Ann Arbor, MI — December 17, 2012 — For many, it was their first trip thousands of miles from their home country to the U.S.  It was an experience they will never forget.

They were impressed with what they saw, what they experienced, and those they talked to, not only at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry, but elsewhere across Michigan.

The School hosted 22 students, faculty members, and deans from six countries — Brazil, Ghana, Mexico, Colombia, England, and Spain  — as part of its new Global Oral Health Initiative.  The two-week “United Nations Program” was held to coincide with U-M Student Global Health Day on November 9.     

Following the end of the School’s program, Dr. Yvonne Kapila, director of the Global Oral Health Initiative, said, “This first program turned out even better than we thought it would when we began working on it a year ago.”

The School’s international guests were busy. 

They attended classes, watched dental and dental hygiene students and faculty working together to help patients in clinics, talked to researchers, made presentations about dental education in their countries, attended a keynote presentation by Dr. Habib Benzian who spoke about international and dental public health, and visited other facilities on the U-M campus.

With help from Dr. Ronald Paler (DDS 1961), a former president of the Michigan Dental Association who is now treasurer of the U.S.A. Section Foundation of the International College of Dentists, the international students also traveled to venues outside of Ann Arbor to get a broader perspective about interrelationships between academic dentistry and organized dentistry.

They traveled to MDA headquarters in Okemos, a dental laboratory in Westland, and the Detroit District Dental Society offices in Livonia. 

“As we planned the two-week program, we thought it was important that our international guests see first-hand the role organized dentistry plays,” Kapila said.  “They gained a better understanding of how academic dentistry and organized dentistry reinforce each other so patients receive the best care possible.”

Highly Favorable Impressions

Deans, faculty members, and students from the six countries said they were impressed with the University of Michigan School of Dentistry.

“You have an outstanding dental school,” said Francis Adu-Ababio, dean of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana.  “I’m impressed that your faculty are doing so much, not just teaching and providing patient care, but also conducting research and being involved in helping people in other communities where there is a need for dental care.”

Adu-Ababio pointed to a major difference between his dental school faculty and Michigan’s.  “We have only nine faculty members, three full-time lecturers and six who work part time,” he said.  “Here, obviously, you have many more.”

KNUST class sizes are also smaller.  The first class of dental students to graduate with dental degrees from KNUST in August totaled six men and two women.  By comparison, 113 dental students graduated from U-M in May.

Dental education in Ghana takes six years.  The first three years students work toward a Bachelor of Dental Surgery degree.  Afterwards, they spend three years in professional training at a hospital or government facility.

Adu-Ababio said after KNUST dental students graduate, they are interns for two years, the first year teaching in a hospital and the next year providing oral health care in different locations in Ghana.

The dean of the University of Ghana Dental School, Grace Parkins, was also impressed with the number of faculty members at the U-M School of Dentistry. 

“My dental school has only 12 full-time and eight part-time faculty members,” she said.  “I was also pleased to learn how highly valued faculty members with PhDs are.  That emphasis Michigan places on faculty members with PhDs is something our vice chancellor continues to emphasize as important to the future of dental education in Ghana.”

Other Differences, Some Similarities

Both Adu-Ababio and Parkins said they were “amazed” at how technology is being used in clinics.  “We wouldn’t mind having some of that technology at our dental school,” Parkins said with a smile.  “Unfortunately, our financial resources are limited, so we can’t afford what your students use on a daily basis.”

One faculty member, Marcelo Lamers, an adjunct professor at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, Brazil, said his dental school, like Michigan’s, is more than 100 years old.  “However, our dental students do not have to pay tuition to be in our dental program,” he said.  “But they do have to buy their own supplies.”

Lamers said his dental school faces many challenges similar to Michigan’s.  “Perhaps our biggest is finding ways to apply the research that takes place in laboratories in ways that help patients in clinics,” he said.  “I hope our schools can work together in the future to find ways to do that so that patients in our countries can benefit even more.”

Linda Wang, a professor of operative dentistry at the University of Sao Paulo in Bauru, Brazil, said, “It was an enriching experience to be in your research laboratories, classes, and clinics at Michigan.  We would like to have more technology in our clinics, as you do in yours, but it may take us a while to get there.”

In Brazil, dental education is a four-year program, but can be as long as eight years if a student attends evening classes after working at their regular job during the day.

“In Brazil, our students are 17 or 18 years old when they begin their dental education.  In fact, I saw my first patient when I was 19,” Lamers said.

Another Program in 2013?

Kapila said the results of the program are being evaluated.  However, she said the School of Dentistry will probably not offer a similar program in 2013.  “There was a significant amount of time involved in planning this year’s program, and given financial resources, we will be looking at other options,” she said.

One is collaborating with the dental schools and rotating the location of the program.

“Because of the success of the program here at Michigan, the other dental schools who joined us are giving some thought to using our program as a model for hosting a similar program in their countries in the future,” she said.  “If they do, we will be more than happy to share our insights and experiences to make their programs as successful as the one we had here at Michigan.”

International Students Comment

“It’s a thrill to be here.”  That was the comment most often heard talking to international students who were School of Dentistry guests.        

“The technology being used here was the first thing I noticed because we don’t have anything similar at our dental school,” said Felix Anafi a dental student at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana.

Anafi said he was also impressed with classroom lectures and small group sessions, “particularly those led by dental students who described how they treated patients of different ages.  They had many helpful suggestions that I am sure I will use to help my patients when I get back home,” he said.

Another KNUST dental student, Edinam Gaveh, said, “I was impressed at how nice the people of Ann Arbor are, even those in the streets you stop to ask for directions.”

Gaveh said what he immediately noticed at the School of Dentistry “was the level of dental awareness patients have.  It’s much greater here than in Ghana.  I know I will be providing a lot of education about oral health care when I treat my patients.” 

He too noticed the use of technology in dental education.  “The dental students here are very lucky to have so much technology available to help them treat their patients.”  After earning his dental degree and completing two years of public health dentistry, Gaveh said he would like to pursue a career in pediatric orthodontics.

Reflecting on his two weeks at Michigan, Fabio Rizzante, a student at the University of Sao Paulo in Bauru, Brazil, said “coming here was one of the best opportunities I have had during my dental education.  I would like to return someday to do research here.”

Rizzante said he decided to become a health professional at an early age.  He chose to pursue a career in dentistry after observing how patients were treated in dental offices at home and the “wonderful relationships dentists had with their patients.”

Gianna Hanly, a Panamanian who earned her dental degree in Panama in 2008, said she was surprised to learn about how many international faculty members and students are at U-M.

“The international background of so many faculty and students gives both the University and the School of Dentistry a good name and makes it an even more attractive place for international students who are interested in getting a good dental education,” she said.  Hanly is in the third year of her prosthodontics residency in Medellin, Colombia.