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New York City
August 2002

Directions in Dental Medicine: Women Making Inroads
By Joan Baum

She recalls clearly what happened 30 years ago when she went to take the national dental boards for New York State. The exams were being held in an armory. Always the precise student, she showed up, information in hand, only to be met by an examiner who told her she had the wrong door. The exam for Assistant Hygienists was being held across the way. No, she insisted, she had the right door. In fact, she had the right professional credentials, being a practicing dentist for 15 years in Israel, having gone through that country’s rigorous five-year dental program, three of which were spent studying with medical students, using the same curricula, serving at the same hospitals. There was also the earlier training in dental technical school in Poland, where she was born and studied (first in her class) until immigrating to Jerusalem in 1957.

Dr. Kristine Keren, a successful practitioner with a thriving practice on Central Park South, in an office she shares with her son, has known considerably more than dentistry. Her story,
so bizarre, so ugly, so triumphant, of living in
a sewer in Lvov during the Nazi purges, has been the subject of books, articles, and documentaries (Adl.org/children_holocaust/story_krystyna.html). In any case, dental school for any woman in the ’70s would have been an uphill battle. Even now, says Dr. David Kratenstein, past president of the New York County Dental Society, Associate Clinical Professor at NYU Dental School, and Executive Director of the Northeast Society of Periodontists, statistics, though quite favorable in comparison with those of Kristine Keren’s day, still tell a minority tale. Women dentists in New York State number only 1,500 out of 13,200, or 11 percent. As a former chair of the Greater New York Dental Meeting, the largest in the country with 33,000 attendees, Dr. Kratenstein reinforces the view articulated by Dr. Keren that those who choose dentistry as a profession are not fallback candidates for medical school but those who really want to be dentists.

Both Kratenstein and Keren are, in their separate ways, strong proponents of educating the public about preventive care and of educating themselves through continuing education, particularly in technology, another area that, until recently, had been traditionally closed to women. No more. Keren notes that in recent years her practice has become more attuned to cosmetic concerns and to refinements in diagnosis and treatment made possible by advances in technology–digital x-rays, for example. According to Dr. Richard Vogel, Executive Associate Dean for Academic Programs at NYU, the hot new dental specialty is maxillo-facial radiology. Kratenstein notes in this regard that seminars at annual meetings now concentrate on technology.

Clearly dental education has moved dramatically into the 21st century: course work keeps current with technological developments, and admissions data show the growing presence of women. Never has the freshman class been so diverse, Vogel notes, with females making up approximately 50 percent. He points also to program shifts over the years, reflective not only of quantity but quality–from 100 courses, with specific goals and objectives a couple of decades ago, to over 2,000 now, most competency based, emphasizing problem solving, and subject to independent evaluation. Dentistry may prove particularly attractive to women with families now that NYU (one of five dental schools) has put all their textbooks on DVDs (all students must own computers). Regardless, prospective practitioners have a good future in dentistry as practitioners, researchers, administrators, and in Dr. Kristine Keren and Dr. David Kratenstein, fine role models, who have, as they say in the field, made an impact.#

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