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Pediatric Dental Resident
Rutgers School of Dental Medicine, Newark, NJ
Rutgers School of Dental Medicine
Dr. Viveka Patel, DMD is a second-year pediatric dental resident at Rutgers School of Dental Medicine. She is originally from a suburb of Chicago, Bloomindale, IL. She completed her B.S. in Neuroscience and D.M.D. degree at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2016 and 2020, respectively. During dental school, Dr. Patel became the leader of a student-run dental clinic for homeless individuals in Chicago, renewing smiles and masticatory function free-of-charge. She was also chosen for the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship in her junior year of dental school to design and implement a year-long (200 hour), weekly, life-skills and wellness workshop for homeless youth, addressing topics such as stress and anger management, oral hygiene, tobacco cessation, budgeting, and conflict resolution. Furthermore, in her senior year of dental school, she was selected as an Interprofessional Approaches to Health Disparities (IAHD) scholar, through which she worked with other health professions students to design and execute an educational drug-abuse program for youth at Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center in Chicago. Currently, Dr. Patel serves on the Rutgers Global Health Institute Council and volunteers as a pediatric COVID-19 vaccinator for Montgomery Township, an area with provider shortages. She will soon complete her Master's in Public Health, concentrating in Health Systems and Policy, with a certificate in Global Public Health at Rutgers University. Her mission is to provide dental care and promote oral health education in underserved communities. By combining her public health and oral health expertise, she aims to advance children’s oral health via public health research, policy development, and legislative action targeting barriers to care. In August, Dr. Patel will begin practicing as a pediatric dentist in New Jersey. Besides dentistry, she enjoys travelling, reading, and dancing. She just returned from a trip to Mexico!