Pierre Fauchard

Pierre Fauchard was a prominent French physician and today we know him as the father of modern dentistry.

Fauchard was born into a modest home in Saint-Denis-de-Gastines. In 1693, at the age of 15, he entered the French Royal Navy, despite protests from his family, and contacted Alexander Poteleret, a high-ranking surgeon who had studied dental disease and mouth.

It was Poteleret himself who inspired and motivated Fauchard to take an interest in health and leave a legacy of the knowledge they acquired.

Fauchard is well-known thanks to his book "The Surgeon Dentist", here describes the anatomy and basic oral functions, signs, and symptoms of pathology, operating methods to extract and repair teeth, among other topics. His book is said to have been the first to deliver a complete scientific description of dentistry.

I like Fauchard's work because he was the first dental doctor to start treating decayed teeth instead of just extracting them. He was very skillful and ingenious in his work since he even adapted instruments from barbers and watchmakers to be able to use them as dental instruments. In addition, he not only dedicated himself to looking for methods to alleviate the complaints of his patients, but he also took care to write all the new knowledge he obtained, so that he could leave it as a legacy to the next professionals and grow this knowledge.

Why dentistry?

Since I was little, I wanted to study something related to health and be able to help people.
My tastes did not change as I grew up and today I am studying dentistry.
The first year was a challenging year, but it was a year where I fell in love with what I was studying because I realized all the good I could do.
Although I have all my desires ahead, I lack many things to learn, working with people is not easy, it implies a great responsibility, dedication, and vocation. Over the months, I have assumed the weight of what that means and I have realized all the personal work I have to do to be a good professional, a comprehensive professional.
I know there are still years of preparation, but I'm excited about the idea of ​​being able to help and make someone's smile prettier, or maybe work with children, or maybe with grandparents, I still don't know what I like more, but any of those paths will be full of enriching situations.
I decided to accept this challenge and I am very happy for what is to come.

Mother and daughter

In my family we have the habit of going on a trip regularly, we like to know new places and since I was little, we have made family trips at least once a year, this is how I have had the opportunity to get to know Chile from north to south, but this trip was different, it was the first trip that my mother and I made alone.
It was more or less around September last year, a period when my mood was not the best and that is why with my mother we decided to visit Viña del Mar for the first time.
So we bought the tickets and we left very early to take the bus that left at 7 in the morning.
Although it was a day adventure, it was very entertaining, as soon as we arrived we bought delicious things to eat in the city center, then we walked and got to know all the representative places of the city, we were well prepared not to miss.
In the afternoon we took the locomotion in the city and in no more than 10 minutes we had reached the beach of Reñaca, there we had lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon resting and enjoying a very sunny day. When it was already dawn, we returned to the city center again, had ice cream, and took the bus back to Santiago.
That day I realized that with my mother we are true friends and this was the first adventure of many more that we have in mind.

Why it is important to have healthy habits

Since we are children they teach us that we must eat healthily, exercise regularly and sleep at least 7 hours a day, but, why is it necessary to do all these things?
Our body works like a machine, where everything is strictly regulated and coordinated, and like any machine, it has basic requirements for its correct operation.
Through a diet rich in varied and healthy foods, where the base is cereals, nuts, fresh fruits, and vegetables, we are making sure to deliver to our system all the vitamins, minerals and energy that it needs to be able to carry out all our activities from day to day.
If we supplement a good diet with physical activity, our muscles will become stronger, our oxygenation will increase, our circulatory system will be activated and we will release hormones that will keep us happy and without stress.
Sleeping at least 7 hours a day is also very important because during sleep our bodies repair themselves by increasing the process of cell reproduction, our muscles rest and our brain stores all the information we learned that day.

Carrying good life habits is the best way to take care of our body and that it can accompany us for many years in good condition.

My phone

Nowadays technology has become something essential in our day to day and we don´t realize that we are very dependent on it.
My favorite electronic piece is my phone. I have my last phone since last year, but I started using the phone when I started going to high school and I needed to communicate with my parents.

I use my phone for many things, with it I can get up in the morning with the alarm, I can communicate with my family and friends (this has been very useful in this quarantine), I use it to take photos, listen to music, play when I'm bored, receive emails from the university and I can save many documents. That's why I use it every day.
I like it because it is very easy to use, practical and has many useful functions. So I think my life without my phone would definitely be a bit more complicated.

My career

When I was a child, I used to dream of helping people and I always found dentistry interesting.
In my secondary education, I liked math and chemistry and I thought to study something related to those subjects. Therefore, my possibilities were chemical engineering, biochemistry, dentistry, obstetrics, and medicine.
What made me decide in the end was to research the job field and the study plans of all careers.

Finally, I decided on dentistry and I think it is the best decision I could make.
My first year of career was a bit difficult because I didn't know how to organize myself at the beginning because it was a lot of material but I loved it.

When I graduated I would like to work for a time in public health, probably later I will do a specialization or a postgraduate degree, but I don't know yet.

My biography

My name is Belén Esmeralda Paredes Arancibia. I was born in Santiago, Chile on November 29th, 2000. I am the first daughter of three, my sisters are Andrea and Valeria, their ages are 13 and 15 years old respectively. And my parents are Marcela Arancibia and Miguel Paredes.

At elementary school, I studied at José Bernardo Suárez located in Macul. Later, I completed my high school studies at Liceo Carmela Carvajal de Prat located in Providencia.
Now I study dentistry at Universidad de Chile.

When I was little I liked to play sports, I practiced rhythmic gymnastics and table tennis at school with my friends. Now I practice Yoga and Pilates in my house because I don't have much time for studies.

I spend my free time reading books, I like all genres. Also, I like listening to music, spending time with my family, and painting.