Here and now
U of T Dentistry trains dentists and fosters a vibrant community with many facets. To understand where the Faculty is at right now, we share the stories of four inspiring representatives: a student, a researcher, an alumnus and a patient. They’re special people who exemplify our ongoing commitment to excellence, care, innovation and social good.
By Diane Peters
THE STUDENT: Emma Wilson
Newly trained dentist Emma Wilson 2T5 first wanted to be a vet. But around the same time she switched from animal biology to biomedical science at the University of Guelph, her boyfriend — he’s her fiancé now — had double jaw surgery to correct a severe underbite.
“I didn’t know dentistry could do that. I thought it was just checking teeth, filling a cavity or two. I saw how big an impact it can have on someone’s life,” she says, and began pondering dentistry as a career for herself.
“Seeing the surgery he went through, that was really intense, I thought, I don’t think that’s for me. I want to be a general dentist,” says Wilson. She had fond memories of her own experiences at the dentist, and liked the idea of treating entire families. She applied to U of T — no other schools.
During her DDS, once she got over the learning curve of developing hand skills and slogging through tough courses such as histology, she marveled further at the importance of oral health care.
Service rotations at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and Yonge Street Mission made a significant difference to patients. “You can make so much of an impact on them. They come in with a huge cavity and we fix it, and they’re so grateful.”
Wilson found herself part of an instant community at U of T Dentistry, which inspired her to volunteer. “During orientation week, I just loved my class. Everyone I met was so nice, and it got me excited to get involved.”
She served as class president for the first three years, and then president of the Dental Study Society in fourth, positions that gave her industry insights and a close view of faculty and staff. “The dedication of the people around us is very heartening,” says Wilson, who knows clinical instructors often get up in the early hours to commute in and be ready well before an 8 a.m. clinic.
Wilson hopes to move north to become an associate at a small-town practice after she wraps up her classes and exams this spring. She plans to stay in touch with her U of T Dentistry classmates and instructors.
“I’ve made my best friends here. I’m going to be sad to leave,” she says. “Here, they make you feel like you can always come back for support. I’m so thankful. It’s been four years of learning and growth.”
THE RESEARCHER: Herenia Lawrence
People often say, ‘Are you Indigenous?’ No, I’m not. I’m clearly an outsider. But I see myself as an ally and an advocate,” says dental public health researcher and associate professor Herenia Lawrence.
She comes from Brazil, where she did her DDS. She completed her graduate training in the U.K. and did a postdoc in the U.S. before coming to U of T Dentistry in 1998. At that time, she was researching topics such as water fluoridation’s impact and the oral health status of children.
Two years later, what she calls a “serendipitous call” from a hygienist in Sioux Lookout got her involved in her first research project on Indigenous health.
“I’m a very vocal advocate. That’s how the Brazilian aspect of me comes into play. I’m an advocate for increased access to dental care, for oral health care, for First Nations populations.”
She now serves as the director of the Indigenous Oral Health Research Group at the Faculty, frequently travels to remote com-munities and has been involved in projects related to cannabis use and oral health, fluoridation and minimally invasive interventions for caries.
Lawrence often uses the Indigenous learning circle model, which sees community members contributing equally with researchers and other stakeholders. Increasingly, her grants now fund capacity-building in communities. “We are hiring and training Indigenous researchers. We are fostering their capacity- building for research. This is the future. I will eventually stop doing the research, and the research for these communities will be done by Indigenous scholars.”
This ally and advocate is now turning her attention to dental academia and its power imbalances. She’s working with others to get funding to create a consensus statement for Canadian dental schools that incorporates indigenization and reconciliation along with equity, diversity and inclusion.
Lawrence, with her international pedigree and former globe-trotting ways, knows there are many parts of the world where her expertise in understanding marginalized populations could have a meaningful impact.
But she’s devoted to U of T Dentistry, where she finds she keeps learning from her fellow faculty, who are always willing to talk and share. “We educate each other. It’s another opportunity for building relationships. It’s so important to work collaboratively with communities, but also with colleagues.”
And she’s deeply embedded in her research community, and starting to see positive change. “I feel like I make a difference here.”
