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Representation in Dentistry w/ Dr. Diego Rivas
55 Plays1 year ago
Diego Rivas, a newly graduated dentist, shares his journey into dentistry and his passion for pediatric dentistry. Growing up in a Venezuelan family in Houston, Diego was surrounded by dentistry and developed a love for the profession. He decided to pursue a career in dentistry, following in his mother's footsteps. Diego discusses his experiences in dental school, his involvement with the Hispanic Dental Association, and his decision to specialize in pediatric dentistry. He also talks about the challenges faced by the Venezuelan community and his plans for the future.
Key Takeaways:
- Diego Rivas grew up in a Venezuelan family in Houston and was surrounded by dentistry from a young age.
- He decided to pursue a career in dentistry, following in his mother's footsteps.
- Diego was involved with the Hispanic Dental Association during dental school and found it to be a supportive community.
- He decided to specialize in pediatric dentistry after discovering his passion for working with children.
- Diego is currently pursuing a pediatric residency in New York and is enjoying the diverse patient population.
Connect with Diego Rivas on IG: @diegojrivas_
Connect with New Dentists on the Block: @newdentistsontheblock
Connect with Tanya Sue Maestas: @tsmaestas.dds
Full video on Youtube
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Transcript
Introduction to 'New Dentists on the Block'
00:00:04
Speaker
Bienvenidos a new dentist on the block. Welcome to new dentists on the block, a podcast featuring new dentists sharing their experiences in the world of dentistry.
00:00:16
Speaker
successes, challenges, and life in between. Navigating dentistry together, one experience
Meet Dr. Diego Rivas
00:00:22
Speaker
at a time. For closing out Hispanic Heritage Month with Dr. Diego Rivas. Diego was born in Caracas, Venezuela and moved to Texas at a young age.
Journey from Venezuela to NYC
00:00:31
Speaker
From a young age, he knew he wanted to go into healthcare. Now he's a pediatric dental resident in New York City who is very passionate about education for underserved communities. He hopes to empower his Latino community to take control of their oral and overall health. Let's get into today's episode.
00:00:47
Speaker
Diego Rivas, welcome to New Dennis on the Block. How are you doing today? Very good. Thank you. Thank you, Tanya. Thank you for inviting me on. Yeah, I'm super excited to chat with you and to have you on the podcast and to let all the listeners know who you are and what you're doing in life. But let's start there. If you wouldn't mind telling me and our listeners who you
Educational Background and Multicultural Upbringing
00:01:07
Speaker
are. Sure. So my name is Diego Rivas. I am a new graduated dentist. I just graduated in May and I started a pediatric residency in New York. So I went to dental school at UT Health Houston.
00:01:14
Speaker
and I'm glad to have graduated, and now I'm just moving forward with my new specialty journey. And yeah, I sort of grew up surrounded by dentistry because my mom is actually a pediatric dentist as well. Cool. Yeah, my mom did dental school in Caracas, Venezuela, and she did her specialty training here at UT Health Houston. So yeah, I grew up around dentistry, and I always loved the profession. I always loved healthcare, and that's why I decided to follow in her footsteps.
00:01:32
Speaker
Very cool. Well, I'm so excited to have you on the podcast during this month. Happy Hispanic Heritage Month, both you and I. But I would love if you would talk a little bit more maybe about your mom and your upbringing, having a background in heritage in Venezuela. But if you wouldn't mind talking a little bit about that, how that was and how that was enriched in when you were growing up? Of course. So I was actually born in Caracas, Venezuela. And I was born there. And whenever I was one, I moved away. And I moved to actually Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, because of my dad's job. And then from Rio, I moved to the States here to Houston. Whenever I was about six years old, my dad worked in the oil and gas industry, which is a very common profession amongst men as well and six men as well as oil and gas
00:01:57
Speaker
country. So as a result, Houston being the oil and gas capital of the United States, we actually have the second largest Venezuelan community here in Houston after Miami, Florida. So I definitely grew up around a lot of Venezuelans here in Houston. My parents had a lot of friends. I never had any cousins or anything like that living in Houston. It was just like my media family unit, my parents, my siblings and I. An interesting thing about my siblings is that I was born in Minnesota, my sister was born in Brazil, my brother was born here in Houston. So we actually, the three of us were born in different countries.
