Humans of UCSF: Anna Nonaka

“You’re supposed to start collecting teeth almost a year in advance, because it depends on how many offices you can go to and the types of offices they are - and they all give you different types of teeth. By the time school started, I was really proud of my jar of teeth - I went around scaring all my friends with it and creeping them out. What we use them for is practice preps - even though we have Typodont teeth, they’re not the same hardness and texture as a natural tooth so it’s a different experience drilling on them. We’re supposed to have all these teeth that we can pick from to do exercises. I’m exhausted, and there’s so much to do, but every day when I wake up I’m still excited.”

Anna Nonaka

1st Year UCSF School of Dentistry Student

Photographer: Hanna Starobinets