George Brown College Denturist Programs
George Brown College (GBC) offers two programmes for Denturists and Clinical Dental Technicians, designed to provide expert instruction in all aspects of clinical dental technology.
Full-time Denturism programme
GBC full-time students receive complete training to meet the required scope of practice for Denturists in Ontario: treatment planning; design, construction and fitting of full, partial and immediate dentures, implant supported dentures, mouthguards, anti-snoring devices, and teeth whitening. In addition, students learn basic science, dental science, health promotion, management and Denturist practice. All these areas of study meet or exceed the International Baseline Competencies Profile for Denturist Education.
Programme graduates must successfully complete the licensing examination to be eligible for registration by the College of Denturists of Ontario. George Brown College offers the only accredited Denturism programme in Ontario.
The full-time Denturism programme was originally established in 1975 as a 2½-year course, and was expanded to 3 years in 1985 following a major curriculum revision.
In 1988 Dave Robertson of the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) brought together educators from GBC and four other Canadian Denturist Colleges, to form the Canadian Council of Denturist Educators. Over the next four years they developed the Canadian Baseline Competency Profile, a new curriculum which was approved by the Denturist Association of Canada in 1993 and became the standard for all Canadian Denturist colleges.
In 1993 Ontario saw new Denturist legislation that enabled Denturists to construct partial dentures without the supervision of a dentist. The GBC Denturism programme was then adjusted to meet the new scope of practice. In 1994 the oral health department at GBC underwent major renovations. The Denturist clinic was upgraded to 15 dental chairs and the lab expanded to hold 30 students. Ten years later a further six dental chairs and laboratory stations were added, allowing the annual student intake to be doubled to 50 students because of the increased demand for Denturists in Ontario.
Meet the students – Allison Munro
Allison Munro is a second year student at George Brown College. After taking a history and psychology degree at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, she intended to become a teacher but following a gap year decided she wanted to do something completely different. She had always been interested in teeth; and smiles were always the first thing she noticed about people. A friend of the family put her in touch with Mike Vikalis (above) who runs the Denturism course at the George Brown College and the rest, as they say, is history.
“I didn’t even know that Denturism was a career at that stage; I was looking at dental technician, hygienist…” commented Allison. She is thoroughly enjoying her Denturism course and finds it both challenging and gratifying: “Giving someone back their self-confidence is a great feeling”. Once she has completed the course, Alison plans to go into business with her brother (a physiotherapist) and sister (a recreations therapist), by setting up a health complex in Nova Scotia.
IDEC Denturist Outreach Programme
The International Denturist Education Centre (IDEC) at George Brown College was established in 1992. IDEC has successfully delivered Denturist education in several Canadian provinces to augment the education of the local Denturists seeking a new scope of practice.
Since 1996 it has operated internationally with the Denturist Outreach Programme, focusing on the United Kingdom and the
United States. Here it provides high quality Denturist education to qualified dental technicians who are currently working in the field on a full time basis and who are seeking a credential certifying their experience and education as Denturists. Apart from Canada and USA, the UK and most other countries where Denturism is legal require Denturist candidates to hold a Dental Technology certificate before they enrol into a Denturist programme.
Acting through the Centre for Health Sciences, George Brown College is the only institution that offers Denturist education in the UK. The programme was recently accredited by the Royal College of Dental Surgeons in England and has already graduated 182 students, 120 from the UK and 62 from the US.
William (Bill) Buxton Jr. – who graduated in June 2006 – is now sponsoring 6 students who work for his clinic in Bangor, Maine so that they can participate in the programme. He says: “The Denturist Outreach Programme has been an experience that I would strongly recommend to any dental technician interested in advancing to the practice of Denturism. All instructors have been very helpful. Thanks to everyone involved.”
Professional recognition
The two GBC Denturism programmes have been accredited and endorsed by several Denturist Associations and licensing bodies.
The Denturist Association of Canada (DAC) has accredited the GBC Full time Denturist programme. The Board of Dental Examiners of Maine, the Board of Dentistry of Montana, the Board of Denture Technology of Washington and Oregon have
approved both programmes. In addition both programmes are sanctioned by the International Federation of Denturists (IFD),
the Clinical Dental Technicians Association (CDTA), the National Denturist Association (NDA) in the US. Furthermore, both
GBC programmes have received equivalency from the Denturism programme of the University of Aarhus Dental School in Denmark and the Denturism programme of the Netherlands.
Meet the Students – Ryan Assal
Ryan Assal is a third year student at George Brown College. He qualified as a dental technician at Southampton College and went on to work at Southampton General Hospital in the Maxillofacial Department. Ryan first went to Canada for his sister’s wedding, fell in love with the country, met his wife and never looked back. He spent 3 years running his own dental lab until he got fed up working for dentists and decided he wanted to cut out the middleman and deal with patients direct.
Encouraged by one of his clients he decided to study Denturism. “Dentists don’t like making dentures,” he says. “They prefer to make crowns and deal with natural dentition. With dentures there are too many visits and each appointment takes up too many hours… time is money and crown and bridge is much more lucrative. They are only too happy for what they
perceive as the non-profitable side of dentistry to be done by Denturists”.
Until Ryan qualifies he is working 18 hour days. On top of completing his studies he operates a full service lab from
the basement of his house (as well as running two cars, a wife and two children – a boy and a girl aged 6 and 4). He will
initially open a practice north of Toronto in a town called Bolton. “I’ll have independence and self respect… if you’re any good you will always be busy – it all spreads by word of mouth and you’re only as good as your last denture.” He hopes to be able to specialise in implant retained dentures which he feels are potentially very big business. In Canada customers are queuing to spend $30,000 - $40,000 for a set of upper and lower fixed dentures. Denturism is one of the top
ten professions in Canada – but only for the next 25 years as subsequent generations will have much healthier teeth. Dentists are now hiring Denturists to do all their denture work; the dentist pays the Denturist a lab fee and then they share the ‘professional’ fee 40/60 split or whatever they agree.
Ryan sees a return to the UK as a possibility for the future, when dentures become big business: as he points out, “there are so many old people all squashed up in the UK… not spread out like in Canada. These are the baby boomers with plenty of
disposable income, who didn’t look after their teeth but are now living longer and want to look good!”
It’s really great to see such motivation and enthusiasm for what is to us a very new and sometimes misunderstood profession. Ryan sums up: “It’s a very exciting industry to be in – a long way to go but great potential!”