00:02:16
Speaker
So yeah, we made it to Houston and I think that my parents had a relatively easy time sort of maintaining the Venezuelan culture because there's plenty of Venezuelan bakeries, plenty of Venezuelan people. We celebrated every year a very sort of Latin Caribbean Christmas tradition where everybody gets, it's called, everybody goes to a different person's house every weekend and they play traditional Latin
Preserving Venezuelan Culture
00:02:32
Speaker
Caribbean Christmas music called Aguinaldo Sengaitas and so we, all the kids would get instruments and we would sing songs and everybody would dance and we kind of continue to do that every year with that.
00:02:39
Speaker
We have a lot of friends and family friends, and also Colombian family friends and stuff. And also, my parents really, really emphasized Spanish language at home, only spoke Spanish at home. So I think me having the connection to the Spanish language being able to speak fluently has really allowed me to very easily hold on to my own culture, my own culture, because I think that's an important part of it. And even my parents would send us back to Venezuela every year, back before when it became a very difficult place to go visit. So my life has basically been the steady down for my whole entire life. It's pretty much been a very quick
00:03:02
Speaker
and steady downfall of Venezuela. So, ever since I was little, Venezuela has been on a very steep decline, and now, you know, Venezuela is suffering an economic, social crisis. And so, I haven't returned to Venezuela in over, I think, 12 years, but growing up in my whole life, I would go every single summer. Sometimes, we would even go December and summer. So, it was nice that I got to see it in my youth, and unfortunately, not because of the regime. It's not possible, but there's no more diplomatic ties between the U.S. and Venezuela even. So, it's been a difficult process being a Venezuelan.
Challenges of the Venezuelan Diaspora
00:03:20
Speaker
in America just knowing that my country has gone to S-H-I-G. So, anyway. Yeah, for real. Yes, it is so sad to watch, oh, Venezuela and the people of Venezuela have to kind of endure it. It's just, it's really sad. And we know a lot of Venezuelans are right. There are a lot of Venezuelans in Houston, so I had the pleasure of meeting so many when I was in the dental school as well, too. And it's so hard that so many express something like yourselves that they're not able to go back and visit. Many still have family members over there, and they're not able to see them. And that's just really sad. But I love that, you know, your parents instilled and enriched you all with the cultures and the traditions of the holidays, moving forward into your adult life. Is that something that you foresee yourself continue to embrace?
00:03:43
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I think it would be really important for me to... I continue to embrace the Venezuelan culture, Venezuelan musical styles. I know how to make adépas, and I try to make them. And I love to make them actually for my friends. And sometimes, whenever I host a dinner night at my house, I always make it a cultural dinner night where I make Venezuelan food for everybody. So I think that's a cool way for me to share my culture with others. And being able to share also with my partner, showing him different kinds of Venezuelan music and telling him about... He loves to learn Spanish and telling him Venezuelan expressions and different words that we use for different things and stuff like that.
00:04:09
Speaker
Very cool. And for you, moving to New York, was that a big culture shock for you? Or have you found that you have found it to be very accepting? You know, similarly to Houston, I'm assuming it's a very big melting pot. But I've only visited New York, so I'm living in it. I would love to
Life and Residency in New York
00:04:18
Speaker
know what your experience is.
