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Denturist school has international reputation

Mike Vakalis, co-ordinator of the International Denturist Education Centre at George Brown College emphasizes again and again the academic demands of his school's program.

DAVID CHILTON

[ 2006-03-08 ]

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The denturist program at George Brown College is the only one of its kind in Ontario and competition for one of its 40 yearly spots is fierce.

To make his point, Vakalis says from a class of 40 students there's a significant drop-out rate, so by the end of the three-year program class there might be fewer than 30 students left. The reason for such high standards, Vakalis notes, comes from the program's founders who were dentists. Despite the workload, the denturist program remains wildly popular, with about 400 applicants vying for one of those 40 places.

To be considered, they'll need at least high school graduation with credits in physics, biology and chemistry. Vakalis says until three years ago applicants were assessed on certain other tests, too, including a personal interview, but the provincial government scrapped them, so these days acceptance is strictly down to marks.

"Approximately half the class is older, over 25," Vakalis says, "and the rest of the class average is very young, 20 or 21. We also have people in their 30s; for example, in my second-year class we have three foreign dentists."

$6,500 A YEAR

When the program began in 1975, Vakalis says most students were male, although today the male-female split is about half and half. Tuition isn't inexpensive at $6,500 a year. One thing that is, however, are dentures made and fitted by students of the program. Vakalis says he's looking for people who need dentures or repairs. A new full set of dentures costs $400, less than a third of what they would cost privately.

Denturism is a regulated profession in Ontario, and denturists must write licensing exams set by the College of Denturists of Ontario. They are trained to make full or partial dentures, make repairs, and make implants, although attaching the anchors for implants to the jawbone is the work of a dentist or oral surgeon.

There are four schools in Canada that offer training as denturists: one in Montreal, another in Edmonton and a third in Vancouver. George Brown is the fourth and, Vakalis says, "the most heavily academic."

It's almost certainly the most internationally oriented, too, and the George Brown program has been accepted as the de facto standard for training denturists. The dental authorities in England gave the college the green light to teach its dental technicians how to become denturists in that country since denturism has only recently been recognized as a profession there. The instruction is given in England, although 20 or so English students come to Toronto for two weeks every summer.

INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNIZED

The denturist program is also recognized in a number of U.S. states, including Maine, Montana, Oregon and Washington, and at the moment there are 21 American students at George Brown studying through the International Denturist Education Centre. Two other countries, Belgium and Ukraine, have also accepted the George Brown standard as their own.

Carlo Zanon, a Toronto native who graduated from the denturist program in 1980, says studying denturism at George Brown is tough. "You've got all of the academics that you would do in dentistry," he says, recalling that at one time he intended to go to dental school.

As for making a living as a denturist, much depends on where the practitioner works and whether he works for himself or with others, including dentists. Nevertheless, Zanon says, "I believe (denturists' incomes are) very healthy and it's only going to go up. We're dealing with a lot of insurance companies."

But even with greater incomes there's a downside. Zanon says it's a lot harder to set up a new practice today compared to when he was starting out, and overhead is much higher.

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