Academics:
Faculty, USC School of Dentistry
Graduate, USC School of Dentistry
Reviewer, Journal of Periodontology
Special Qualifications:
Master,
Academy of General Dentistry
Fellow, International College of
Cranio- Mandibular Orthopaedics
Fellow, International Academy of
Mini Dental Implants
Fellow, International Congress of
Oral Implantologists
Fellow, Institute for Advanced
Laser Dentistry
Permit, Conscious Sedation
Dental Board of California
Professional Associations:
Member, American Dental Association
Member, California Dental Association
Associate Member, American
Academy of Periodontology
Member, American Academy of
Dental Sleep Medicine
Member, American Academy of
Implant Dentistry
Member, American Dental Society
of Anesthesiology
Member, American Academy of
Pain Management
Member, American Academy of
Sleep Medicine
Member, Academy of Microscope
Enhanced Dentistry
Member, Special Care Dentistry
Association
Lectures & Presentations:
San Gabriel Valley Dental Society
San Gabriel Valley Dental
Assistants Society
San Fernando Valley Dental Society
Western Dental Society
Indian Dental Society
Chinese Dental Society
Punjabi Dental Society
Academy for Excellence in Dentistry
University of Texas -
Department of Periodontics
Academy of Laser Dentistry
Everest College
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SMILE TALK
Radio Talk Show Host
KFWB, 980 AM
KSPA, 1510 AM
KFSD, 1450 AM
Columnist, Around Alhambra
Columnist, Cascades
Senior Expo
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Honors & Recognition:
Doctor of Divinity, Chinese for
Christ Theological Seminary
Lifetime Achievement Award
American Dental Association
California Dental Association
USC Friends of Dentistry
Presidential Level
USC Associates
Recognition for Outstanding
Service, USC School of Dentistry
Radio Transcription
Ep 65: Part 3 of Dr. Chao's Interview with Dr. Charles Goodacre, Dean of the Loma Linda School of Dentistry on the history of the school, Mobile Clinics and Dr. Goodacre's own experiences with the dentist as a child.
Salvador Gaytan: It's time! SmileTalk is on the air, featuring the latest news and developments in dentistry, as well as other fascinating topics that make people smile. I'm Salvador Gaytan, and I'm here with?
Dr. John Chao: Dr. John Chao, hi everybody.
Salvador Gaytan: Yeah, Dr. John, and for anyone that wants to reach Dr. John, you can reach him at AlhambraDental.com or 626-308-9104, and that's Dr. John Chao, C-H-A-O.
And we're back for our third edition, our third show with Dr. Charles Goodacre, the dean of the Loma Linda School of Dentistry. I'm Salvador Gaytan, and of course here with Dr. John Chao. How are you doing, Dr. John?
Dr. John Chao: Great! Thank you Dr. Goodacre for coming back to our show again, we really enjoyed the last two and we thought we'd make it a third one. But thank you for coming on the show with us and talking to us.
Dr. Charles Goodacre: Very glad to do it. Thank you.
Salvador Gaytan: Now, Dr. Goodacre, we want to share with the audience, we're going to get to the history of the school, which is very fascinating, the Loma Linda School of Dentistry. Before we get to that though, I want to ask you -- we talked about your small town, Cape May, New Jersey, is that right?
Dr. Charles Goodacre: That's correct.
Salvador Gaytan: Okay, where you grew up, a very fascinating town, seashore town. But did you have -- you became a dentist. When you were growing up, what was your access to dentistry yourself as a kid?
Dr. Charles Goodacre: Well, my parents had very limited financial means, and my mother was originally from West Virginia, the hills of West Virginia, what today would be graciously called a hillbilly. And her father was the local blacksmith in a little town called Elizabeth, West Virginia.
And so we would visit there every year or two in the summer, and I then had -- that was my access to dental care, because it was affordable in that little remote area, the dental fees were less.
So, I would go to the local dentist there and get my dental care. And this individual was an exceptionally skillful practitioner. He put some silver fillings in my teeth and I still have a number of those today.
