Photo by John Ulan
When new graduate Marcia Boyd saw a job ad in the Edmonton Journal for dentists in 1969, she applied, not knowing the position would send her 2,700 kilometres away to what was then Frobisher Bay, N.W.T. (now Iqaluit, Nunavut). The summer job plunged Boyd into the world of dentistry faster than she could have imagined, and her experiences in northern communities taught her to apply her knowledge to solve problems. The adventurous dentist, professor emerita and former dean at the University of British Columbia reflects on some of her memorable experiences from a career that started in the Arctic and ended on the Pacific coast.
A steep learning curve: "I had a pink skirt on and was heading north. I was going to be the queen of Frobisher Bay. When I arrived, they handed me a duffel coat, gumboots, a portable generator, headlamp and a cold sterilization kit." Boyd was flown into communities and met by dog team and she had to estimate how many weeks she would need before they would return to pick her up. The conditions were rugged. "I would set up in a school, near a window for extra light to do fillings. I did extractions while the patient sat in a wooden chair. I did things that give me a full body shudder now."
New experiences: There are some moments in Nunavut that stand out in Boyd's memory. "In Pond Inlet, I helped deliver a baby girl." And her northern social life was always fascinating. "Communities brought in movies to watch. One was The Cyclops, and for two weeks afterwards, the soapstone carvings were all cyclops." Overall, Boyd says her time in Nunavut was a magical experience. "It was fascinating for a new grad."
Advancing personally and professionally: While continuing with part-time clinical practice and after working as a professor at UBC, she became dean of the Faculty of Dentistry. Here she guided the faculty through advances in dentistry and an increase in the number of women in the field. "[Including] more women has brought a further richness and depth to the profession."
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