Elective Promotes Wellness for Dental Students

This quarter during a Tuesday lunchtime elective course dental students are taking a break from learning to care for patients to focus on caring for themselves! Funded by a grant from Student Health and Counseling Services and University of California a student led course is promoting wellness in dental students.

Third year dental students Mia Arreola and Jean Calvo, with the support of Drs. Linda Centore and James Lyda, designed the course. The course promotes wellness by offering a variety of guest presentations on health topics pertinent to graduate students. Some topics to be covered this quarter are stress relief techniques, sleep hygiene, mental health stigma relief, mindfulness and nutrition.

Lily Dashiell, dental student (pictured), recently led a session on yoga for stress relief. Students were invited to participate in a brief beginner yoga practice in Med Sci. The goal of the session was to engage students in active stress reduction and breathing techniques. “We learn so much about how to care about patients, it’s great to be taking a little bit of time to care for ourselves,” says Mia Arreola, one of the founders of the course. Currently the course is being offered as a pilot in the school of dentistry, with future hopes to open the course to all professional students at UCSF.