Dr. John Chao: Wow, this is how many years later, 30, 40 years later, huh?
Dr. Charles Goodacre: Yeah, too many years later, 50 years or more. Anyway, I hate to say that.
Dr. John Chao: Well, that's amazing. It's amazing when it's done well.
Salvador Gaytan: It's done well. Are you saying that you had cavities doctor?
Dr. Charles Goodacre: I sure did.
Salvador Gaytan: Alright, alright.
Dr. John Chao: But he was not a doctor at the time, Sal. You're just giving him a little lope here.
Salvador Gaytan: Well, I know, he was a kid, I know.
Dr. Charles Goodacre: We didn't know. Back in those times, we didn't know much about how to prevent things. I mean they just didn't. And in particularly my parents with limited resources, you just didn't have any access to information.
We didn't have the money to seek professional care. There were not all of the public programs that exist today, and the dental societies that make people aware of the need for good dental health.
Even TV today, you can hardly watch television without having some advertisement that does promote the benefits of taking care of your teeth. So, yeah, we had not the best diets, and the sugar things, and didn't take care of teeth, so I sure did.
Salvador Gaytan: Now, what about toothbrushes, did you have to…?
Dr. Charles Goodacre: Well, we all did tooth-brushing, but actually as a very young kid, we never had toothbrushes, it just wasn't on the capability. We're talking very limited resources in my family, and we used a washcloth with baking soda.
Salvador Gaytan: Wow.
Dr. Charles Goodacre: And you would wet that, wrap the washcloth around your finger, dip it into baking soda, and you brushed your teeth. So, obviously you didn't get very well in between your teeth, which is where I got my cavities. The front surfaces were clean as can be, front and back.
Dr. John Chao: Well, actually that's not a bad piece of advice to remember when you go camping and you forgot your toothbrush. Get a little cloth with a little baking soda and scrub your teeth anyway.
Salvador Gaytan: It's better than nothing. That's fascinating, because I'm sure people think that today, "Oh, dentistry and toothbrushes and good care, it's always been around," but it's really recent, isn't it?
Dr. Charles Goodacre: It is. The emphasis on the understanding has come a long, long way, not that there weren't toothbrushes back in those days. But I grew up in what would be today called an underserved family, and you just didn't have access to things like that.
Salvador Gaytan: Yeah. Now, did you say that you are part hillbilly?
Dr. Charles Goodacre: Well, I guess if you consider West Virginia, yes you bet! [Laughter]
Dr. John Chao: Now, when did this dentist, who did the amalgam for you -- I just want to make the point that good dentistry can be done without all this fancy machinery. At the time that you had your dentistry done, what was the equipment like?
Dr. Charles Goodacre: Well, they had belt driven hand pieces, they ran off of an electric motor, and there was a big string, like a big belt that went around and turned, these things were slow. So, we didn't have the high speed instruments, and all the fancy things, but these people were masterful technicians at what they did.
And this fellow, who was a graduate from the University of Louisville, and he just did a great job of meticulously handling the materials that were available to him, and doing a great job.
Dr. John Chao: And that's the kind of skill that Loma Linda University would want to impart to your graduates, isn't it, the skill, the pride in workmanship.
Dr. Charles Goodacre: Absolutely. That's one of the hallmarks of dentistry. You want somebody that's going to skillfully do it, because we're making miniatures of everything, and the meticulous attention to detail is so critical to the longevity and quality of care.
Dr. John Chao: Yeah, regardless of the equipment, I remember when I first started dental school, and I'm about your age, maybe a little bit older even, and when I was at USC, and I remember the belt driven engine, I wanted to ask you about that, because it always {seared} in my memory about the belt driven engine, but especially about the belt that was rolling on these pulleys.
At the time, it was fashionable to have long hair that goes over your ear and flops everywhere. So, I was concentrating on my work. The belt actually caught my hair.
[Laughter]
So, I remember my hair being jerked up by the pulley, and I was away from my patient, and all of a sudden I was practically standing up from the shearing pain from my scalp, and I always remember the belt driven engine.
