Provider POV: Dr. Alice Hoang of Brooklyn Mint Dental

THE INTERVIEW

What does your current practice look like? Where and how do you work?

Brooklyn Mint Dental is an independent scratch startup right by Barclays Center in downtown Brooklyn. We're fully digital and focused on providing whole health perspectives—I don't treat just the mouth, I treat all different aspects. We collaborate with people in medicine, try to identify underlying systemic issues, and connect patients with the right people.

Inclusive and affirming care is a major focus. We do a lot of community outreach because I didn't just want to be a dentist—I wanted to do more for the community. We partner with nonprofits every month, donating to organizations whose values resonate with mine. During Pride, we donated to the Trevor Project. In May, we donated to a bailout fund that allows incarcerated mothers to see their kids. We also partner with local small businesses to help them get more visibility.

Coming from Callen-Lorde, where I worked for about a decade straight out of residency, I still stay in touch with people there. I see some of my old Callen-Lorde patients for services they don't offer, and we give discounts to my former patients and other Callen-Lorde patients. That experience totally changed my worldview—I wouldn't be who I am today without it, and I certainly wouldn't be practicing from the same perspectives.

What drew you to this work, and how did you come to focus on LGBTQ+ communities?

As is stereotypical of Asian kids from immigrant parents, I had the choice between piano and violin for my instruments, and the choice between doctor or lawyer for my career. My dad's a doctor, so that answered that one.

I went to Emory University thinking I was going to be a physician or surgeon, but when I took my pre-med courses, I realized medicine wasn't what I thought it would be. It wasn't my dad's career—it's changed quite a bit. I wanted a lot more connection. One of my favorite things as a person is to build relationships. My dad would do surgeries, we'd get the special basket of fruit or Omaha steaks, and then we'd never see the patient again. I wanted to follow the journey of people.

That wasn't available in medicine, but it was available in dentistry. I really love art and working with my hands, so that meld between art and science was really interesting to me. When I shadowed at a hospital in Atlanta, I realized there was also a public health aspect. Nonprofits and philanthropy have been part of my life thanks to my mom—we were doing soup kitchens since I was seven.

I came out in dental school. When you're single and coming out, you go to New York or Atlanta or San Francisco—great places to come out. I ended up in New York for my residency, and that's where I discovered Callen-Lorde. Every day is Pride there. I was catching up for all these years in many ways, but also being able to find that freedom of expression, feeling more part of the community, connecting with everyone, being part of people's journeys, and also navigating this on myself—there was some poignancy there.

Working at Callen-Lorde made me realize how stigma prevents patients from seeking care, and how a lack of affirming care will also prevent people from seeking care. Hearing the stories when we saw them in our dental clinic made me realize there's really a space for that. It existed in the public health space with Callen-Lorde, but there didn't seem to be a home for that with that much intention in private practice in New York—at least not that I'm aware of.

Yes, I absolutely went into founding my practice hoping to do outreach to the LGBTQ+ community. It's always been a major intention of mine.

What does "affirming care" mean to you? How do you define or embody affirming care in your day-to-day work?

I view it as validating how someone identifies. I support a patient's identity and how they might express that. It's meeting people where they are—allowing them to come as they are and helping them get where they want to go.

For me, it's creating an inclusive space. I believe one of the most important aspects of someone's care is to find a provider they trust and feel safe with. Part of that is accepting the person as they come and affirming who they are, validating how they chose to express themselves.

That's a major focus of ours because if you don't feel comfortable, you should probably find another provider. It doesn't matter who you're with—if you don't trust your provider, there's a disconnect there. If you don't feel safe in that spot, that's also an issue.

Are there particular personal or professional values, or therapeutic frameworks that guide how you work with LGBTQ+ communities?

Beyond affirming care, there's the aspect of social conscience and community consciousness—it's in our mission statement. Really being able to invest back into the community and support all the people in the hyper-local community that support us.

