A FaceTime That Displayed our Healthcare Gaps

Five years ago, a FaceTime call with my grandfather, my "Dadu," changed how I look at healthcare. I noticed he wasn't wearing his dentures. He admitted he lost his old set but didn't want to burden my father with the out-of-pocket cost of a replacement. As a seventh-grader, I assumed his medical insurance covered it. I was wrong; dental care was completely excluded.

That memory stuck with me. Years later, while volunteering at Pleasanton’s senior center, I heard identical stories from our city’s older residents. And the neglect fueled me to act. I joined the Magic Tooth Bus mobile clinic and quickly realized the crisis wasn't affecting only seniors—families of all backgrounds lacked a predictable place for checkups. Without a clinical license, I focused on administrative red tape, spending a summer building a database of Bay Area clinics accepting Medi-Cal.

A year ago, I brought this work home to the East Bay by creating the foundation Mind Your Molars. My father and I run neighborhood drives to collect dental supplies across 100 to 150 homes at a time. At community health fairs, we use a tri-fold display to offer step-by-step instructions on navigating Medi-Cal and understanding legal rights within Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs).

While my grandfather has passed away, the burden he carried remains for countless local families. By battling these neighborhood problems through community efforts, we can end the ignorance of dental health.