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Larissa Sanchez is a senior dental student with her sights set on graduation this May. Over the past four years, she and her classmates have been exposed to a number of community-based training experiences meant to enhance their skills for providing dental care and managing a diverse patient population. One such rotation is conducted at Ricardo Salinas Clinic, an affiliated training site, that provides students with valuable clinical training working with children. It also permits the School of Dentistry the opportunity to offer dental services to the community. Larissa previously experienced the Ricardo Salinas Clinic as a sophomore dental student and again as a junior. The senior rotation pairs dental students with residents in the Advanced Education in Pediatric Dentistry program to provide care. This winter, Larissa was scheduled to rotate again at the Salinas Clinic and one of her scheduled patients was a child in the care of BCFS Health and Human Services, a San Antonio based non-profit specializing in emergency shelter, foster care, and adoption. Larissa knew before seeing him, that this patient would have had a rough start in life. In speaking with his chaperones, two due his high runaway risk, she learned that he had been detained by U.S Border Patrol officers after fleeing his home country alone. When she walked into the room to greet him, she noticed her patient was in a well-worn, thin sweater and a pair of gloves. This particular morning was cold. In fact, it reached freezing that day and Larissa remembers still being cold in her thick sweater and winter coat. “He was the sweetest thirteen-year-old child and the most well-behaved I saw that week,” she recalls. “When I was done treating him, Nivia and I asked Dr. Contreras who provides [the children] with clothes, and she said it’s all through donations. My heart dropped; I couldn’t let him go back out into the cold without something warm to protect him.” Claudia I. Contreras, DDS, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Developmental Dentistry, is the pre-doctoral director of the Pediatric Dentistry program and strongly believes interaction with patients from varying socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds is crucial to any training in healthcare. “It is important for our dental students to see and experience the dental needs of the community, but especially a community in which there are financial constraints that families face”, she declares. The reality is that some of our patients cannot afford treatment, so students come to realize that caring for the community sometimes involves more than dentistry.” This day, Larissa turned to Nivia for help. She wanted to offer the patient her winter coat but couldn’t guarantee she wouldn’t become emotional offering it to him. On Larissa’s behalf, Nivia presented the coat to their patient and he gladly accepted the gift, leaving the clinic two times better than when he arrived. Larissa gained a new perspective thanks to her patient. She grew up in Laredo, Texas nearby the town her patient said he grew up, but on the other side of the U.S.-Mexico border. It moved her that living so close they could each have such different lives. “I believe the experiences the Salinas Clinic provided have humbled me and helped me become a more well-rounded dentist. They reminded me how important it is to care for a patient as a whole individual.” Larissa, Nivia, and their fellow classmate, Genesis Patino, campaigned for donations on the Class of 2021’s private social media page. Just before the 2020 holiday break, they were able to raise funds and collect clothing to donate new socks, gloves, blankets, and gently used sweaters to the children in the care of BCFS. The Ricardo Salinas Clinic is located on the west side of San Antonio providing access to dental care to a predominantly lower socioeconomic minority population. For more information on the clinic, visit the School of Dentistry rotations’ page.