To do that, you have to create a welcoming space. I also want to like the place that I work at. So it's creating as many green flags as we can. This affirming care isn't just for LGBTQ individuals. We work with a ton of neurodiverse patients and anxious patients. The same experience they should have and deserve is a place that understands where they're coming from and wants to help them go to where they want to be.

I also always wanted to be the neighborhood dentist. Part of that is, again, investing and engaging with the community.

What are some common barriers or challenges your clients face in accessing safe and supportive care?

Insurance, unfortunately. I could talk forever about how I don't think employers should be responsible for these golden handcuffs that keep people in jobs they may or may not like, and how I believe we should have universal healthcare. Insurance gaps are a big one.

A lack of trained providers—even the well-intentioned ones—is a big one. We still have some outdated systems. Even for our practice management system, I had to call and make my way all the way up to the CEO to be like, "Why is there only male and female on here?" They changed it, and now there's a number of different options. I literally gave them Callen-Lorde's intake and was like, "This is better. We can do better, we should do better." Unfortunately, I see that all the time on intakes at other places.

And stigma. Especially if we talk about the days of Stonewall—that's why Callen-Lorde was founded, right? For the community, by the community, because there was so much stigma being part of the LGBTQ community. Those microaggressions over time build up. Having people understand that from a more holistic standpoint and having that level of empathy and compassion—that's important.

How do you build trust and safety with clients who may have previously had negative experiences in health or wellness settings?

It's hard, right? You haven't even met these people, and you're trying to figure out who they are and assess who they are, but also stay on schedule.

One thing we do: before we even meet the patients, we have intake forms, and I've created something called an optional "Handle Me With Care" questionnaire. It contains questions like: Have you had a negative experience before? What are your main goals? What do you value most in dental care—cosmetics, function, or comfort? What's an objection or obstacle that you've had to visiting a dental office? How do you like your appointments—all at once or smaller visits?

Some of these are more treatment-oriented, but it's to create a number of questions that help us tailor care to our patients. There's also a section asking if any of these issues apply: "I feel out of control in the dental chair," "I have a problem laying down," various anxiety triggers.

If I notice someone had a previously bad experience or has a large fear of the dentist, when I introduce myself—because it's really far up on our intake—one of the first questions I'm going to ask is: "Can you tell me a little bit more about what happened? Can you tell me a little bit more about how we can support you, and if there's any other triggers we should be aware of so we can make sure to avoid them and you have the best experience possible here?"

Between these questions and figuring out why they want to be at the dentist, where their reservations are, if there's any fear—it really creates a nice little platform to have these conversations. By just asking it ahead of time, it opens a door should they want to walk through it.

Not everyone takes us up on it, but when they do, it's incredibly valuable. It lets us push through the bullshit. I already know what they need, so I don't have to guess. How I present treatment plans gets informed by whether they're a proactive or reactive person. We'll present all the options no matter what, but I understand what they value now, so I know not to focus on certain things or to mention other things. If a person's not interested in cosmetics, I'm not going to bring up straightening their teeth—they'll bring it up to me if they want to do that. It's an "I only care if you care" kind of situation, and I think that's helpful for patients.

From your perspective, what are the biggest gaps or needs in care for LGBTQ+ people right now?

In general healthcare as a whole, having more access to care—that's why these community health centers were formed, to create access where there wasn't any. Having gender-affirming coverage is a huge one. Being able to have consistent mental health resources, which is another aspect of our overall wellbeing. This really does affect our community and trickles down in how we see treatment.

For dentists specifically—hashtag not all dentists—but it's known for being an incredibly conservative bloc of people that go into dentistry. That's been a challenge, trying to explain how affirming care matters to the LGBTQ community. I've gotten pushback from some providers who just don't understand or want to understand. They're like, "What's the difference between gay teeth and straight teeth, ha ha ha."