Now, before I graduated, of course, then they switched to the high speed, the so called Quiet-Air, which was actually deafening. The Quiet-Air drill was actually the noisiest thing around. I think I lost some of my hearing sometimes, so I say I'm hard at hearing because of the drill.
Salvador Gaytan: Now, Dr. John, is that why your hair on one side is a little more curly?
Dr. John Chao: Yeah, it's never been the same since.
Salvador Gaytan: Never been the same, alright, alright.
Dr. John Chao: So, I'm recalling some of the stuff. When you're talking about your memories, some of mine are coming back too.
Dr. Charles Goodacre: Yeah, we haven't [indiscernible].
Salvador Gaytan: Now, Dr. Goodacre, you mentioned something about you -- this gentlemen that was your first dentist, that he was practicing long into his elder years, wasn't he?
Dr. Charles Goodacre: Yeah, I went back one time when he was still in his late 70s, still practicing in his little office there in the town, and I had a great visit with him. We got a nice picture, two of us standing outside of his office.
Salvador Gaytan: Well, that's fantastic.
Dr. John Chao: Yeah, his example will give you and I hope, wouldn't it?
Dr. Charles Goodacre: Absolutely, can be practicing still a lot longer, and be good at it.
Dr. John Chao: Yeah, as long as we can keep up our health and we'll always have the interest.
Dr. Charles Goodacre: Yes.
Salvador Gaytan: Now, the interesting thing, Dr. Goodacre, on this program we've talked a lot about a lot of topics, but we've talked about people who have had bad experiences with the dentist as children, then they don't come back for years. Your experience as a child, even in a small office I take it, was actually good.
Dr. Charles Goodacre: It was a very positive experience. And even though they didn't have all the techniques and things that we have today, they were people that cared. And this particular individual was a very caring person, and that affects you.
Salvador Gaytan: Excellent, excellent.
Dr. John Chao: Yeah, isn't that the public conception of the dentist? I remember there were some Gallup Polls that surveyed people's attitude towards dentists, and it seemed like dentists always rate pretty high up as far as profession, in terms of trust and respectability.
Dr. Charles Goodacre: That's correct, yes.
Salvador Gaytan: That is right. And for anyone just tuning in, you're listening to SmileTalk. I'm Salvador Gaytan, here with Dr. John Chao of Alhambra Dental. You can reach Dr. John at AlhambraDental.com or 626-308-9104. We're engaged in a fascinating interview with Dr. Charles Goodacre, the dean of the Loma Linda School of dentistry.
Dr. John Chao: And our co-host is Sal Gaytan.
Salvador Gaytan: That is correct. I did mention that, I just did.
Dr. John Chao: Did you mention that? And then also, the audience should know that if you have questions -- now, this is a public service program. We have no commercials, we are not advertising any product or services, but we do want and enjoy the continuous stream of feedback from our audiences.
And by the way, our audience extends from San Diego to Santa Barbara. We have a syndication of four radio stations, and in your area actually it's KSPA 1510. So, Dr. Goodacre, you can let your people know, your friends and relatives know that you will be on KSPA.
Salvador Gaytan: You're going to be a radio talk-show personality, Dr. Goodacre. Are you ready for the fame?
[Laughter]
Dr. John Chao: Now, we do go from -- we go through all of Southern California.
Salvador Gaytan: That's true, that's true.
Dr. John Chao: So, we have a vast audience, and I'm told that we're one of the highly ranked programs for at least KRLA. I haven't heard from the other stations, KRLA is the big one. And we're very, very highly ranked among their programs.
Salvador Gaytan: Now, Dr. Goodacre, I know you and Dr. John wanted to get into the history of the Loma Linda School of Dentistry, isn't that right, Dr. John?
Dr. John Chao: Yeah. I think it'd be a great idea to talk about how Loma Linda was founded and why is it there, and what it does, maybe we'll talk a little bit about the Loma Linda diet again.
Salvador Gaytan: Absolutely. So, Dr. Goodacre, what is the history of how the Loma Linda School of Dentistry was established?
