By Jill Pease
Ask recent University of Florida graduate and aspiring dentist Ryan Jin what motivates him and the answer is simple: in all aspects of his life, he wants to serve others.
When he was a student in the Bachelor of Public Health program at the UF College of Public Health and Health Professions, Jin’s servant leadership included volunteering at a dental clinic and caring for Alachua County’s residents with low income. Jin saw the impact the practice had on patients — many of whom had not seen a dentist for years — and he gained an appreciation for the factors that affect people’s access to oral health care, from insurance coverage issues to transportation problems and language barriers.
Following his graduation from UF in 2023, Jin began studying this fall at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine — the graduate school he had dreamed about attending for years. Being admitted to a top-ranked dental school was no fluke. In addition to his volunteer work as a UF undergrad, Jin interned with the City of Gainesville, and volunteered as a teaching assistant and supplemental instructor for challenging chemistry courses. He also completed two significant research projects about dental care that may have helped tip the scales even more in his favor.
“I often wonder how I have the privilege to attend such a prestigious research school when I had no interest in research until my junior year,” Jin said. “These two research projects were defining moments in my undergraduate education, and I think these experiences reinforced my interests and passion for oral health.”
Discovering the scientist within
Jin admits he started his college career with no interest in pursuing research, but Frederick Kates, Ph.D. — the instructor for a class at UF on the United States health care system — changed his mind. A clinical associate professor in the College of Public Health and Health Professions’ Department of Health Services Research, Management and Policy, Kates encouraged his students to pursue a project for the college’s research day, and his advice made the idea a lot less intimidating for Jin.
“He told us, ‘Think about something that you’re interested in and just explore,’” Jin said.
That got Jin’s wheels turning. His work as a volunteer dental assistant at ACORN Clinic in Brooker, Florida — which offers dental care to rural, north-central Florida residents, regardless of their ability to pay — had opened his eyes to the issue of accessibility.
“Many of them hadn’t seen a dentist maybe in the past 20 years, some longer, or some patients may not have had consistent dental care,” Jin said. “Interacting with them really motivated me to understand the why and the how of improving their access to dental care.”
Now Jin had a research question. Under the guidance and mentorship of Kates and Pooja Sharma, a Public Health and Health Professions doctoral student in health services research, Jin completed a project that would illuminate key health care concerns in Florida. Jin analyzed the dentist-to-population ratio, Medicaid enrollment, and emergency room visits for dental issues in Alachua County.
“It was through this project that I discovered my passion for dental public health research,” Jin said. “It also opened the door to other research opportunities.”
Gaining a deeper understanding of oral health disparities
For his undergraduate honors research project, Jin sought out mentor Benjamin Anderson, Ph.D., M.P.H., an assistant professor in the College of Public Health and Health Professions’ Department of Environmental and Global Health.
“Ryan was able to develop a very important research question on the utilization of dental services among low-income residents in Alachua County prior to, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns where epidemiological analysis would apply,” Anderson said. “Ryan had never conducted research like this before and was a quick study, both in terms of the execution of the project and the handling of the data. He has a natural scientific mind and is able to apply exceptional deductive reasoning to the data we were able to acquire.”
Jin’s data collection for this project included interviewing ACORN Clinic patients about how the pandemic affected their access to health care services. Hearing their stories helped him connect the dots between what he was learning in the classroom and what he might eventually experience in dental practice.
“In the classroom, when you hear numbers about health disparities, it can be hard to really visualize what that might mean,” Jin said. “Now there is a person in front of me telling their story, and I can see the impact of them not being able to see a dentist or afford treatments.”
Jin hopes to publish the findings from this study, and he is currently in discussion with Harvard experts in oral health disparities — some of the same faculty members whose work he cited in his undergraduate research — about co-authoring a paper on his results.
The ‘public health guy’
Jin, who called Gainesville home from the age of 9 until his recent move to Massachusetts, was inspired in his career choice by his local orthodontist, Reid Montini, D.M.D., a Harvard School of Dental Medicine graduate. Choosing an undergraduate major was a little less clear cut for Jin, but he ultimately decided to pursue the field of public health.
“What drew me to public health was the vast range of areas it encompasses and how you can apply it to any career field,” Jin said. “Public health is incorporated into so many aspects of our everyday lives and you can consider its implications in practically any question. I think if you want to make changes on a broader scale to affect more people, public health knowledge is essential.”
Among his Harvard School of Dental Medicine classmates, who recently elected him to an advocacy position in their student dental organization, Jin is known as the “public health guy” — a fitting nickname.
“Ryan has the academic and personal qualities befitting a clinician-in-training, including an understanding that medicine, which includes dentistry, is not just about treating the individual, but also working to secure the health of the entire community,” Anderson said. “To me, Ryan embodies the spirit of a global health/public health clinician. I am proud to have been just a small part of his journey, knowing that Ryan will have a positive impact on society in the future.”