UCLA Dentistry ’s Philip Trask finds wealth in giving back

Philip Trask has been a butcher ’s apprentice, an artilleryman, a telephone lineman and, at one point, a juvenile gang member. But it’s as an instructor and mentor at the UCLA School of Dentistry that the longtime pediatric dentist found a true calling, one that has complemented his years of service to the wider Los Angeles co mmunity.“UCLA is my happy place,” says Trask, 79, who this year celebrates a full half-century of preparing the university’s budding dentists for the profession. “The essence of pediatric dentistry is to teach. Giving the gift of knowledge is one of the only gifts you can give that doesn’t diminis h what you have.”One would be hard-pressed to find a dentistry student or resident who hasn ’t benefited from the gift of Trask’s expertise and wisdom over the past 50 years, and his influence as a private practitioner, an advocate for children’s oral health and a volunteer dentist for schools, nursing homes and countless other organizations has been felt and recognized across the re gion.“I’m just lucky to have the opportunity to continue giving and receiving from the dentistry field, which has given me so much purpose,” Trask says.It wasn ’t an easy journey to find that purpose. Born in Los Angeles, Trask spent much of his adolescence in an orphanage, and by the time he was in high school, he was working in a butcher’s shop to support himself. With no real sense of community, he found the camaraderie he craved in a gang. One t...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news