If you have ever sat in a medical office nodding along to something you only half followed, you already know why this matters.
Orthodontics is not a one-visit transaction. It is eighteen months to three years of decisions — which appliance, what it costs, what happens if something breaks, how long to wear a retainer afterwards. Those conversations are exactly where a language gap does real damage, because the consequences arrive months later.
Our office is on 58th Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues in Sunset Park. We work in English, Mandarin and Cantonese.
Where it actually matters
Not the small talk. Four specific places:
Understanding the plan before you agree to it. You should be able to ask why this treatment and not the other one, and follow the answer. Consent that is not understood is not really consent.
The money. Insurance benefit, what is included, what a payment plan means over two years. Nobody should be signing up to a multi-year commitment they had to guess at. Our financial information page covers it in English; in the office we will go through it in whichever language you prefer.
Instructions you take home. Which foods break brackets. How many hours a day an aligner has to be in. What to do at 9pm when a wire is poking. Instructions half-understood are instructions half-followed, and treatment slows down.
Telling us something is wrong. This is the one people underestimate. A patient who cannot easily describe discomfort often waits — and a small problem becomes a longer appointment.
For families who have been translating
A lot of families here manage this by bringing a bilingual teenager to interpret. It works, and we are always happy to see it.
But it puts a child in the position of relaying clinical information about their own treatment, and of being the one who has to explain cost to a parent. If you would rather speak to the doctor directly, you can here — and the person explaining will be the same person doing the treatment.
A small practice, not a chain
Worth saying because it compounds with the language point. This is deliberately a small, low-volume practice. Dr. Shauna Fung founded it and has practised since 2007; Dr. Grace Chung works alongside her. Both are board-certified orthodontists.
Dr. Fung is the Mandarin- and Cantonese-speaking doctor here, so if language is the reason you are reading this, she is who you want. Ask for her when you call.
Practical details
- Address: 738 58th Street, #1 FL, Brooklyn, NY 11220 — between Seventh and Eighth Avenues
- Phone: (212) 966-9628
- Languages: English, Mandarin, Cantonese
- Hours: seven days a week — see our office for times
We also have a 中文 page covering the practice, and our new patient form is in English and Chinese. Beyond Sunset Park, our patients come from across Brooklyn and from the Lower East Side, Chinatown, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island.
What to expect the first time
An initial consultation: we review your history, examine your teeth with X-rays, work out whether treatment is needed at all, and explain the options and the cost. Nothing is decided that day, and there is no pressure to book anything. If the answer is that nothing needs doing yet — which it often is for younger children — we will tell you that.