On Saturday, September 24th, under a beautiful autumn sky, Dr. Seminara participated in the annual McGill Run for Dental Outreach. With over 100 participants and over 7500$ raised, the run was a huge success! This was Dr. Seminara’s 3rd time running the 10km course that followed the path across Mount Royal, past Beaver lake and the lookout over downtown and back again. As usual, the runners were students, dentists, professors, family and friends.

The McGill Outreach Program is one of a kind. As Quebec’s only completely mobile dental clinic, dental chairs and lights, sterilization equipment and dental instruments are packed into a truck and transported around the city to provide free dental care to individuals living in poverty. McGill dental students, dentists, as well as many volunteers made it possible to hold a total of 14 mobile clinics last year on the island of Montreal. Four additional clinics are held at the Montreal General Hospital. There students are able to perform more elaborate procedures such as radiographic diagnosis as well as fillings, and tooth extractions.

An interesting fact is that the Outreach Program was run for a long time in part by our predecessor Dr. Bruce Dobby. It was under his guidance that it grew from a small operation with a few clinics per year to the large-scale program that it is now. Today, dental students from all years at McGill as well as volunteer dentists help provide free care to over 300 people in need per year. Dr. Seminara has been able to witness this impressive  change first hand, from being a student dentist in 2002 to volunteering to supervise the current student dentists today.
For more information about the Outreach program, please visit: https://www.mcgill.ca/dentistry/patients/outreach