My name is Iulia (Julia) Gonchar. I was born in Moldova, a small Eastern European country. Both of my parents are doctors: my mother is a dentist, my father is a pediatrician. From my childhood I knew that I would choose a career in a medical field. My favorite subjects were Biology and Chemistry. After high school I was admitted to dental program at Medical University in Moldova. It were the hardest five years of my life, we had to study a lot. There, at the program, I did my first tooth extraction, administered my first anesthesia, filled my first tooth, and performed my first root canal treatment. It was thrilling.  After I graduated from a dental residency program, I got married and moved to the USA.

In the new country I had to start everything from the beginning.  Sometimes a person cannot change the situation, then he/ she has to look for another option. So, I decided that I can be a dental hygienist, and my previous knowledge would help me a lot. In Moldova we don’t have such profession, dental cleaning is done by a dentist. And because dentists have more serious dental problems to solve, the importance of dental hygiene is usually neglected. So I was very surprised to find out about existence of such important profession.  Dental hygienists can change health-related quality of life of millions of people.

I got into the dental hygiene program at NYCCT in 2015. I met many wonderful professors devoted to their career: some of them are known outside of the school, some of them won grants for our program, some are board certified examiners, some have participated in writing a study materials for dental hygiene students all over the country, some are involved in many research projects. It is an honor to be their students, but sometimes we take this for granted.

The program is not easy at all. Our mentors expect us to be on the top of professionalism. And this is understood, dental hygiene program at City Tech is one of the best in NY state. During two years of the program I learned a lot: from basic knowledge to specific techniques. All the people in the program know exactly what they want, they came to be dental hygienists. I am glad that I was surrounded by smart, hardworking, and friendly colleagues.

I cannot wait to start working as a hygienist, I would like to be engaged in community working also, because unfortunately there are a lot of people with lack of oral health knowledge. My goal as a dental hygienist is to help people keep their teeth healthy. One person cannot change the world, but together as a dental hygiene team we can improve oral health problems worldwide. I hope that in 10 years there will be more people with healthy smiles in this world.