Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

RANKIN (Aug 16/99) - By his own admission, Rankin Inlet's new full-time dentist, William Bourque, came to his profession through a circuitous route.

A one-time geologist with a PHD under his belt, Bourque has published work on bone research and delivered a presentation at the world famous Mayo clinic. However, a chance Maritime encounter soon had Bourque exploring career changes, rather than calcium deposits.

"I met the most wonderful person I've ever known while doing research in Halifax, my wife Helen," says Bourque. "She's a nurse who has worked overseas and had different cross-cultural experiences.

"I thought if I'm going to work in a lab the rest of my life and she likes travelling and visiting different cultures, we're sort of mismatched, so when the opportunity presented itself to get involved with dentistry at the University of Manitoba, I took it.

"I started dental school as a husband and ended up as the father of two children, so it was a busy time. Ann is our oldest, almost three, and Jennifer just turned one."

Bourque says his focus is to treat his patients the same way he'd expect to be treated and to give them the best possible level of care he can.

"I grew fond of the North when I visited Helen when she was working in Sanikiluaq about seven years ago. Inuit have a certain charm about them and it's wonderful to come and see how a different culture lives from day to day.

"It's a gift not everybody gets to experience and one we can give our children right now because, not being school aged, we don't have to disrupt their lives."

Bourque has allotted at least a year to Rankin and says so far, the challenges have been very rewarding. He's looking forward to bringing dental continuity to Rankin and says both from a personal and a professional perspective, it's very disruptive for anyone to have a professional come in for a month and then leave.

"If people only see a dentist for two weeks and then the dentist is gone, they sometimes fall through the cracks. It's a goal of mine, and the dentistry department here, to at least get a bottom level of standard care established and build from there. We also have Dr. Stewart Andrews coming and he's going to travel to the other communities.

"Hopefully, we'll be able to give everybody a chance to get some form of basic dental care and then, once they've reached that basic care, they can decide for themselves if they want to take proper care of their teeth."