By Tommy Osborne
CNC Dentist

Hundreds of students receive free dental care from CNC’s Seal in a Smile campaign

May 15, 2024 | 4:16 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – For more than two decades the College of New Caledonia (CNC) has provided free dental care to students through its Seal in a Smile campaign. This campaign is aimed towards helping underprivileged children get dental care they otherwise may not have access too, which is greatly appreciated.

“It’s huge. I think about my kids and the playing field that they’re on going into school every day. And I think programs like this really help to level that field and enable all students to have the same learning opportunities,” said Ron Brent Elementary School Principal Conrad Turner.

Every year a different school benefits from Seal in a Smile, and Ron Brent Elementary was this year’s beneficiary. Turner says almost all of the school’s 217 students signed up.

“We’re very lucky to have been selected and very happy to have been selected. We view this through the lens of school readiness; all students need some basic things to be in order for them to be successful in a classroom. Dental care, medical care, hearing, sight, all of those pieces, so this is an important component of that,” Turner said.

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While the elementary school students certainly enjoy the free dental care, it’s also great for the CNC students in the Dental Assisting faculty. Faculty member Lana Duncan explains every student needs a certain amount of hours and experience working with people before graduating, and having the chance to work with kids is a great learning opportunity.

“A lot of these children that are coming in are nervous or anxious, maybe haven’t been to the dentist before. So it helps our students work with these children and just calm them, relax them, talk to them about everything that’s going on,” Duncan said.

Typically, dental assisting students practice their polishing, sealants, fluoride treatments, and more, with family and friends, so the chance to work with people they don’t know provides valuable experience for when they graduate and will handle a wide variety of clients every day.

“The Seal in a Smile program is very unique to Prince George, and even actually maybe throughout Canada, it’s a very unique program that we have in partnership with the College in New Caledonia. It’s not known to be anywhere else that we know of,” said Northern Health Dental Hygienist Jas Kiran King.

The Seal in a Smile campaign is made possible thanks to funding from Spirit of the North and its donors, and is organized by CNC, School District 57, Spirit of the North, and Northern Health.

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by Tommy Osborne

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