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LIMELIGHT with DrSimi I am Dr. Simisola Aderibigbe (a.k.a. Dr Simi), I was born in Lagos, Nigeria, about forty-plus years ago to a polygamous family of five children. I am the fourth child. I attended St Saviours School (Elementary) and Queens College (Jr/ High) both in Lagos. My tertiary education was at the University of Ibadan in Oyo State. While at university, I met my significant other, Dr. Ade Aderibigbe. We got married a few years after completing our tertiary education and today we are blessed with two wonderful children — a 13-year-old girl and an 8-year-old boy. Why dentistry? Did you choose dentistry, or did it choose you? (Laughs) I love how you framed the later part of this question…. Did dentistry choose me? In Nigeria, at the time I was growing up, exposure to dentistry was very limited. Thus, dentistry was often an alternate career choice to people who wanted to go for medicine. I am no exception to that cohort. At the time I was preparing for university, I lost my father who was the closest person to me in the world and it was like my world came crashing down at the time. At the same time, I had ahead of me the big task of choosing what university I wanted to attend and what course I wanted to study. I always knew I wanted to study medicine but I also wanted to explore a University outside of my home city, Lagos, hence I applied to the University of Ibadan (UI). Little did I know that acceptance into University was not necessarily based on merit only, especially when applying outside of one’s city.
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University registration began at UI and I remember my friends telling me, school had started and wondering what was happening to my university acceptance letter? By the time I went to UI to inquire about my admission based on my scores, it was a bit too late to be offered acceptance into the medical school, however I got offered dentistry and that is exactly how dentistry chose me and I grew to love it. Absolutely, no regrets today being a dentist and if I were to choose again, I would choose dentistry as my career choice. How can we improve our smile? We improve our smile by having good oral hygiene and homecare regimen, limiting intake of foods and drinks that cause staining (tea, coffee, red wines), and sugary foods that cause cavities. Giving up tobacco products, recrea tional drugs — they cause damage to the teeth.
LadiesCorner.ca – Spring 2021
