Hispanic Dental Association's First Spanish Course!

By Stephanie Hoyos, Class of 2017

This past October 7th, after school hours, dental students took a break from their extremely busy schedule and attended the first Spanish session of the semester provided by the Hispanic Dental Association UB Chapter. During this educational session taught by Jorge Swett, Emma Guzmán, and myself, basic Spanish vocabulary, greetings, and common phrases used during dental appointments, were taught. During these forty minutes of class, our HDA team focused on teaching “pre-procedural” patient instructions, as well as words that improve patient management. The second session of this course will take place on November 5th, and will focus on “post-operative instructions” and dental hygiene education. The HDA is working hard in not only improving the methodology of teaching, but also in providing consistent number of sessions per semester. This way, students can become more familiar with the language, and perhaps have the opportunity to apply their knowledge, either during local outreaches or in private practice. More importantly, the students will become more comfortable in treating Spanish speaking patients, thus, helping to decrease the dental health disparities that are seen among the Hispanic community in the USA.