THE ALUMNUS: Kevin Roach
Graduating from the Faculty in the early 1970s is very, very different than graduating today, and Kevin Roach 7T3 knows it.
“Just about everyone in the class who wanted to go into general practice just picked a location and set up. Dental companies lined up to take you out for lunch and dinner,” he recalls.
Student loans were $600, the rest was a grant. Pay from easy-to-get summer jobs was often enough to cover expenses — fourth year was tough financially, he admits, but nothing like what students cope with now.
Roach knows that being among the first baby boomer cohorts afforded him and his classmates benefits that cannot be duplicated today. Giving back and volunteering is how he shows his gratitude.
The close-knit class of 1973 always organizes get-togethers for their honoured-year reunions. At year 35, Roach recalls, he said, “It’s time we started giving back.”
Roach and a group of loyal classmates began with collecting funds for an undergraduate scholarship, and added two more over the years. For their 50th, the class aimed to raise $50,000 to name an operatory in the soon-to-be renovated Clinic 2.
“It’s not a hard sell,” admits Roach who, like many of his classmates, also gives individually. Many grads from 7T3 are now retired and donate in their local communities. They can easily connect their success to their degree, which was taught in the 1970s by what Roach calls a “dream team” of professors.
He says he “stands on the shoulders” of his mentors and his alumni friends.
At school, Roach served as class president, student governor for the Ontario Dental Association (ODA) and the Canadian Dental Association (CDA), and the student representative for the Canadian Dental Services Plan Inc. He helped create an insurance program for new grads through that organization. “It was a hobby for me,” says Roach.
Once in practice in his hometown of Pembroke, he volunteered with the ODA and CDA, serving as presidents for both, and was the youngest ever in these roles at the time. The Faculty gave Roach an Award of Distinction in 1992 for his service to the school and organized dentistry.
Roach says his extended family helped him and his wife, Anne, with their young family when he was putting in those volunteer hours. It made for a busy but enriching time, and cemented his appreciation for the profession then, and now, too.
“We were very fortunate. Because of what dentistry provided for me and my family and the opportunities in life, it’s just incumbent upon me to give back. There’s just no question.”
THE PATIENT: Janet MacKenzie-Cohen
In 1986, while going through a mental health crisis, Janet MacKenzie-Cohen experienced what can only be described as a freak accident while hospitalized. During a nurse-led yoga class, a table leaning against a wall in the activity room fell on her, knocking out all of her top front teeth.
“I didn’t realize until it happened how much having no teeth is a symbol for something. It’s huge. You get treated differently,” she says. Her mother was particularly upset, as the family had invested in braces for her when she was a child. “She felt that my career was wrecked, my life was wrecked.”
MacKenzie-Cohen says she herself stayed calm as she embarked on getting a settlement from the hospital, which proved onerous, but was eventually successful. Meanwhile, her short-term disability from her government job as an auditor was running out (she went back to work a few months later).
“My dentist warned me that a lot of my other teeth were in shock and may well depart,” she says, and recommended she seek care at the Faculty.
With a treatment plan that would likely costs thousands of dollars and the money not yet available to her, she did. Over the following several months, she had her top front teeth restored and received treatments that targeted many of her other teeth, such as root canals, as they had also been impacted by the trauma.
Over the years, she’s come in for extractions, bridges, dentures and crowns. “It’s a continual mess,” she says bluntly of her dental care. “I have the kind of saliva that doesn’t attack sugar very effectively, and I also have very weak enamel.”
MacKenzie-Cohen, who’s now retired, keeps booking in at the Faculty because she often needs treatments. But also because every decision about her care is done with her consent, and after thoughtful debate between students and instructors, and often after consulting with her medical care team as well. No one seems rushed, and everyone seems concerned with offering the best approach, no matter how long it takes. Her student dentists will take the time to explain treatments to her and even play calming music when she asks.
As she manages her health on a pension, the reduced cost is nice. But it’s not the only reason she keeps coming back.
“I would pay millions to have the quality of care that I get at the Faculty.”
Top photo: Emma Wilson, Herenia Lawrence, Kevin Roach, and Janet MacKenzie-Cohen (Jeff Comber)
Interested in more stories? Read the PDF edition of the U of T Dentistry Magazine Winter/Spring 2025 Issue