New Dental Academy Opens in Belize City

The Magazine Dental Academy, a new institution founded by veteran dentist Dr. Osbert Usher and educator Karen Simplis, was launched today on Magazine Road in Belize City. The academy was created with the goal of advancing dental hygiene across communities while providing students with the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in the profession. The vision of the academy is to become a nationally accredited and regionally recognized institution for dental hygiene education, while promoting better patient care through high-quality, evidence-based training. Its mission is to produce graduates who are not only knowledgeable, but ethical and competent professionals in the field. The one-year program has been designed to meet international standards and will cost twenty thousand dollars to complete. Despite being a newly launched institution, Dr. Usher says he has full confidence in the program and believes it will help shape the future of dental hygiene education in Belize.

Dr. Osbert Usher, Cavity Doctor: “Yes we certainly believe Belize needs at present at least about a hundred dental hygienists so as to suffice the population. We have projections up to 2035 already. So we’re looking at a nine year program with twenty five individuals annually.”

Also lending his expertise to the academy is lecturer Dr. Sylvan Thompson. He spoke about the importance of establishing a dedicated dental hygiene training program, explaining that the academy will help prepare a new generation of professionals while contributing to improved oral healthcare services across the country.

Dr. Sylvan Thompson, Dentist / Lecturer: “The academy is founded on the vision “Prevention: Our Goal.” This principle emphasize proactive oral healthcare, community awareness and the importance of preventative dentistry as the cornerstone of better health outcomes. A lot of the children, teenagers, young adults, they have a high incidents of dental cavities in the mouth. Most of them are coming just to basically remove their teeth. What we want to improve here is their oral health in the future, the care in the future. So if we can get them younger we have more people in the healthcare industry we hope to reduce the number of incidents of cavities in these persons and then have a better oral health throughout their life.”

The official inauguration for the academy is set for Friday June 26.