End of an era Jennifer Wallace retires

End of an era

Jennifer Wallace retires

By Cheryl Bell

Jennifer Wallace retired from the Faculty of Dentistry on June 21, 2022, 40 years to the day after she started working there as a dental assistant at the age of 19.

It was a career that began with a fear of the dentist. “My parents had to bribe me to go,” Jennifer says. “I thought becoming a dental assistant would be good way to face my fear.”

At that time, the program also offered the benefit of being just one year long with no tuition. “We only had to pay for our books,” she explains.

PLENTY OF CHANGES

Things were different in other ways back in 1982 when Jennifer first arrived in the Faculty. For one thing, there were no summer clinics. Those didn’t start until the 1990s.There were also no computers in the clinic. Students had chit books in which faculty members would sign off their procedures in triplicate. Gloves were not worn apart from during surgical procedures until HIV and hepatitis made universal precautions a necessity.

Growing class sizes brought other changes. When Jennifer first started working, there was one dental assistant for four students. Now it’s one DA for nine students.

“We used to do so much for the students,” she says. “We fetched and set up the instrument trays and scrubbed impression trays, surgery kits, and burrs.”

Now the students do all the setting up and MDR cleans all the instruments, which means the DAs are more hands-on and involved with the patients at each appointment. “We’re really using our skills,” she says.

Jennifer has moved around a lot in her 40 years with Dal, gaining new skills along the way. She spent time in the undergraduate clinic, oral surgery, radiology, and graduate periodontics. “It was the variety that helped me to stay there so long,” she says. That, and being able to make the switch to sessional hours when her daughter was born.

Graduating as a dental assistant in 1982. Jennifer with Leanne Paddock.

Jennifer has seen the numbers of women – both the student and faculty populations – grow, as well as more accommodation for working mothers.

Over the years she has enjoyed the company of her colleagues and the fun they had at work: dressing up at Halloween, playing good music (especially her favourite, Rod Stewart) during perio clinics, and marking other special occasions, like Christmas. There was also a lot of good-natured joshing at work.

“We used to joke that you had to drop a crown before cementing it in because that’s what the students always seemed to do. They were so nervous.” RETIREMENT PLANS

Jennifer would normally be on leave over the summer, so the impact of her retirement hasn’t really hit her yet. But when the autumn arrives, she says it will be the first time since 1967 that she has not been in school or at the university for work.

She loves to swim, so she will be joining a pool in September and plans to be more active generally. Reading is high on her list for retirement, spending time with her mother in Truro, and taking the opportunity to downsize a bit at home. She has no plans to take up knitting or bingo, she says.

One thing is for certain: she won’t be afraid to visit her dentist on a regular basis.

Jennifer celebrates her retirement with her colleagues.