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Gracie Arsenault and Taylor Coleman. (Danny Abriel photos)

A career in dentistry was not on the map for either Gracie Arsenault (DDS’25) or Taylor Coleman (DDS’25) when they were growing up in Cape Breton. But the intervention of friends and teachers along the way helped to put them on the right road and give them a vital boost when they most needed it. Now they are both returning to Cape Breton to serve their communities and to work at same dental group.
 
Gracie Arsenault grew up in New Waterford, Cape Breton. She loved soccer and drawing and assumed she would be a teacher. Neither of her parents went to university, but Arsenault says they gave her a lot of freedom and were "super supportive" of whatever she decided to do. In high school, she enjoyed science and was also interested in film and animation, but she admits she didn’t take school very seriously.
 
Taylor Coleman grew up nearby in Sydney. She played sports, did drama and step dancing, and took piano lessons for 10 years. Science and English were her two favourite subjects and early on she decided that she would study science at university, with the goal of becoming a veterinarian. In what now seems like foreshadowing, as a child she told her mother that she liked going to the dentist better than getting her hair cut. 
 
For Coleman, it was the example of a close family friend, Dr. Mitch Hanna (DDS’19), that helped her explore dentistry as a career. "It definitely had an influence on me, just watching him go through the process of dental school," Coleman says of Hanna. He helped her choose her courses at CBU to set her up to apply to dental school after third year, just as he had done.
 

A tale of two hallways
Like Coleman, Arsenault studied science at CBU, initially chemistry but then switching to biology, despite her aversion to blood. She describes having two "pivotal moments" that steered her into dentistry. 
 
One was the influence of a science teacher, Mr. Jason Merlin, who, when she was signing up for classes "marched me down the hall" to the teachers who taught advanced subjects and told them they needed to put her in their classes. "He believed in me before I even knew what I was doing and that changed my entire path," says Arsenault.
 
The other took place in a CBU hallway, where she ran into a family member she hadn’t seen in a while who works at the university. Hearing that Arsenault was curious about dentistry, her aunt put her in touch with a friend, a dentist at Mayflower Dental, to ask about shadowing. 
 
"As soon as I went to the practice – like that day – I knew that this was what I wanted to do," says Arsenault of the experience. Shadowing turned into a summer job at the practice’s reception desk that continued throughout her time at dental school.
 

A gamble that worked
Coleman also majored in biology, although she left CBU after third year to begin the dentistry program. She spent her summers doing research for her professors and, with the help of an NSERC grant, was part of a team that researched the potential for crab waste to be turned into an energy source called biochar.  
 
Even though she was pretty "set on dentistry" while she was at CBU, Arsenault kept her options open by getting involved in marine biology research, particularly oysters. "I wanted to try research to see how I felt about that, which could also play into teaching."
 
But in the end, both Arsenault and Coleman put their eggs in one basket and applied to Dal for dentistry because it was close to home and they had friends in Halifax. It was a gamble that worked for them both and the dentistry community they discovered at Dal made them feel they had made the right choice.
 
"I found I had a whole new family here," says Arsenault. "At CBU I had classes with lots of different people, but in dentistry we all had the same schedule and were going through the same hurdles together at the same time. Orientation Week threw us all together right at the start."
 
It was a similar experience for Coleman. "You have a bond with your fellow students in dental school that is different from any other program," she says, "I’ll also miss the faculty members and instructors. They all know you and you can email them to ask questions."
 
A happy return to Cape Breton
Now, after four years of dental school, they are both returning home to Cape Breton to practise, where there is a need for dentists. As chance would have it, they will both be working for the same dental group, Mayflower Dental: Gracie will be at Bayside Dental in Glace Bay, where she spent her summers on the reception desk, and Taylor will be at Riverside Dental in Sydney, where her friend and mentor Mitch Hanna works.
 
Both Arsenault and Coleman want to work as general dentists initially, begin to build a patient base, and hone their skills. Coleman says she likes the idea of having variety in her day and wants to be able to do "a little bit of everything". Arsenault adds that she wants "to give back to my community that’s given so much to me through life".
 
Even though they will be working at different Mayflower Dental offices, they say they could end up working together if there is a need to fill in at another practice in the group. Both Arsenault and Coleman are looking forward to the opportunity to develop new skills and more specialized knowledge. 
 
Arsenault says she has an interest in oral surgery and paediatric dentistry, whereas Coleman is looking forward to observing and learning tips and tricks from her new colleagues in the different practices. She has seen Mitch Hanna develop his skills in oral surgery over the years and is confident that she will have the ability to learn more about orthodontics or endodontics, if her interest in those areas develops further.
 
Right now, however, both Arsenault and Coleman are looking forward to being home in Cape Breton, and, as Arsenault says, to "just get out there and start working".