For me, I'm treating a person. This mouth is connected to a human being. If we really want to connect with our patients and create a space in which they feel empowered to advocate for their care, we also have to advocate for them, and that means being able to see them as a whole person.

There are also just a lot of colleagues who aren't trained and didn't even realize that was an option—these little nuances. I'm happy to say, well, I'm also in New York, but I have a lot of very well-intentioned, interested colleagues who just didn't get this level of training. I'm thankful for Callen-Lorde again because we had that semi-annually—plenty of training and updates in how to best engage our patients.

I do think there is an interest there. It's just creating those opportunities for providers to know that they exist, but then also creating the opportunities for patients to even see us.

NEED TO KNOW

What do you wish more providers understood about working with LGBTQ+ communities?

Just knowing what inclusive care and affirming care is—the concept of that. I think that's a gateway. It doesn't stop there. It's a whole philosophy, a different lens to view the world.

A lot of people haven't really thought of that, even though they may incidentally have that intention and want to do that. There's power in a name. Being able to name something, you can embody it. Being able to embody—"I want to offer affirming care, I want to be an inclusive place"—there's more intention there than just "I want everyone to be welcome."

It's really changing your perspective and your philosophy of care. That changes everything.

Have you faced any pushback (from colleagues, systems, family)? If so, how have you navigated that?

I'm an abundance model of success kind of person. For the most part, I assume that everyone has good intentions and wants the best for all people. By giving more of yourself, you hopefully create more opportunities for others to give back.

For the most part, any kind of pushback—I deal with it by collaborating with them, being available if they have any questions, or if they want to navigate some tricky situations. I get a lot of colleagues who come to me and they just misgendered someone, and they're like, "What do I do?" And it's—you know, we're human. It's okay. Just apologize and move forward.

I also think patients are open to that because they realize that we are doctors, but we are also human. So just having some grace for others who genuinely do care.

It's really about educating, collaborating, and showing them what an inclusive practice might look like if they wanted to engage more and get more inclusivity. It takes a village to create a village that LGBTQ people want to live in.

What advice would you offer to someone wanting to start offering more affirming care? Are there policies, resources, or trainings that helped you?

I can't think of anything offhand because usually they just ask me. Not that I'm an authority by any means, but I'm just a quick text or phone call, and then they're just a couple Google searches away from larger answers.

Honestly, just doing unto others. People are pretty good about being vocal about how they want to be treated—at least in my experience. Maybe I just have really outgoing, vocal patients, but even just body language, you can usually tell these things.

I do know there are people who can come in and help train others. I know Callen-Lorde has consulted with NYU and other institutions to help them create a more inclusive environment. There are a number of nonprofits that would be willing to reach out and collaborate with people should they want to.

I’d love to know, what keeps you grounded or hopeful in your work?

This is hokey, but I do gratitude morning exercises—the thing where you come up with three things you're grateful for.

I'm lucky to have my daughter, who reminds me of the things I'm grateful for and why I'm doing all of this. I want her to grow up in a better world than this dumpster fire we're living in right now. I want to be a part of the good fight, and she helps remind me.

Being able to build those relationships and follow patients and see the success stories and how we've impacted others—that gives me so much hope.

And just in a very "my ADHD brain" kind of way, I really like what I do because of the blend of art and science. I love that they're very discrete one-, maybe two-hour tasks, and then I have to do something completely different. Finding—building a practice that works with the way my brain works and gives me opportunities to continue learning—we spend more time at work than we do with our family, so creating an environment that I actually like going to has been really great for me as far as keeping me sane.

Is there anything I didn’t ask that you’d like to share?

As much as I engage, I'm still learning. I'm still trying to figure out how to engage and reach more of our community—not necessarily in the name of my practice, but just in the sense of scope of care, and how things change, and how I can best meet people where they are.

I do believe in Kaizen—continuous improvement. I think with that comes continuous education. That's an important aspect that definitely feeds back into the ethos of our practice.