Belize Launches First Homegrown Dental Academy  

Soon, aspiring dentists won’t need a passport to pursue their dreams. A new homegrown solution is stepping in to tackle Belize’s oral health challenges head-on, with the launch of the country’s first dental training institution. The Magazine Dental Academy opens this Friday, aiming to build a new generation of local dental professionals and reduce the need for costly studies abroad. Founder Dr. Osbert Usher says the mission goes beyond education, he wants to confront poor oral health at its root, linking it to wider chronic illnesses affecting Belizeans and reshaping healthcare outcomes from the ground up.

 

 Dr. Osbert Usher, President, Magazine Dental Academy

“In Belize, we do have a lot of systemic disease that plague our population. And most of these things initiate from the oral cavity. And as such, we want to educate more cadre of students so that they can go out eventually and treat and educate patient so that in their latter years they don’t end up with these systemic diseases. On an annual basis, we have capacity for twenty-five students annually. The course is twelve months, so every year we will be hopefully producing twenty-five individuals. I guess the country needs at present about a hundred of these individuals to satisfy the necessity and the demand of the oral diseases and the consequent systemic disease that arises from poor oral health. They will be qualified for educational purposes to the community, to schools. They will likewise be qualified to exactly treat patient with the initial stages of gum disease. They will be prepared likewise to evaluate patients in oral cavity, in terms of cavities, in terms of gum disease, in terms of doing fluoride treatment on the patient. Referring them eventually when they encounter diseases that are beyond their capacity to the professional dentists.”

 

Individuals interested in being part of the Magazine Dental Academy’s first cohort can still reach out to the organization to apply. Classes begin on July 16. 

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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