Almost 20 years of study: how a Ukrainian woman opened a dental center in the USA

Ukrainian Oksana Stoy has been working as a dentist for 15 years. Lives in Phoenix (Arizona), she began her career in her parents' house in Lviv. This is stated in the video "Voices of America".

“I am the third generation, both my grandfathers and grandmothers were dentists too. I remember how my grandfather still made impressions with plaster, I remember how he had a dental machine, like a bicycle wheel, yellow,” recalls Oksana.

In 1993, Oksana graduated from the Lviv Medical Institute with a degree in dentistry. I worked a year in Ukraine and came to the USA.

She was not taken to the position of a dentist with a Ukrainian diploma.

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“I worked as an assistant, Americans don’t trust our many procedures, they worry about their license,” says Oksana.

“It took me a long time to become a dentist in the US. Honestly, if I had known about this in advance, I would have thought better,” says Oksana.

After 6 years of such work, Oksana decided to enter the university again.

“In order to be a dentist in the USA, you cannot, like doctors, retake the qualification exam and work in your specialty. In dentistry, you need to go through at least 2 more years of dental school,” says Oksana. “It’s relatively easy to study because the education system in the United States was already computerized at that time and the exams are based on a test method.”

A year of study at the university cost $ 56, Oksana did not have that kind of money, I had to take a loan.

“When a student graduates from university, they have a loan of about $400. If they are an oral and maxillofacial surgeon, then they study for another 000 years, that is, they will graduate from university with a loan of about $6,” says Oksana.

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After graduating from university, Oksana worked in various dental offices. And only 8 years later she opened her own practice. She had to borrow money again, Oksana says that dentistry in the United States is becoming more and more like a business - renting a room costs thousands of dollars, plus the cost of equipment, personnel, medical records and insurance in case of a claim.

“This is what I always didn’t like about it, I believe that dentistry is healthcare, and, unfortunately, currently it is a business,” says Oksana.

Among the patients of Oksana, mostly immigrants from Poland.

“I am fluent in Polish, my husband is Polish, these patients are very happy to hear their native language, and they trust more in a dentist who can explain everything to them in detail and also in their language,” says Oksana.

Despite being busy at work, she also teaches at the university and is engaged in social work - she sends aid to Ukraine and provides free treatment to ATO military personnel who are brought for rehabilitation.

Oksana often travels to Ukraine and says she is glad to see the progress Ukraine has made in dentistry.

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“There are offices that are extremely well designed, such that you won’t find anything like them even in the USA,” says Oksana.

Oksana says that in Ukraine a dentist is more of a doctor, in the USA he is more of a businessman. But Oksana does not regret that she spent almost 20 years becoming a dentist in the USA; now she has a good salary, although she is still paying back the loan to pay for her studies.

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