Dr. Charles Goodacre: Well, the School of Dentistry was established by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church in the 1950s. The reason for that was because Seventh-Day Adventists choose Saturday as their day of worship, and therefore there are things that they choose not to do.
And students didn't want to be put in a position where their classes and examinations and things like that were on their day of worship. And at that period in history, there were a very small number of dental schools that organized special programs that would allow a person, an orthodox Jewish individual, a Seventh-Day Adventist, anyone else who wanted a different religious preference, to accommodate them in their education.
So, that need spawned the development of this dental school. And the interesting story, the church looked around who would be a good individual to lead this effort. And there was a Dr. Webster Prince, who had been president of the Michigan Dental Association. He was a very successful practitioner in Detroit.
So, they convinced him to sell his very successful practice, and come out and be the dean of a school that didn't exist. And they didn't have plans for the building or anything at that point in time. It was a vision.
So, he decided what he thought was important to developing a dental school. And he felt like he wanted to have successful dental practitioners as the first faculty, who had a history of being involved in their communities, and helping their communities, helping their churches, and just basically being respected individuals who were very skillful in their communities.
So, he set out traveling around the country to meet different practitioners. And he must have been a very charismatic individual, because somehow he convinced 13 dentists around the country to sell their practices, and then be sent off to different universities where there was some special expertise to do advanced education programs.
Now, this was the early 1950s where dental specialties weren't even as widely recognized as they are today. But through his political activity in the Michigan Dental Association, and also through the American Dental Association, he learned the importance of where dental specialties were going to be heading.
So, he got these people enrolled in these different programs, and the school and the church actually supported their education. And then those 13 individuals came back here and established the school of dentistry.
So obviously, because they were successful, very busy practitioners, they felt there was a great need for students to have extensive clinical experience while they were in school.
And since these individuals were also very active in their local communities and their dental societies and such, he felt that the students here should have some experiences that took them outside of the school of dentistry.
And many of these practitioners had been providing free care for individuals in their community when they could, through their dental societies, and many dental societies have programs that help individuals, that don't have access to care. So, they had been involved.
Dr. John Chao: Yeah.
Dr. Charles Goodacre: That was really what spawned the service learning program that the school of dentistry now operates, that is quite extensive.
Dr. John Chao: Yeah, that's great. We'll get into that. Now, what I'm getting is this is fascinating. These dentists who were practicing in their own communities, having their own private practices, were recruited out of their practices, not to into the school immediately to teach, but actually were convinced to drop their private practice and go into different universities to learn a specialty each.
And then after learning the specialties, then they came to Loma Linda to form the faculty that would then teach the students based on their experience and their training as specialists. Is that correct?
Dr. Charles Goodacre: That's correct.
Dr. John Chao: From private practice they were recruited to go to school, study specialties and then come to Loma Linda to teach.
Dr. Charles Goodacre: That's correct.
Dr. John Chao: That's an amazing story, that he was able to do that. And of course then because of the dedication towards community service and towards private practice, this tradition was then carried on from the start of the school of dentistry at Loma Linda University.
Salvador Gaytan: That's right. Now, Dr. Goodacre, what year was the Loma Linda School of Dentistry founded?
Dr. Charles Goodacre: It was opened in 1953.
Salvador Gaytan: 1953, so it's been around quite a while.
Dr. John Chao: So, before it was founded then, all these potential faculty members were recruited and undergoing training at the time this was getting started?
Dr. Charles Goodacre: That's correct.
Dr. John Chao: Wow, that' an interesting story.
Dr. Charles Goodacre: So, they assembled a group of those individuals in 1953, who had already completed their training program.
Dr. John Chao: So, this is kind of a number of years in coming together.
Dr. Charles Goodacre: Yeah, they actually started -- the interest in developing a school happened in 1943, but with the Second World War, of course, everybody's plans were put on hold. And so then after the war was over and everything was stabilized, then the interest re-emerged and then they started the planning and sent people off and then reassembled everybody in '53.
Dr. John Chao: This is a vision coming true actually from a visionary who was willing to put in the work and believe in his dream.
