People first

2024 DDS grads who lead with professionalism and compassion

By Diane Peters

During dental school, Hajir Hamza built friendships with classmates by talking about her former life in Sudan, and learning about their backgrounds, too. To further connections, she started baking cookies for Eid al-Fitr and gifting them to patients, students, faculty and staff.

“There’s not a lot that everyone knows about my culture, so I thought this would be a way to share it,” she says of the decorated sugar cookies she gave out during the celebration that marks the end of Ramadan.

For Eid in spring 2023, she went all out by both baking and buying cookies, aiming for an ambitious 400 in total — just so everyone could enjoy an array of flavours and decorations.

Hamza is just one spring 2024 DDS grad who just “gets” the interpersonal side of dentistry.

“She really cares about her patients and her work,” says Joel Rosenbloom, director of student life and assistant professor, teaching stream, of Hamza.

She trained as a dentist and worked for a few years before coming to Canada in 2017, joining the Faculty’s International Dentist Advanced Placement Program (IDAPP) in 2022. In Sudan, healthcare professionals are considered community leaders. “If you have a problem in life, you talk to your physician or dentist,” says Hamza.

That influences her approach to care, as does her personal experience of feeling unsure as a patient in a dental chair. “You really need trust.”

She focused on building trust with her Faculty clinic patients by talking to them about their lives and then carefully outlining her treatment plan — making clear it was her opinion, but an informed one — before they offered consent or not. “I did a lot of talking,” she says.

Hamza wants to take this approach in private practice, which means not every associate position feels right. “I want to know my patients before we go ahead and do any treatments,” she says.

New grad Mohit Bhasin also caught the attention of his clinical instructors for his compassionate approach.

When his patients were worried about needles, he would take them through something of a guided meditation that had them picturing a picnic at the beach. “It helps them feel like they’re in a safe place,” he says. His patients were surprised to feel almost no pain, they were so calm and distracted.

Bhasin hails from India, moving to Canada in 2017, taking work as a dental assistant and entering the IDAPP program in 2022. “I used to talk to patients when no one else was in the room,” he says of his dental assistant job. “That’s when they’d often open up the most. They’d talk about their vacation plans but then they’d tighten up when the dentist walked in.”

His theory: if he could get that kind of rapport as a dentist, he’d have highly successful treatments. “It’d be a game changer,” he reasoned. “We need to connect with patients as humans.”

Doing rotations at CAMH and with the non-profit Filling the Gap Dental Outreach, meanwhile, exposed Bhasin to patients with complex needs. “It was very humbling. I could make a tangible difference to peoples’ lives and their smiles.”

Rosenbloom noticed Bhasin’s work ethic and professionalism in clinic, plus how kind he was to his third-year mentee.

Bhasin says he learned just as much from his mentee as she did from him, and he suggested she look at patient holistically and dental school as a path to the profession. “I tried to convey the idea of not just being in school, but that you’re training to be a dentist.”

Now, Bhasin is off to treat patients in Gander, Nlfd., while his fiancé, a dental management consultant, will be working as the manager of the same clinic. “I’ve heard a lot of great things about how friendly people are. It’s a great way to start as a clinician, working in a province where people really need access to care.”

Alexia Fernandes knows how to deal with tough situations and stay positive. Her dad was diagnosed with cancer and passed away while she was doing her BSc at McMaster University. “It just changed my outlook on life. I really look at each person and know that they have so many stories.”

It also firmed up her commitment to pursuing a career in health care. While she pondered neurology or oncology, as her father died of brain cancer, dentistry seemed a good fit, with its creative component and negotiable hours. “I knew I’d take the time to get to know my patients and be compassionate. It would never be about me just getting my credits,” she says of doing her DDS.

Her calm, positive and empathetic outlook, however, was put to the test in clinic.

She had a patient doing a full-mouth restoration, relying on government benefits to help pay for the treatment. Fernandes found herself filling out considerable paperwork to support this patient, but every step required lengthy approvals that came in slowly.

The patient came for an emergency visit, in pain, but benefits were not yet approved. “She really let me have it,” admits Fernandes, who found the experience very stressful, and tried her best to explain that she was doing her best — but the patient was convinced Fernandes was not prioritizing her care.

Rosenbloom helped calm the patient down, and Fernandes observed his ability to both listen and explain, and deescalate the situation. “That was a very insightful moment for me about how to deal with patients and not taking it too much to heart.”

Rosenbloom felt Fernandes stayed remarkably professional and calm through the challenge, plus he was impressed with how well she mentored her third-year student. Fernandes considered her mentor-mentee relationship to be a partnership, and she focused on helping the DDS3 she was matched with understand paperwork and stay calm when faced with new experiences.

Now, she’s about to leave for Arizona and an advanced education in general dentistry residency, at a facility with many Indigenous patients.

It’s an ideal opportunity for Fernandes, who is eager to test her interpersonal and technical skills in dentistry. “It’s a great opportunity to do complex procedure, and to travel.”

Check out the Convocation photo gallery

Top photo: Alexia Fernandes, Mohit Bhasin and Hajir Hamza (Jeff Comber)