00:04:18
Speaker
Oh, wow. So I've always dreamed of living in New York ever since I was 15. I've always dreamed of living there. And so I kind of manifested. I've always wanted to move there. And so it just worked out so perfectly that I was accepted to a residency program there. So I'm at a residency program in Brooklyn, and I live and work in Brooklyn. And I love it with all my heart. I absolutely, I think the main difference, of course, Houston's very diverse place, and New York, of course, is an extremely diverse place. The main difference, I think, is the walkability, the walkable lifestyle. It's a completely different lifestyle than down here in Texas. Like in New York, you just walk outside, and everybody's on the street, the community's right in your face, because you see the same people on the block, and they say hi, and you go to the store, and you see the people that live, you know, just around the same area, and you just walk to get whatever you need and take public
00:04:46
Speaker
And I think that now that I'm working in New York, I think in Houston, my patient population was mainly just American and Hispanic, but in New York, they really just have every, well, in Houston, we have a Vietnamese population as well. And a little bit of everything really in Houston, but the area of New York where I'm working, we get patients from, we get Yemeni refugees and we get a lot of Bengali patients, patients from the former Soviet Union countries, Uzbeks, Ukrainians, all kinds of people like that. And it's so interesting just getting to see so many different cultures. And we get a lot of Haitians as well, so I get to even practice my French, which I love. And of course, so many Latino patients. The Latino population in New York, we do get a lot of Venezuelan patients
00:05:15
Speaker
There's such a massive influx of Venezuelan immigrants that are coming into the US currently. It's quite a crisis, actually. So I've seen a lot of Venezuelan patients in New York. They've arrived at the border, and a lot of them have been shipped from Texas actually over to New York. That's been sort of on the news and everything like that. A lot of them live in shelters. And so listening to their experiences and their kids' experiences has been very, very interesting and eye-opening. I think I was very lucky because my parents came to the US before Venezuela went downhill, or maybe at the very early stages. So I never had to suffer with this very difficult immigration process that a lot of Venezuelans have been suffering with. But yeah, we see, of course, a lot of Mexican people, a lot of Dominican people, a lot of Puerto Rican people, Panamanian, every kind of Latino you can imagine we see over there. So it's great being able to use my Spanish skills with them, too.
00:05:43
Speaker
That's right, that you're keeping that Spanish scale up and that you're embracing all the cultures that you meet. Did you always want to be? Oh, well, obviously, your mom was a pediatric dentist. But that doesn't mean you wanted to be a pediatric dentist. Is that always something that you were kind of striving for? So actually, whenever I started dental school, I really wanted to keep my options open. I was like, oh, I don't know, I want to do pediatrics. Maybe there's something else in dental that I will really like. And so I didn't end up deciding on applying for pediatrics until pretty much came the time where I had to
Why Specialize in Pediatric Dentistry?
00:06:00
Speaker
apply for residency. And I was thinking and thinking, and pretty much all my mentors from the pediatric department were all like, you need to apply pediatrics. You're so good with kids. For me, I felt like it came so naturally every time I was in the pediatric clinic. And I loved being in the pediatric clinic. I would have so much fun. I would just be able to sing and dance
00:06:12
Speaker
And I would be so excited telling my faculty and my classmates stories about things that happened in B's. And they're all just like, you really should have had B's, maybe. And I was just like, yeah, maybe I should have had B's. And I thought on it and thought on it. And then I'm just so happy that I made the decision to go into B's. I really love it. I love the hospital aspect of pediatrics. We go into the OR. We do oxidation. I love working in a hospital. So it really is great. And being in New York, wow, there's no shortage of patients. We see every sort of syndromic thing you could possibly imagine. People from all over the world, every kind of socioeconomic status. It's everything. We're really getting top notch training. A lot of trauma. Kids all break their teeth all the time. So it really is good. I love it very much.
00:06:36
Speaker
What a great population to have and to learn from. I think that's really great. Just the diverse experiences that you're seeing in your residency. But I want to go back to something that you were just saying, because I felt similarly at Houston, I felt that most of the faculty for the most part were very, very encouraging for all of us. You know, it was tough, obviously. I feel like a lot of them were very encouraging to maybe take the next step or, you know, helping find somebody that they might know to get an association maybe. Was that your experience as well?
