This is a picture of myself (on top, middle to the right) with the other volunteers/interns at Welcome Health. We are all friends now and spend time loving dentistry together!
Author: Pearson Hafer | Major: Exercise Science | Semester: Fall 2022
This past semester, I have been lucky enough to serve as an intern at the Welcome Health Free Extraction Clinic. Welcome Health is located just off of campus directly west of the Northwest Arkansas UAMS campus. As a pre-dental student, I decided to pursue this internship because it allowed me to serve my community in a dental setting. I found this internship through serving at Welcome Health previously as a volunteer and receiving an email from Dr. Kathleen Paul. At Welcome Health, we provide comprehensive free dental care to low-income individuals in our community.
Students from the University of Arkansas serve as the dentists’ assistants as they treat patients. This role includes directly chair-side assisting the dentists as they operate, sterilizing instruments and operating chairs, charting patient’s data, and training new volunteers. As an intern, or what I would call a full-time volunteer, I would normally be sterilizing instruments or handing tools and other supplies to the dentists so that their assistants could remain with the patient. Both of these things must be learned with experience in the clinic, which is why I was typically placed in this position. This internship has taught me so many different things about dentistry and dental school that I could only learn from a dental clinic. Welcome Health allows dental students to be around dentists/oral surgeons, patients, and other pre-dental students all at the same time.
Had I not learned what I have about dentistry from these three groups of people, then I would not feel as confident and prepared for dental school in the future. I now know multiple students currently in dental school, dentists from all around Northwest Arkansas, and other pre-dental students at the University of Arkansas that I would not have met without this internship. If there should be any question about dental school in the future, I know that I can comfortably message some of my older peers for answers to those questions. If I need help in a class, I can message one of the other pre-dental students for help and we could study together. If I wanted to shadow at one of the dentist’s clinics, I know that they would love to have me and would even recommend me to other dentists because of my role at Welcome Health. I say this in confidence because dentists love to see students that enjoy giving back to the community and are eager to learn anything they can about dentistry. I can also say that Welcome Health is packed with many of these students and is a great opportunity for both pre-dental and pre-med students at the University of Arkansas.
Starting in May of this year, I will begin applying to dental schools in Texas and soon after in Missouri, Tennessee, and Florida. I hope to begin interviewing next fall and hopefully get accepted in December. Dentistry is such a fascinating field and impacts every single person on the planet. As a dentist, I hope to start a clinic or use my own clinic to do something very similar to what Welcome Health offers Arkansas.