In his second year of dental school, former Dental Undergraduate Society President Greg Allan, DMD 2021, had a chance encounter that changed the course of his career. During a trip to Fernie, BC, he met Dr. Alastair Nicoll—a long time UBC Dentistry Summer Student Practitioner Program mentor—who worked in the local hospital. Dr. Allan spent a day shadowing Dr. Nicoll and knew he’d found his passion.

“It was early days in dental school, so I just assumed I’d be a general dentist,” says Dr. Allan. “But after that day with Dr. Nicoll in the hospital, I thought, ‘this is exactly where I want to be.’”

After finishing dental school, Dr. Allan was accepted into UBC Dentistry’s General Practice Residency (GPR) Program. He spent one year doing rotations across Vancouver at BC Children’s Hospital, BC Cancer Agency and Vancouver General Hospital.  

“The mandate of the GPR Program is to train dentists to treat medically complex patients,” says GPR Program Director Nicholas Tong, MSc Craniofacial Science 2019. “Dental schools provide a strong foundation, and the GPR Program builds on that by offering exposure to special populations that students may not have encountered yet.”

Each year, four students are accepted into the Hospital Dentistry Residency Track. In 2024, UBC Dentistry opened a fifth spot when it launched the Geriatric Dentistry Residency Track, the first of its kind in Canada, offering a curriculum focused on the oral health needs of our aging population. Hospital rotations are still included, but residents spend more time working with frail and functionally dependent older adults and in long-term care facilities.   

“A lot of people want to be a general dentist, and doing a GPR gives them more confidence and a wider range of abilities so they can treat more people in the community,” says Dr. Tong. “In my opinion, the GPR Program changes students’ entire perspective and outlook on the profession and shows them how dentistry intersects with medicine.” 

For Dr. Allan, the GPR Program exposed him to cases he never could have imagined and set him up for success as a small-town dentist. After completing his residency, Dr. Allan returned to Fernie to focus on caring for children. He now splits his time between seeing kids in clinic and providing surgical care in the operating room at Elk Valley Hospital and East Kootenay Regional Hospital.

“The GPR Program is like a tasting flight—you get to sample all the specialties and see if something really speaks to you,” says Dr. Allan. “You also see lots of complex cases that would take years to see in private practice, which means you learn many skills in a short period of time. It especially helped me as a dentist in a small town, where I’m expected to do a bit of everything and there isn’t anyone to call in for backup.”