00:06:52
Speaker
Yes, like you have no idea so whenever I was in school one of the faculty members from the pediatric department So I basically was pretty you know, I was I would have been okay with saying in Houston for residency But my thinking was you know, it's two years of training. Why not go somewhere far? What I might have this opportunity was like they might come back to Texas for like to practice and to work for it You know, so I just let me go try something different so I was really applying a lot of schools especially in the Northeast because I love the area and so I kind of Communicated that to some of my faculty in the pizza department and all of them start telling about their friends Oh, I have one friend who's a program director here another program director
00:07:16
Speaker
And so they actually put me in contact. Like, to give you an example, one of the faculty members from Houston, she is very, very good friends with the program director at Stony Brook in Long Island in New York. And so she put me in contact. I ended up actually getting interviewed thanks to that connection. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. And I got in contact with the program director, interviewed there, loved it. That's not where I ended up. But it was really cool to get those sorts of connections. And another faculty member was really good friends with the program director at University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. So I also was able to actually get interviewed there, too, and communicate with the program director there. So that was a big, big part of my experience. Yeah. What color were you in, I guess? I was in yellow clinic. Oh, you were in yellow clinic. I was in red. Oh, OK. Oh, yeah, you were in yellow clinic.
00:07:45
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Before she divorced us and moved to her role now, which she's doing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, Houston, we have different colors for our individual clinics, and so you kind of get to know people based on what color they were in. But I don't know. I was pleased with my dental school experience. It was hard. It was difficult, but I'm pleased that I went to Houston, and I feel like I made the right choice. People for Houston gave us really good clinical training, and I make comparisons a little bit with a lot of people that went to a lot of the Northeastern schools, which I think maybe their clinical training is maybe not as strong as some of the Southern schools are. They get a lot of didactic training, but we really had just a lot more requirements than the people that I know from UPenn or NYU or Columbia.
00:08:10
Speaker
They didn't really have to do as many clinical requirements as I did. I did six root canals after graduating dental school, and most people didn't even do one. They did them only on mannequin. So that's kind of interesting. I completely agree with that sentiment. I feel like the Northern schools have a lot of tactic bases, which is great. So if we look at Harvard, they go with the medical students for the first two years. And I know that's something for a lot of other schools, too. But for us, it wasn't like that. They probably struggled twice as much. But I agree. Our hands-on clinical skills, I believe that our requirements were hard. They were hard. They were hard. Everything, especially for the COVID generation. But we got it done. And I felt decently prepared coming out of school to sentiment what I was doing. Yeah, definitely.
00:08:36
Speaker
You posted something on Instagram the other day with a caption as to what's next in your life. Do you foresee yourself staying in New York or do you want to do somewhere else or return to Texas?
Future Plans: Returning to Texas?
00:08:43
Speaker
I think I want to return to Texas. Being in Texas is where I'll be with my family. This is where I grew up. This is where I have such a huge community of friends. I love Houston. I can definitely see myself practicing here, but I know it's going to be very hard leaving New York because I love it. I love it so very much, but it's not easy living in New York, living there long-term. Everything in New York is harder. Everything takes longer. Everything's less comfortable. Everything's older. Everything's dirtier. I think it's worth it because I would trade it for the world. I love it so much, but I think living there for too long or living there for good could really take its toll.
00:09:09
Speaker
During your time at Houston, you were really involved with the Student Hispanic Dental Association, but were you also involved with the national chapter as well?
Involvement with the Hispanic Dental Association
00:09:18
Speaker
So I was definitely involved with the student chapter and I got to go on one to one national conference whenever I was in dental school and it was in Philadelphia at UPenn. So that was really really cool and I got to meet so many people and make a bunch of great connections.
