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(Photos by Danny Abriel)

Patricia Ngantcha is no stranger to travelling and resettling in a new country. She was born and went to school in Cameroon, received regular dental treatment in Switzerland, and travelled to Houston, Texas, for her undergraduate degree before arriving at Dalhousie University to study dentistry in 2022. After graduation she will move to Calgary for a year before settling in Seattle.

From Cameroon
Ngantcha’s story begins in Cameroon, where access to dental care is limited. There is a shortage of dentists, particularly outside the main cities, and dental insurance coverage is limited. Because her father worked in Geneva, Switzerland, that was where Ngantcha and her four siblings went to receive dental care. "My interest in dentistry started there," she says.

To Texas
When her sister began a six-year dentistry program in Cameroon, Ngantcha "was able to learn more about what dentistry is," she says. And her interest grew. When her parents sent her to Houston, Texas, to study at Texas Southern University, Ngantcha pursued a degree in biology with a minor in chemistry as a first step toward her future studies in dentistry.

During her time in Houston, Ngantcha was able to have more frequent visits to the dentist and eventually had braces on her teeth. During the two years of her orthodontic treatment, Ngantcha’s dentist invited her to shadow her and work as an intern in the practice. Ngantcha also continued to read about the profession and learn more about dentistry. After graduating with her BSc, she took a job as a research assistant at the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas and she began to send out applications to universities in both the United States and Canada.

"I have family in both the US and Canada, so I wasn’t tied to a specific country and I was pretty open to go anywhere," she says.

To Halifax
When the email came from Dalhousie to invite her to an interview with Drs. Sachin Seth and Ferne Kraglund, Ngantcha says she was very nervous, but “I just knew I was going to do my best because I believed my interest in the profession would show through.” The interview went “so well” she says, and a letter of acceptance soon followed.

Even though one sister lives in Canada, Calgary is a long way from Halifax, and Ngantcha felt very alone when she first arrived here and struggled to find an apartment. But she says that finding friends among her classmates on the first day of orientation made all the difference. "They changed my whole perspective of life in Halifax," she says.

One source of support was her sister, who studied dentistry in Cameroon. While the theoretical foundations of their dental education were very similar, the advanced technology and digital systems used at Dalhousie differed from what her sister had experienced. "It was hard to bounce ideas off her because of the different systems of education," she says. "There were some experiences we couldn’t directly compare."

One aspect of the Dal dental school that Ngantcha particularly liked was the small class sizes. In the US, there would be over 90 students in a class, she says. Here you get to know your instructors and it’s a more relaxed learning environment, she says, particularly in small group practice where you’re working closely with both your classmates and instructors.

Ngantcha also enjoyed the hands-on nature of the program. "In first year there were dentistry-related activities in the lab and in second year we started to work on each other and then on one or two patients," she says. "I liked the gradual exposure to more and more complex cases. Working on each other created a comfortable environment and we learned from each other."

Rotating through some of the Faculty of Dentistry’s outreach clinics was also a key part of her clinical training. Ngantcha says she particularly enjoyed the North End Community Health Centre dental clinic and the Harbour View paediatric clinic, where she benefited from a patient base requiring more care and presenting more complex cases.

There were shortfalls in oral health education to address. "Sometimes I would explain to patients that they needed to brush and floss otherwise certain things can happen," she says. "It was also necessary to explain how to care for their children’s teeth."

To Calgary and beyond
As Ngantcha looks ahead to what comes next, she finds that she is still not tied to one country. She sat both the Canadian and US dental board exams to "keep both options open" and now plans to work in Calgary for up to a year to get first-hand experience in Canada and strengthen her hand skills and speed. The longer-term plan, however, is to move to Seattle where her fiancé is based. She also admits that she harbours a growing interest in prosthodontics, so a speciality – and more travels – could be part of her future.