Accelerated Program for Foreign Dentists Also Launched
South Korea, home to world-class stars and companies such as BTS, SK Hynix, and soccer player Son Heung-min, has now become an advanced nation on the global stage, yet many countries still dream of the American Dream. The medical field is no exception. Some people immigrate at a young age and grow up in a new country, while others practice medicine in their home countries before immigrating, obtaining a new license, and starting a new chapter.
According to a recent report by Fort Worth INC, a business magazine based in Fort Worth, Texas, Dr. Justyna Laska (48), a dentist, is one such person. A native of Poland, she is an immigrant who came to the United States as a child with her parents. It is said that her parents’ winning the immigration visa lottery led them to this unfamiliar land—the United States.
It is said that as a child in Poland, a young girl named Laska frequently found herself visiting the dentist by chance, which sparked her dream of becoming a dentist. At the time, Laska had problems with her baby teeth and visited the dentist often; it was then that she reportedly wanted to make the time patients spent in the dental chair more pleasant and improve the outcomes of their treatments.
Of course, the path to becoming a dentist was long and arduous. Her parents had to earn a living doing menial jobs just to raise their child. According to media reports, although Laska’s parents held master’s degrees in agricultural and animal sciences and had worked in related fields in Poland, after moving to Michigan via New York, they worked 12 to 14 hours a day in a factory for minimum wage.
Laska’s life wasn’t easy either. In high school, unable to speak a word of English, he once shared his dream with a teacher during a career counseling session by showing him the word “dentist” he had looked up in a dictionary. But eventually, he grew up to become a dentist practicing in Fort Worth, a major city near Dallas.
In an interview with the media, he said, “I wanted to become a dentist to give patients a better life,” adding, “Since choosing this career path, I’ve transformed patients’ smiles and lives every day, and I’ve never considered any other path.” Although he never met him in person, his grandfather was also a dentist, and the sign from the dental clinic his grandfather ran is reportedly hanging in Lascas’s office today.
There are quite a few people who, after practicing as dentists in their home countries, re-enroll in U.S. dental schools to obtain a dental license. According to the blog of the University of Missouri School of Dentistry at Kansas City, the school admitted foreign dentists as transfer students in 2024. These students began their U.S. dental education in January 2025 and are scheduled to graduate in May 2027. Because they already hold a license, they are enrolled in a condensed two-and-a-half-year program. The first cohort, which began in January 2025, consisted of nine students, selected from a total of 380 applicants. After graduation, they are expected to help address the dental shortage in Missouri. With many rural areas, Missouri has a shortage of dentists in 111 counties; one county, with a population of 10,480, reportedly has only one dentist.
Dr. Kaushal Kapadia, originally from India, arrived in the United States in 2007. Although he held a dental license, he was unable to practice. After much effort, he was admitted to the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine, widely regarded as one of the premier dental schools on the East Coast. After participating in volunteer activities such as “Penn Smile,” which operates mobile dental clinics for children and underserved populations, she graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine and obtained her U.S. dental license. WITF News reported that she is currently practicing as a dentist in York, Pennsylvania.
A dentist practicing in Texas, in the southern United States, also spoke on July 4—the 250th anniversary of American Independence—about his journey over the past 20 years, from the time he first arrived in the U.S. to the realization of his dream of becoming a successful dentist. While expressing gratitude for being able to build a career, start a family, open his own dental practice, and serve the local community, he directed that gratitude toward each and every patient who placed their trust in him and sought his care. I believe that being able to practice dentistry anytime, anywhere, for the sake of patients’ smiles and happiness is the very essence of a dentist’s joy and privilege.
However, some point out that the American Dream is not so easy to achieve due to the soaring cost of tuition at U.S. universities compared to the past. In particular, tuition at dental schools—professional graduate schools for those seeking to become healthcare professionals—far exceeds several hundred million won per year. According to a 2023 blog post by Dr. Kerry Carney on the American Dental Association’s website, some dentists are paying as much as $4,000 a month to repay their student loans. They plan to repay student loans exceeding $250,000 over a 20-year period. Even if they start practicing at age 30, they won’t finish paying off the loans until they’re 50. Dr. Carney added that the enormous student debt influences where dental students choose to open their practices and what areas of specialization they pursue.
Citing statistics from the American Association of Dental Education, the blog pointed out that while 6,665 U.S. dental students graduated in 2021, only 17% of them had no student loan debt. It noted that the total amount of student loan debt among dental school graduates that year reached approximately $1.7 billion (about 2.28 trillion won). This averages out to $300,000 (about 400 million won) per person.
Writer. Lee Hyun-taek
<A former newspaper reporter who worked for 18 years at JoongAng Ilbo (>), <, and Chosun Ilbo (>). He is currently working as a freelance columnist and planning his second career. In addition to his work in journalism, he has experience working in the public relations and marketing team at JTBC and at Edelman Global Advisory in the United States.
