Pamela Alston was raised in Emeryville along with her eight brothers and sisters. She noticed something particular about the place where she was growing up.
“In my neighborhood, it seems to me the most prevalent health problem was bad teeth. Missing teeth, rotten teeth. And I felt like if there was anything I could do help my community, it would be to treat their teeth,” Alston says.
So she went to dental school. Today, Dr. Alston is the dental director of the Eastmont Wellness Center in East Oakland.
She’s seen a lot of patients in the 30-plus years that she’s been a dentist. And once, she even saw one that reminded her a little bit of herself. She shared that story with our Hear Here community storytelling project at the Cesar Chavez branch library in Oakland.
Click the audio player above to listen to the complete story.
Hear Here is KALW’s local community storytelling project. We seek out the stories of people who live and work in San Francisco and Oakland neighborhoods – and share what we hear on air and online! To listen to more stories, click here.
