Durham College’s (DC) dental clinic is providing dental hygiene students with hands-on training while offering low-cost care to the residents of Durham Region.
The clinic is open three days a week to students, faculty and the public.
It offers teeth cleaning and X-rays, with a flat fee of $40 for adults. Even if someone requires three appointments for one service, the fee remains the same.
Third-year Dental Hygiene student Nour Salem said the clinic has helped her develop the necessary skills for her career.
“The most impact the clinic had on my education and on me personally was promoting more of the skills I want to build for my future career,” she said.
Gillian Dunn, the associate dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, said hands-on training is essential.
“The experiential learning and real-life experience that it provides to our students all throughout their program is such a key part of training them to graduate,” she said.
Salem said in-class learning isn’t enough; the clinic is needed.
“When it comes to dental hygiene, there’s no way you can fully grasp the information without getting hands-on experience and interacting with people and different cases,” she said.
According to The Dental Team, a dental office in the GTA, teeth cleaning cost up to $250, with added services costing more. This makes the DC’s dental clinic an affordable option for people without insurance.
Affordability is “a wonderful benefit to our community,” Dunn said, adding clients on a fixed income or those who don’t have benefits can get the services they need while also supporting student learning.
Salem said the clinic also exposes students to patients from many backgrounds, which reflects what they will see in the field.
“We see a different variety of patients from different backgrounds, different knowledge, and different socio-economic aspects, and I think that’s really beneficial because outside it’s exactly like that,” she said.
She described an upcoming patient who is new to Canada and has never had his teeth cleaned but because of the affordability of the clinic, he can.
People also don’t need to go through a long intake process like at most private dental offices. They just book an appointment although there may still be a wait.
“We’ve always had a wait list,” Dunn said, noting the clinic has only 40 chairs. Staff rotate new and returning patients to accommodate as many people as possible.
Salem said the experience has shaped how she communicates with clients.
“[It] helped me a little bit realize that dealing with people in general, like even outside a clinic, should be based on situations, so not everything should be generalized,” she said.