Salvador Gaytan: It's a lot of dedication to get that ball -- I don't think that would be able to be accomplished today.
Dr. Charles Goodacre: It'd be very, very difficult.
Salvador Gaytan: Yeah, that's quite a -- now doctor, so you wanted to also touch on the details of your service learning activities.
Dr. John Chao: Yeah, which ties into the history of Loma Linda actually, isn't that right Dr. Goodacre?
Dr. Charles Goodacre: Yes. The interest in that from these early faculty members spawned some very early efforts. So, I think it was 1955, yeah, it was '55, two years after the school opened that the students went out on their first service learning trip.
That was a faculty member who took four students to Monument Valley, the four corners area of the U.S., where at that time there were no dental services available for the Navajo Indians. And then simultaneously with that, they started going out to some local areas like here.
As you travel from Loma Linda towards Palm Springs, you pass the Morongo Indian Reservation. And so they were providing dental care for different Indian tribes in the area.
And then of course, in the local community that was started back then, and we'd go over into San Bernardino and surrounding towns and provide dental care.
Dr. John Chao: Yeah, with the Morongo casino and everything, with all that money going in, are they still in need of dentistry as they were in years passed?
Dr. Charles Goodacre: No, they're actually on the reservation now, of course have a federally funded healthcare facility. And of course, truth of the matter, they could probably build their own dental school today.
Dr. John Chao: Quite a turnaround, isn't it?
Dr. Charles Goodacre: Yes it is.
Salvador Gaytan: Now doctor, what is the profile of your student applicants that you look at and accept at Loma Linda?
Dr. Charles Goodacre: Well, every school has some academic criteria that are based upon grades, and there is a dental admissions test that's administered nationally that all dental students -- that all the schools have to pass or take the exam.
And then each school sets their criteria for that, and that includes an academic component, and also a perceptual ability manual skills test. So, we have criteria for all of that. And then we're also interested in students that have a commitment to service.
We want students who have a sustained record of being involved and doing good things in their community before they come here, because they're going to be -- part of their education here is going to be go out into communities and provide service.
Right now, we have a large service learning program, and we provide care for a large number of individuals. We treat about 5000 individuals outside of the school of dentistry that receive free care at a wide variety of locations.
Dr. John Chao: Is this with the salvaged locations or is this with the mobile clinic, I think?
Dr. Charles Goodacre: Yes. We do two elementary schools with our mobile clinic. There's one here in San Bernardino, and one here in Northern Redlands, where they have student bodies of about 800 to a 1000 students. And the only dental care, that these children receive are through the mobile clinic that we go to.
And so, we have -- on every week, the students go out to those two elementary schools and provide dental care. It's part of their rotation, their educational experience.
Dr. John Chao: For people in that area, not just the school itself.
Dr. Charles Goodacre: No, that's right, for people in the community. And then there's a third elementary school that we've been going to since the 1950s, and that's in the little town of Mecca in the Coachella Valley, out past Indio.
Then we go out there, and there's actually a fixed facility that they have established out there, and we put the equipment in and then we provide care out there. In the city of Redlands, there's the Redlands Assistance League that has a dental clinic.
They set that up and they equipped it and everything, and then we put students in there. So, there's about 10 or 12 locations throughout Southern California that the students go to on a regular basis to provide care.
And of course a lot of places do a great job of that too. I mean both UCLA and USC have been involved. USC, I think, had the first mobile clinic. Certainly, they preceded Loma Linda in putting a mobile clinic together and going out into the community.
But probably the unique thing besides all of the treatment that we provide locally, then we have international service learning program, which is a great enriching cultural experience for the students.
Dr. John Chao: What foreign countries do they go to?
Dr. Charles Goodacre: Well, it's really all over the world. Wherever there is a need, and we have a system worked out where the students can go to. So, there are about 20 countries each year that the students will go to. And they volunteer for this. They give up their quarter break times, and they go out as groups to different areas.
Dr. John Chao: Do you have places like Hawaii…
Dr. Charles Goodacre: Yeah, we wish.
