Student Spotlight: Two GSDM Student Submissions Win National Oral Health Literacy Video Contest
GSDM students won both second and third place in the 2025 American Dental Association and the National Advisory Committee Oral Health Literacy in Dentistry Video Contest.
The team of June Woo Lim DMD 28 and Rina Lam DMD 28 won second place for their video, “Bridging the Gap – Advancing Health Literacy with Misinformed Patients.” Progga Hassan DMD 28, Kaye Andaya DMD 28, and Xin Xiong DMD 28 teamed up to win third place for their video, “Fluoride is a Natural Mineral.”
In this year’s contest, students were asked to submit videos that used plain language based on science to address a topic on which patients are commonly misinformed. We spoke to the five winning students about their video experiences. Here’s what they had to say.
Second Place: June Woo Lim DMD 28 and Rina Lam DMD 28
X-rays are a common procedure in dental practice, but some patients are concerned that radiation exposure is harmful. Lim and Lam decided to make an educational training video that highlights multiple patient communication strategies on how to explain X-ray safety in simple, approachable language.
The duo was hopeful that their efforts to increase the production value of the video—including stitching together multiple voiceovers and copious recordings—would result in a victory.
“I actually had a dream a week before the announcement was made that we won second place, so getting the news was an interesting experience,” Lim said.
Lim said that making the video highlighted how important it is for dental professionals to explain procedures in ways that bridge the gap between their expertise and patients’ understanding.
“It’s crucial that we understand that all of us are terrible at understanding fields that are not our own, so we have to have a lot of patience and empathy for our patients,” Lim said.
Lam said that it can be especially difficult to convince a patient that their beliefs are not fully correct. An educational video can help combat misinformation in an engaging way.
“Verbal skills, especially when applying them on tricky topics such as patient misinformation, are just as important [as hand skills] for patients to decide to continue seeing you for their future dental care,” Lam said.
Third Place: Progga Hassan DMD 28, Kaye Andaya DMD 28, and Xin Xiong DMD 28
Fluoride usage been the focus of much recent debate—with significant misinformation circulating on social media—making it an easy topic choice for the trio.
In the team’s video, Hassan and Andaya play a mother and daughter respectively. The daughter tells her mother that she doesn’t want to use fluoride, because she saw on social media that it’s bad for her. The mother goes to a dentist, played by Xiong, who breaks into a catchy rap explaining how fluoride is good for dental health.
The trio’s wanted to create fast-paced video packed with easy-to-digest information, mirroring videos seen on social media channels. The team’s goal was to explain what fluoride is and how it is helpful for dental health.
“We wanted to address that fluoride is not bad for your health,” Xiong said. “First, fluoride is a natural mineral. Second, yes, we have fluoridated water, but it’s controlled in a very low amount that makes sure that it’s beneficial for your health, not harming.”
Andaya said she completed an externship in Florida, where community water fluoridation was banned as of July 1, 2025. She could envision the real-life impact this video could have on social media by sharing accurate information about the benefits of fluoride.
“As someone who is on social media a lot, it’s so easy for content creators to spread misinformation regarding fluoride because if you’re already a person who’s skeptical about its use, all that someone has to do is pop on some professional looking clothing and make a claim stating ‘Fluoride isn’t really that great for you, but here’s a great alternative instead,’” Andaya said. “And you buy into it really easily if you’re the kind of person who already doesn’t like fluoride use.”
While the video had a fun premise, Hassan said fluoride misinformation can dramatically affect dental public health. The team hopes their video can make a small difference in changing the ways people perceive fluoride usage.
“Advocacy is very important. What we tried to do at the end of the day is advocate for better health and better public health,” Hassan said. “The video was just a fun way of saying something very serious because it keeps happening all over the country, and there’s more states that are taking fluoride right away from their water, and that’s going to create more decay in teeth all over.”