Today we’d like to introduce you to Jin Lin.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Today, I am a board-certified pediatric dentist and the owner of Hurst Pediatric Dentistry. When I was in high school, the notion that I would get to fulfill my dream of pursuing a career in healthcare might have seemed farfetched. Have you ever read stories about multiple families living jam-packed together in tiny, cramped New York City apartments? Well, my family was one of those families. Neither of my parents had gone to college, and I didn’t feel very optimistic about my own chances of ever being able to afford college.
Fortunately, I had an amazing teacher who told me about various scholarship opportunities and encouraged me to apply. Thanks to one of the scholarship programs she recommended, I ended up going to Cornell University. I’m not sure I can put into words the sense of gratitude I felt when I received my acceptance letter and scholarship offer. In college, I was able to explore different health sciences careers. I became especially interested in dentistry because of the way it combines art with science. In addition to treating serious oral diseases, dentists must also work skillfully to produce cosmetically pleasing results. I started researching dental schools and discovered that the Harvard School of Dental Medicine takes a unique and fascinating approach to teaching dentistry.
In recognition of the fact that a person’s dental health is an essential component of his or her overall health, Harvard dental students spend two years taking classes right alongside their medical school classmates before moving on to intensive studies of dentistry. As someone who worries that far too many people are under the false impression that dental health is completely separate from – and less important than – other aspects of their health, I really liked this approach. You can imagine my excitement when I was accepted into the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, and again when I was accepted to complete my post-graduate pediatric dentistry specialty training at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine/Boston Children’s Hospital. I will forever be grateful to my high school teacher for changing the course of my life.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Like most small business owners, I’ve had my share of obstacles. Dealing with the pandemic has probably been our biggest challenge. It typically takes at least a year for a dental practice to really start building up a patient base. Unfortunately, COVID-19 arrived in Texas several months before I hit that one-year mark, and dental practices had to close their doors for six weeks. We re-opened back in May, but, as you might expect, the pandemic-related challenges continue. When the pandemic started, a lot of parents were (understandably) nervous about taking their children to the dentist. We saw a big drop in the number of patients for a while. After a few months, I think many parents started coming to terms with the fact that, unfortunately, COVID-19 is not going away any time soon and that their children’s oral healthcare needs cannot be set aside indefinitely. Even with demand picking back up, however, we still see fewer patients than we would have hoped to have seen in the pre-pandemic world. My staff and I take our responsibility to help curb the spread of COVID-19 extremely seriously.
As a result, we now schedule patients so as to minimize overlap between families in our office as much as possible, which means that we cannot schedule as many patients in a day as we would have liked. And while we have always strongly emphasized sanitation and cleanliness in my office, we have ratcheted up our sanitation efforts even further. I have actually had to hire additional staff members because we spend so much time sanitizing, doing patient screenings, and taking other COVID-related precautionary measures. All of this takes away from time that my staff could be spending on other work, which again limits the number of patients we can see each day. Like most people, we are eagerly awaiting the day when this pandemic is behind us. In the meantime, we will continue to do what we can to make that day come sooner.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a board-certified pediatric dentist who focuses on preventative dentistry. Of course, I also provide restorative services like fillings and pediatric dental crowns, but my goal is to help children avoid tooth decay and gum disease in the first place. Many people don’t realize this, but tooth decay is one of the most prevalent chronic diseases among children in the United States. I think part of the problem is that there are a lot of common misperceptions about dental health – how cavities form, which foods are bad for your teeth, the proper way to take care of your teeth, etc.
For example, if you thought that cavities were simply the result of sugary foods eating away at your teeth, you are not alone. The truth, however, is that tooth decay is a bacterial infection that, when left untreated, can spread from your teeth to other parts of your body, potentially resulting in life-threatening conditions. The connection between tooth decay and sugar is that harmful bacteria in your mouth feed on sugar, using it to grow and multiply and to produce an acidic waste product that damages your teeth. At Hurst Pediatric Dentistry, I make it a priority to spend time educating interested patients and parents on oral health issues, from demonstrating proper flossing techniques to working with parents to determine what kinds of lifestyle changes could improve their children’s oral health. I also write about dental health topics and provide dental-related tips on my website.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
I anticipate the demand for pediatric dentists to increase in the coming years as a result of several different factors. First, the pandemic has created considerable stress in many children’s lives. Just as stress can negatively affect many other aspects of a child’s health, stress can lead to a variety of oral diseases in children. I think a lot of dentists expect to see a corresponding uptick in the number of oral pathology cases over the next few years. Second, organizations like the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry and individuals like me and many of my colleagues have been working hard to spread awareness of the devastating effects of neglecting your child’s oral health.
A significant portion of American toddlers and preschoolers experience serious tooth decay each year. No one knows for sure precisely why tooth decay has become so prevalent, but we do know that seeing a pediatric dentist regularly – beginning no later than your child’s first birthday – is an extremely important step in keeping your child’s teeth and gums healthy. Third, parents seem to be increasingly aware of the benefits of taking their children to see pediatric dentists as opposed to family dentists. Whereas a family dentist is simply a general dentist who is willing to treat children, a pediatric dentist is a dental specialist who has completed additional years of training after dental school. Pediatric dentists are specially trained in areas such as advanced diagnostic procedures, special needs dentistry, child psychology and child pharmacology, making them better equipped to handle the specific dental needs of children.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@hurstpediatricdentistry.com
- Website: www.hurstpediatricdentistry.com
- Instagram: @hurst_pediatric_dentistry
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/hurstpediatricdentistry
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