of eager beavers. Remember what it was like to be a first year? Well, lend them a helping hand if you have a spare moment. I know I sure did appreciate

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Associated Student Body

National Board of Medical Examiners

Joseph Park 2014 The NBME or the National Boards of Medical Examiners, offer a test called the Comprehensive Basic Science Examination (CBSE). The CBSE is commonly known as the NBME. Medical students take this test as a mock test prior to their USMLE Step 1, at the end of the second year. However, through the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS), dental students can take it if they wish to apply for an oral surgery residency. Since the NBDE Part 1s are now reported as pass or no pass, the NBME for dental students was created to give a numerical score. The first test was offered on September 8th 2012 at every Prometric Testing center. There are unconfirmed reports stating that the test would now be offered biannually, once in the Spring and another in the Fall. The test is very similar to the USMLE Step 1 in terms of difficulty and the material tested. There is an hour given for each block of four, with 46 questions per block. Scores will be reported back to you via email in about 72 hours. If you are interested in applying to an oral surgery residency, this test is mandatory for those without a NBDE Part 1 numerical score. However for those who would like to improve their NBDE Part 1 scores, it would be recommended to take the NBME as well. Since the NBME was offered for the first time early this month, there are no official reports on how people performed. There is an unofficial report suggesting that getting a 62 and above on the NBME (out of 100) is equivalent to 90+ on the NBDE Part 1. The AAOMS has up-to-date information regarding the NBME and for those interested in reviewing additional information and material on the NBME, any resource book for the USMLE Step 1 will be sufficient.

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Tiffany Nguyen, Andrew Vo Co-Presidents Deborah Loh Vice-President Trang Nguyen Treasurer Dustin Le Secretary Roger Pham Social Chair Cong Vo Academic Chair Derrick Pham 2016 Class Representative

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Vietnamese Dental Student Association

Tiffany Nguyen, 2014

The Vietnamese Dental Student Association, VDSA, is dedicated to the well-being and advancement of all students at the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC. VDSAs primary goal is to foster an environment of community and a sense of companionship for all of our members. VDSA offers many opportunities to get involved and meet fellow dental students through events and programs, such as VDSA academic and lab resource sessions, community service events, our club fundraiser for East Meets West, banh mi fundraisers, and much more! What makes VDSA truly unique is the opportunity to bond with upperclassmen through our mentorship program. First year dental students are able to get oneon-one advice from upperclassmen who have experienced it all. Furthermore, VDSA offers the chance for its members to provide dental treatment to those less

fortunate in our annual international trip to Vietnam, East Meets West. This priceless cultural and academic experience is truly an experience of a lifetime! This year, VDSA looks forward to creating more opportunities to serve the Vietnamese community and the community as a whole through more community service events. As our faculty advisor, Dr. Dinh Vo is always available for guidance and willing to share his expertise. He graciously opens up his house to us every year for our Lunar New Year celebration where he personally cooks authentic Vietnamese food for all VDSA members. We also offer Vietnamese language classes, taught by the legendary Dr. Vo, which will no doubt come in handy during our dental careers. VDSA is truly an organization to get involved in! If you have any questions, you may contact any of our board members above.

VDSA

Vietnamese Dental Student Association

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