Dentistry grads excited about future

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This article was published 02/06/2015 (4023 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If you ask Chelsea Woodmass about her dentistry school graduation last week, she will say that it has been a long time coming.

For the last four years, Woodmass and her 34 classmates have worked diligently to earn their degrees.

On May 28, the University of Manitoba welcomed 35 new dentists to practise in Canada during the school’s annual graduation ceremonies.

Woodmass, who is originally from Brandon, grew up wanting to be a dentist.

“I was always just interested in the medical field and I had a really awesome dentist growing up,” she said.

Dentistry school can be quite intensive and because of this, Woodmass said she and her classmates bonded considerably over the duration of their studies.

“Our class was awesome. I already miss them so much and it’s only been a couple of days,” she said. “We essentially spent every moment together for four years.”

Her classmate, Phillipp Unruh from Winkler, echoes the same sentiment, comparing how much time they spent together to being in grade school again.

The class was known for how close they were.

“It was a good group,” said Rodrigo Cunha, department head of restorative dentistry. “They were really bonded to each other — it was clear we could see that.”

In early March, Woodmass and Unruh wrote the dentistry licensing exam, receiving their results in April.

“(The licensing exam) was the real moment where I thought this is really happening,” Unruh said. “Grad and all that is a bit of a formality almost, but when I got those marks back that I passed, then you call your family. Everyone gets a little emotional.”

The studies for this year’s graduating class differed from previous years. Students in the last two years were able to work in a clinic setting within the university in what is called comprehensive treatment care.

“(Students) were treating patients as if they were clients in a private practice,” Cunha said.

Patients would be booked for appointments by an assistant. They would then come into the university for an appointment with a student, who would treat them as a regular patient dealing with whatever dental needs the patient had that day.

In years past, students would only perform certain procedures on certain days, no matter who the patient was. The new system gives students a better real world experience.

Both Woodmass and Unruh are returning to their hometowns to practise dentistry. Woodmass will be working at Chancellor Dental Group in Brandon and Unruh at the dental clinic in Winkler where he has been a client since he was a child.

» arobinson@brandonsun.com

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