Meet Dr. Hsu

After 21 years of combined active-duty service in the U.S. Navy and U.S. Army Dental Corps, Dr. Christensen Sicat Hsu brings the precision, discipline, and steady hand of military medicine to the patients of San Diego Smile Center.

Dr. Hsu is a North San Diego County native who grew up here and graduated from El Camino High School in Oceanside. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology from the University of California, Los Angeles, and her Doctorate of Dental Surgery from the New York University College of Dentistry. She went on to complete a one-year Advanced Education in General Dentistry program at Naval Dental Center San Diego, followed by the four-year Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Residency Program at Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii.

Her military career took her from the operating room to the highest levels of military healthcare leadership. She served as Commander of an Army Dental Company at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, and was selected as a resident student at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania — a distinction reserved for a small group of senior officers — where she earned a Master's in Strategic Studies. She also led teams of healthcare professionals through more than 250 global health exchanges and humanitarian missions throughout the South Pacific and Asia, delivering surgical care to communities with little access to it.

Her final assignment was as Senior Dental Officer for the Defense Health Agency — the home of military medicine — where she wrote policy governing dental care across the armed forces and its 350 military dental clinics. That work included the 35-page Sedation Policy that sets the standard of safe sedation practice for every dental provider in the U.S. military. She retired from active duty in June 2021 at the rank of Colonel and came home to North San Diego County.

Policy was important work, but Dr. Hsu's heart has always been with patients — which is why she returned to practicing oral and maxillofacial surgery full-time. She continues to invest in the next generation of clinicians as a mentor for the AEGD Program, NYU Langone Health, at the APLA Health Downtown Dental Clinic in Los Angeles, and she remains a life-long learner committed to offering her patients the most current treatment options available.

For our veterans, active-duty service members, and military families here in San Diego, Dr. Hsu offers something that goes beyond her credentials: she has spent her entire career caring for people in uniform and understands what that life asks of a family. Every patient who sits in her chair is a unique individual who has placed a great deal of trust in her — and she treats that trust as the responsibility it is.

“Compassionate care is our commitment to you.”

San Diego Smile Center is dedicated to making a positive impact in our community. Through our outreach partnerships, we offer support and services that benefit both our patients and the wider community, reinforcing our commitment to healthcare access for all.