00:09:37
Speaker
But yeah, I loved being part of the organization. For the majority of my time, I actually served as the Spanish education chair. I was really passionate about teaching Spanish to people, dental Spanish.
00:09:54
Speaker
couple projects that we did. I would do fun little dental and health Spanish lectures, and then also we made these little cheat sheet cards that people could put on their
00:10:10
Speaker
on their badge reels and so that they could just refer to them and it had a bunch of dental and medical terms that they could refer to. And we like translated the med dent history form to Spanish so students could read off of it and ask their Spanish speaking patients. So yeah, we definitely did a lot of fun things with that. And yeah, it was a good time. Yeah, it was a fun organization when I was there as well too. In your graduating class, were there a lot of Hispanic Latinos?
00:10:39
Speaker
In my graduating class, there was, I think, probably there were six of us out of a class of about 106. Yeah, ours was probably about the same. Yeah, I'm trying to think and then, yeah, I get kind of lost because I don't remember if a few people were like, I don't know. But I think we were also a handful, for sure, less than 10.
00:11:04
Speaker
So like less than 10 percent, which is yeah, I know that there was one of the classes I think maybe like two years ahead of me that they had like maybe 10 or 12 Hispanic people. They were all from the they were all from the Rio Grande Valley. Oh, cool, cool, cool. Yeah. Yeah. But I know my class only had one student from the Rio Grande Valley, which is like the the border area of Texas. And for those who don't know. And and then we had
00:11:34
Speaker
Yeah, me, I was the only Venezuelan and we had one Cuban and the rest were Mexican American. Yeah. Cool. For you, do you foresee yourself continuing your involvement with the Hispanic Dental Association?
00:11:48
Speaker
Yeah, I think I'll for sure continue my involvement with it. I loved being a part of it. We would go to a lot of the professional chapter meetings. They would always invite us, and so that was great. I got to meet so many really great dentists in the Houston area that were part of the HDA professional group.
00:12:10
Speaker
And even my mom was involved with the HDA for a time. She kind of jumps in and out of involvement, depending on how involved some of her dentist friends are at the time and stuff like that. But yeah, so I definitely will continue to stay involved. Even a lot of the faculty from UT, they were involved. And so sometimes at the professional meetings, we got to see them. And it was really cool seeing them outside of school. And so yeah, I really enjoyed being part of that community. And it's definitely something I'll continue to be part of.
00:12:39
Speaker
Because that's what it is at the end of the day. It's like a community. Oh, for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In your opinion, why is it important to have organizations like the HDA and representation for Hispanic and Latinos? So for me, I think the number one thing I think is the community aspect of it. One of my friends, she also kind of had similar thinking to me where she was like, I definitely want to, she's from the Rio Grande Valley. She's one of my best friends from dental school. She's from Macallan or Brownsville, Texas.
00:13:08
Speaker
And she really wanted to go somewhere new. She wanted to leave Texas, so she decided to move to Chicago. And through the Hispanic Dental Association, she was able to get her two jobs, so she's working at two offices. And both the offices are from dentists that were involved with HDA. And she was connected to them through some of her mentors at UT, like Dr. Melcher.
00:13:32
Speaker
and Dr. Victor Rodriguez. So she got to meet these people and she ended up getting hired thanks to the HDA connection. So things like that, the networking opportunity, especially like you're moving to a place that you don't know, you have the HDA to fall back on. And so it really, really is wonderful. And she's getting to serve a very highly Hispanic community. She speaks Spanish and is able to serve that community. And that's very meaningful for her. So I think that's the main benefit. A lot of the people, a lot of the dentists that work
00:14:01
Speaker
or that our members of the HDA of course, they serve Hispanic communities with a lot of them because they speak Spanish and so on and so forth. It's cool to be part of that community. Yes, I agree. If you're Hispanic, Latino, and you're a practicing dentist, or even a student and you're listening, we would really encourage you to get involved in some kind of organized industry.
