Dr. Carolina Blanco, EPHC’s new dentist is a native of El Salvador. She’s most recently moved to Portola from her private practice in San Francisco. She’s a long way from home, but Blanco has a unique perspective on countries and borders: “For me, life is a country,” she said. Indeed, Blanco is more full of life than most anyone you’ll meet. She’s also very happy with the change of scenery and with the types of patients she gets to see here in Plumas County, as well.
Dr. Blanco came to the United States from El Salvador in 1997, and had her license to practice dentistry in her home country. She’d “always wanted” to get her green card, she said. She’d met many foreigners who came to her country and spoke fluent Spanish. She saw how easy it was for them to learn a foreign language, and she decided she wanted to do the same. She also knew that she wanted to try living abroad.
She decided to get her license to practice dentistry in the U.S. If she wasn’t successful, she said, she would return home, because she’s committed to her dental career. When she first arrived in the United States, she lived in Virginia. She looked for jobs in the employment section of the Washington Post. Her brother, who speaks fluent English, called potential employers for her. Eventually, she found a job with a dentist who was looking for a Spanish speaking dentist for his practice and was willing to train her. Initially, there was a big language barrier, however. But, she started learning names of things: “gloves, trays, mirror, x-rays, impressions,” then moving on to the names of “instruments and procedures.”
Later, Dr. Blanco moved to California, she said, because the state was offering foreign dentists the chance to get their dental license by passing exams, rather than forcing them to start all over in school, learning what they’d already been taught in their home countries.
She passed Part 1 and 2 of the National Exam. After passing the first two parts, foreign dentists sometimes waited years to be called for the third exam as there were 5,000 dentists on the waiting list to take it according to Dr. Blanco. Because she didn’t know when she’d be called for the exam, she studied for three solid years in order to be fully prepared. In the end, only 1,500 of the 5,000 dentists passed.
While waiting to receive her CA dental license, Dr. Blanco worked first doing hygiene all over the Bay Area. She went into private practice, renting a place in an established dentist’s office in San Francisco. His office rent was $12,000 a month, Dr. Blanco said. She saw that most dentists in the U.S., including the one where she had her practice, were very well equipped with the latest technology and the most sophisticated treatments. Dentists come out of school here with a huge amount of debt, and they’re forced to focus on “production” and high end dentistry, because “this is where the money is.” The San Francisco office was “like a school for her,” said Blanco. She learned all of the latest techniques and how to use how to use all of the most advanced equipment; this isn’t what interests her, however. There is “a huge market of products, machines, and instruments, but there are still a lot of people who are losing their teeth,” said Dr. Blanco. “How useful is advanced technology when you can’t help these people?”
Dr. Blanco has been very clear about her focus in dentistry right from the beginning. She wants to “take care of that part of the population that needs basic services.” In El Salvador, she said, people don’t have safe drinking water. Doctors Without Borders saw patients in her country and worked to get them clean water. Dr. Blanco said she wished there was an organization of dentists that offered similar services to people in need. “I feel like teeth are as important as water,” she said.
When her friends questioned her decision to leave San Francisco for small, rural Plumas County, Dr. Blanco told them it was just what she was looking for. In fact, she came from a small, rural town in El Salvador. Moreover, she wanted to “help people who have toothaches, periodontal disease—people who don’t have a lot of money, but need help . . . I’m very glad to be here [at EPHC] to be able to use my career as an instrument to help others.”
And, of Eastern Plumas County, Dr. Blanco said, “I love it. I feel safe. It’s amazing that this is what I want to do: work for a community clinic and be able to enjoy outside . . . nature here—you can’t ignore it. I feel blessed.” If EPHC is just what Dr. Blanco was looking for, the reverse of that is likely even more true.