News

Over 100 part-time instructors work in the Faculty of Dentistry during the academic year. They can be found delivering lectures, supervising labs, circulating through clinics, and assessing competencies. Without question, the Faculty of Dentistry depends heavily on them and their dedication.

It has always been so. Since the founding of the Maritime Dental College in 1908, says Oskar Sykora in his history of the dental school, there was never more than one full-time faculty member until 1953. The rest were dedicated practising dentists who taught part-time. Now, many of the full-time faculty members have master’s degrees in education and devote one day a week to private practice, while most of the part-timers come in for one day a week to teach a course section or supervise labs.

There are benefits for everyone involved, says Dr. Ben Davis, dean of the Faculty of Dentistry. Students learn new techniques and benefit from mentorship, while the instructors feel connected with the Faculty, are in regular contact with specialists, and enjoy the fulfillment that comes from teaching.

With the help of part-timers, full-time faculty members have more time for their administration duties, including developing course content, research, and their own professional development.

"Part-timers help to strengthen our clinics and our Faculty," says Davis. "Their value goes far beyond the remuneration they receive, and I hope they feel our gratitude."

Dr. Tom Boran

Those who stay

Drs. Blaine Cleghorn and Tom Boran are two part-timers who attempted retirement but found that it just didn’t stick.

"About three days into my retirement, I realized I would miss teaching," says Cleghorn, a former clinic director and associate dean of clinics affairs. He offered to help the new faculty member who had taken over his occlusion course. Then, when the faculty member left Dalhousie, Cleghorn assumed full responsibility for the course and has continued to teach it ever since. He now also assists Dr. Haya Zora with a prosthetics course.

Cleghorn is about to lose his part-timer status, however. Earlier this year, the dean asked him if he would consider leading the Bridging Program, a pilot program to help internationally trained dentists become qualified to practise in Canada more quickly than through a three-year qualifying program.

Boran is in a similar position. After he retired as dean in 2017, he returned to teach halftime. But when he left the Faculty on a Wednesday afternoon, he found he "couldn’t wait to get back on Monday morning". He now has a full-time portfolio teaching prosthodontics and public health, is a small group practice leader, and works at the North End Community Health Centre and the public health clinic.

Former assistant dean of academic affairs Dr. Ron Bannerman (DDS’74) was happily retired when a chance encounter with Dr. Cynthia Andrews (DDS’92), another faculty member, at the IKEA in Dartmouth tugged him back into the Dentistry Building.

He now works a day a week helping Dr. Sara Hunter with her restorative course, attending the morning’s lecture and then supervising the students in the lab afterwards. Another half day a week is devoted to fixed prosthodontics. "It’s a wonderful environment and it keeps me young," says Bannerman.

Bruce Friis, the recently retired dental lab team lead, also returns to the Faculty one day a week during term time. He teaches students the technical skills needed to provide the lab with good impressions and models.

Friis takes great pleasure in working with the students to "get them past rough points they’ve been struggling with". When the students voted him instructor of the year some years ago "it made me realize that the effort I was putting in was actually making an impact," he says.

And those who return
It is perhaps not surprising that teaching staff who have spent many years in the Dentistry Building are happy to offer their knowledge and skills after retirement, but why do so many young alumni find their way back?

Many students know they want to return to teach even before they have graduated. For those who do a GPR at Dal, supervising other students is part of their program. Drs. Jasmeen Kaur (DDS’19, GPR’20) and Ian MacIntyre (DDS’13, GPR’14) caught the teaching bug this way.

MacIntyre has taught comprehensive care, prosthodontics, and spent time in both the pre-clinical labs and the clinic.  “It’s rewarding to instruct somebody and see them get it,” he says. “I find teaching makes me dive into the deeper, darker corners of knowledge so that I’m more prepared for the students. It also helps me with my own practice.”

Kaur teaches removable prosthodontics each Monday. "Dr. [Tanya] Cook assembles all the part-time instructors in the morning to go through what needs to be covered: the lecture, sim lab exercises, videos," she says.  She feels "well equipped" when she walks into class.

Kaur says she "learns immensely" from working with faculty members and can discuss clinical cases with them. She also says her private practice patients have added respect for her because she teaches in the Faculty of Dentistry. "They feel I know the latest things," she says.

Drs. Jakob Nickerson (DDS’19) and Paige Conrad (DDS’21) both completed GPR programs at the University of Toronto and teach on their free days. Like Dr. Ron Bannerman, Nickerson was approached in IKEA by a faculty member—in his case, Dr. Ferne Kraglund.

He teaches removable prosthodontics on Mondays, which includes attending a lecture, teaching a seminar, and marking assignments and assessments. He also supports the Government Assisted Populations (GAP) Clinic in the evening. Even though Nickerson did a lot of chemistry tutoring as an Acadia undergrad, he finds it ironic to be teaching some of the students he knew at dental school.

Conrad also returned to the Dentistry Building as soon as she returned from Toronto. She teaches part of Dr. Sara Hunter’s second-year restorative dentistry course. She thinks it helps that she was recently a dental student herself. "I like to explain things in a way that I would want them explained to me," she says.

She is also learning from the lectures she attends on her teaching days, and she finds other instructors generous with their knowledge. "There’s a community aspect to teaching, for sure," she says.

Rachael Dvorski

Dental hygiene alumni Rachael Dvorski (BDH’21) and Gabriel Ogando (DDH’21) also found their way back to the Faculty.

Dvorski says that she struggled as a left-handed student while studying dental hygiene at Georgian College.  "The dental industry is designed for those who are right-handed," she says. "I remember thinking that I would like to teach one day and strive to meet my students’ individual needs."

Teaching was part of the BDH program and Dvorski discovered she enjoyed it, so returned in 2022 to work in the clinic. She also worked as a small group practice lead, which she loved. But she worked hard reviewing material extensively before each clinic. "I wanted to be sure I was teaching the students right and not habits that I may have picked up."

Ogando trained as a dentist and has a master’s in periodontics from the Dominican Republic, where he also taught. When he was asked if he would teach first and second-year dentistry students part-time in the clinic, it was an easy 'yes'. This summer he is also involved in the periodontics module of the Bridging Program with Dr. Cynthia Andrews.

Coming from a different country, Ogando says that it took a while for him to feel confident teaching, but he says the dental hygiene faculty members he had provided good role models."“They created a supportive and respectful learning environment, and they communicated clearly," he says. "I try to follow their example."

Dr. Leigha Rock, director of the School of Dental Hygiene, believes in the value part-time instructors bring to the Faculty. "What I find most inspiring about them is their shared commitment to the profession and to mentorship," she says. "They embody a 'pay it forward' spirit—giving back their own experiences to the next generation of learners with remarkable dedication and generosity. Their continued presence helps maintain a sense of community in our programs."

Gabriel Ogando