It was no accident that Stéphane Caron threw himself heart and soul into setting up the Dentaville dental clinic. As “stage” supervisor for dentistry students at the UdeM, community engagement is second nature to him.

The father of a disabled child, he really relates to problems some people with special needs have with access to care. After graduating in dentistry from the Université de Montréal, he decided to target his practice to more fragile populations – geriatric patients and those with mental health issues and intellectual disabilities. “I wanted to be useful to my community.”

Stéphane supervises activities at Dentaville, a social dentistry clinic at Hôpital Notre-Dame that provides front-line care to people who are socially vulnerable. People like Fatme, a refugee of Lebanese origin, who arrived in Quebec with next to nothing to her name.

Final-year students at the Faculty of Dentistry provide the treatment. Stéphane is happy to see that this new generation has developed a real

community spirit. “They’re highly sensitive to the need for engagement,” he says. “I find them so enlightened and aware.”

Net result: Dentaville is giving people who are all too often forgotten a good reason to smile from now on.