00:14:23
Speaker
The Student Hispanic Dental Association, the Hispanic Dental Association are really great ways to kind of give you that introduction of what organized industry is, but also to find a community. Because I think that in dentistry, as we've spoken about in other episodes, it can be very lonely. It can be very difficult. But surrounding yourself by a community that can help uplift you, I think can be really helpful. Yeah, absolutely. I think so.
00:14:49
Speaker
Have you found the Hispanic Dental Association in New York? I know they used to be really a part of the Big Greater New York meeting that's held every November or so. No, I have not actually connected with the HDA in New York.
00:15:04
Speaker
I know quite a bit of students that I met at that Philadelphia conference, and so I definitely know some people that are involved, but I haven't gone to any meetings or anything like that. I've only been there for three months, but it's certainly something that I'd like to get involved in actually.
00:15:23
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I forget that you pretty much just has started. I feel like you've been there for a while, but I'm just really excited for you to be in New York. I feel like, uh, I know, I know right now my main, my main like, uh, involvement has been with the AAPD, you know, since I entered the new.
00:15:39
Speaker
entered the new profession of pediatric dentistry. I've sort of the conferences and the involvement that my program has sort of, you know, put us in and then we've kind of become part of is the AAPD in New York, the Greater New York AAPD chapter and so on. Yeah, well rightfully so. Yeah. Well Diego, I would love for us to leave a message for our Spanish-speaking listeners and so...
Advocacy for Hispanic Representation in Dentistry
00:16:10
Speaker
I am very happy when a patient is there. Wow, Doctor, what do you think? What do you think about the Spanish? What do you think about the people who have been there? What do you think about the people who have been there? What do you think about the people who have been there? What do you think about the people who have been there? And what do you think about them? And what do you think about them? And what do you think about them? And what do you think about them? And what do you think about them?
00:16:41
Speaker
And because it's important to have representation in our profession of Hispanics and Latinos, if you're a leader, what are you doing in our profession? I think that there are many people in our community who think that local is very difficult.
00:17:24
Speaker
English, no lo pueden al y udar con la tareas, no lo pueden al y ar con estudiar para lo examines, is much difficile estar en necesa situation y salir muy bien en la quela. It's like a big barrier that they face. Entonces, siento parte una comunidad Latina de personas con un nivelle educación alto, yo croquero que muy importante que nosotros tenemos que tratar de al y udar, la comunidad Latina en este país.
00:17:30
Speaker
salir bien en la quela por ejemplo.
00:17:49
Speaker
of education and as a profession, like in the other areas of the salut, it's very important. And yes, I'm very excited to see the people who are here, who are here, who are not here, who are here today. For me, I would like to say that, as we all know, we represent our community as cultures.
00:18:14
Speaker
especially on Instagram, but I think there are a lot of people who have been there for a long time, and I think it's a good thing to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able
00:18:44
Speaker
Well, I just wanted to thank you so much, Tanya, for inviting me. It's been so fun. Thanks for thinking about me and asking me such great questions. I love being able to share with this community. So yeah, for those of you that are interested, feel free to follow me on Instagram.
00:19:06
Speaker
And feel free to reach out with any questions. If you are interested in applying to dental school or interested in applying to residency or have any sorts of struggles of being a Latino in the dental community, then please reach out.
00:19:20
Speaker
Yeah, we're definitely here to provide some support and a network of support. And if we can't help you, I'm sure we can find others to help you. So please use either Diego and I as a resource to you. Diego, thank you so much again for taking time out of your day to meet with me. Thank you so much, Tanya.
00:19:37
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of New Dennis on the Block. If you'd like to connect with Diego, you can find him on Instagram at Diego J. Rivas Underscore. You can also connect with me on Instagram at tsmysas.dds. Please be sure to leave a review for the podcast. If you have a new Dennis that you'd like to see on the podcast, send a DM to at newdennisontheblock on Instagram. We'll catch you next time.