OCNews

A local oral surgery group with offices in Kelowna and Vernon is investing in the education of Certified Dental Assistants (CDAs) with a gift to Okanagan College’s Our Students, Your Health campaign.

Dr. Richard Bell, Dr. Russell Naito and Dr. Tom White of Okanagan Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Associates are donating $30,000 to support a state-of-the-art dental clinic in the College’s new Health Sciences Centre.

The surgeons say the gift is a way to recognize and celebrate the work of their current staff and past employees.

“We want to show our support for CDAs and the profession,” says Bell. “We also wanted to recognize what the College has done for our practice. We have more than 20 CDAs working with us and many of them received their education at Okanagan College.”

Naito is from Kelowna and started his post-secondary education at the College. While he remembers many of his outstanding professors, several of his classes were in portables at the time.

“To be able to contribute to this great facility for students to learn in and instructors to teach in feels incredible,” says Naito.

The gift will support a large and modern sterilization room for CDAs to practice disinfecting instruments and learn the importance of infection control. These skills are essential to any dental clinic and especially for CDAs at Okanagan Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Associates.

“We are so grateful to Dr. Bell, Dr. Naito and Dr. White for supporting students and their industry,” says Joanne Gibbons-Smyth, Chair of Okanagan College’s CDA program.

“This clinic is a perfect blend of teaching and real-world practice and the support from the dental community is helping make it a reality for students.”

CDAs are in high demand across the Okanagan and British Columbia.

The Okanagan College Foundation is $1.5 million away from reaching its $5 million fundraising goal to equip and complete the new Health Sciences Centre.

The Foundation is inviting the business sector to support the education of eight in-demand health care professions so the Centre is ready when students return to face-to-face learning this fall.

Visit www.OurStudentsYourHealth.com to learn more.