Dr. Hassan Adam. A Thirty-year Passion for Modern Dentistry in the North
By Bill Braden
When Hassan Adam was a schoolboy in his home country of Malawi, Africa, BBC documentaries about life and nature around the world were screened every Friday afternoon. He recalls one in particular. “The one that was the most popular was on the Arctic, because we’d never seen snow!” he says. One of four children, Adam was sent to study medicine in England in 1970. But he was more attracted to dentistry’s “hands-on” aspects, leaving the University of Sheffield in 1978 with a BDS degree and his American-born fiancée, Charlene. They married the next year.
Charlene wanted to be closer to her family, so the couple started looking for work. An ad in the British Dental Journal captioned “Come Explore Canada’s Arctic” grabbed their attention. They landed in Yellowknife in 1980, hired by The Mackenzie Dental Clinic for an 18-month contract. “We came in March, days were lightening up, I’d never experienced anything like this before,” says Adam. “After a few months, we had tons of friends. We were just loving life here.” By the mid-1980s, Adam decided to build a more advanced practice. He bought a private home on Franklin Avenue and converted it to Adam Dental in April of 1987. “That was supposed to be a five-year plan… here we are, 30 years later.”
Over those years, the Adams raised four children, and Charlene started her own venture, The Quilted Raven craft store, next door. Inspired by a Yellowknife colleague, the late Dr. Don Tesar, Adam set out to deliver modern practice across the Arctic. He opened clinics in Rankin Inlet, Baker Lake, Iqaluit and Arviat, all of which were bought by associates. Among his many community donations and investments, he donated a clinic to the Avens Seniors Community Centre in Yellowknife in 2012, making it one of the few seniors centres in Canada with on-site dental service. He’s earned fellowships – the highest level of peer recognition – from dental academies around the world, and is often asked to lecture. But he declines most requests, saying he prefers teaching his own staff, a cosmopolitan team attracted to Yellowknife by the clinic’s reputation and scope of dental practice. “The dentistry we practice here today is equivalent to any practiced in the best clinics anywhere in North America,” he says. It’s no idle boast. The website lists a staff of almost 50, plus a host of visiting specialists. “Until a few years ago, we had to send everyone to Edmonton. Now it’s all done in-house. We’ve come a long, long way.”
He laments the situation in the north’s many small communities, especially among children. “The state of dental health for the native people is exactly the same in 2017 as it was in 1980,” he says. “I believe the biggest problem is the government… they look into it, and evaluate things, but nobody takes it a step further. That’s where we are so far behind. We still see kids at 2 years old with all their teeth removed.” Adam, now 66, hopes to continue his own work and his advocacy until he’s well into his 70s. “It’s been a wonderful learning experience. My philosophy has always been to learn all the time and try and improve the care in the North.” YKCI