Dr. John Chao: And Bahamas and Fiji, Alaska?
Dr. Charles Goodacre: No, this would be some very, very remote areas typically. I'll give you a few examples. Do we have time to…?
Salvador Gaytan: Yeah, we have a few minutes left, yeah, go ahead.
Dr. Charles Goodacre: Students have been going to Nicaragua for a number of years out in the remote areas, and they actually over the years, then have established a relationship with the a dental school in Nicaragua, and so they link up with the students from a dental school in Managua, and they all go off into the remote areas and provide dental care.
There are a number of places they go to in Africa. I can think of a -- because I've traveled to Armenia, and there's an orphanage in Armenia, where the students will go to and -- you name it, many different areas of Asia.
And a lot of it has to do with the student body, because today there's so much diversity, great diversity in the student body. Students come in from all different areas of the world, and many of them want to go back and give something back to their country.
So, there will be a trip organized, as long as it's a safe area to travel and we have some type of a local arrangement, then we go out. And last time I checked, I think there were 7000 or 8000 patients that were treated in the combined locations.
And what we're trying to do is have a sustained program where we go back to the same area on a regular basis, so that you make not just a one time splash, but you can sustain some level of healthcare for the individuals that otherwise wouldn't have care.
Salvador Gaytan: Now, Dr. Goodacre, we're coming to the last minute of our show, but I can't let this slip by. You are -- just a personal tidbit, you are married, you've been married for quite a while, haven't you?
Dr. Charles Goodacre: Yes, since 1968, so I guess that's going on 40+ years. My math isn't as perfect as it should be.
Salvador Gaytan: You are a trooper and you have some children, correct?
Dr. Charles Goodacre: Yes, I have. Our only children are twins, and they are 23 years old.
Dr. John Chao: Do they look alike?
Dr. Charles Goodacre: It's a boy and a girl, so there's quite a difference.
Dr. John Chao: A little bit different.
Salvador Gaytan: And they are -- tell the audience what they're doing right now.
Dr. Charles Goodacre: Well, our son Bryan, I never said a word to him, but he's chosen to be a dentist, and so he's actually enrolled here at Loma Linda as a first year dental student. And of course, when he decided to do it, I said, "Now, do you realize what it might be like being the son of the dean in the dental school?"
Dr. John Chao: Is that good or bad?
Dr. Charles Goodacre: Well, he's handled it very well. It's turned out great. He's doing fine and he handles it the right way, so…
Salvador Gaytan: So, you haven't had to put him in time out.
Dr. Charles Goodacre: No, I haven't had to do that. I haven't had to counsel him in my office yet.
Salvador Gaytan: And your daughter?
Dr. John Chao: Well, you can always do it at home, right?
Dr. Charles Goodacre: My daughter is going to start a physician's assistant program here at Loma Linda this fall, and she's also getting married on Labor Day.
Salvador Gaytan: You have a full schedule going on over there.
Dr. Charles Goodacre: Yes, busy time.
Dr. John Chao: Grandchildren pretty soon, and…
Salvador Gaytan: Well, don't get too ahead. Let him enjoy the wedding first, right doctor?
Dr. Charles Goodacre: Yeah.
Salvador Gaytan: Well, we're coming to the last few seconds of our show Dr. Goodacre. I'm Salvador Gaytan, here with Dr. John Chao.
Dr. John Chao: Thank you very much, Dr. Goodacre, for coming on our show three times. We enjoyed all of it.
Dr. Charles Goodacre: My pleasure. I enjoyed visiting with you.
Dr. John Chao: It's been a great honor and privilege.
Salvador Gaytan: We had a great interview with Dr. Charles Goodacre, the dean of the Loma Linda School of Dentistry, and that's a wrap. Thanks doctor.
Dr. Charles Goodacre: You're very welcome. Thank you.
Dr. John Chao: Okay, goodbye everybody. Thank you again, Dr. Goodacre.
Salvador Gaytan: Next week.
[END OF AUDIO]
Transcribed and proofread by:
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