STAFF REPORTER
RELATED STORY LINK: VALE DR THORN
The first Noongar dentist has graduated and will start work in Alice Springs in February.
Chantel Thorn said her interest in dentistry ignited when she was in Year 11 at Hamilton Hill Senior High School and attended a Health Carers’ Camp at the University of Western Australia.
“I remember the moment at the camp when I told myself: ‘I could be a dentist’,” Dr Thorn said.
“At that time there weren’t any indigenous dentists and I thought it would be great to do it.
“In Alice Springs, I’ll be able to visit some of the small Aboriginal communities, as well as schools.”
Along with being a dentist, Dr Thorn will be involved in health promotion.
“At school I was interested in art and my work was shown in the Year 12 Perspectives exhibition at the Art Gallery of Western Australia,” she recalled.
“When someone at the camp said dentistry involved creativity and good hand-eye coordination, I thought it would be something I’d really like to do.
“It is very creative, especially when you have to make detailed, precise drawings and aesthetically pleasing reproductions and moulds.”
Dr Thorn is the first Noongar, and only the second Aboriginal person, to become a dentist in Western Australia.
Vale Chantel.
I am to give a talk on Dental Topics to the Rotary Club of Busselton and I thought that the members will be interested to learn of Dr Thorn’s achievements. I understand that another Rotary Club (Booragoon) provided her with a scholarship. I’d appreciate hearing of any news about how Dr Thorn is finding her current practice or anything that might be appropriate for me to tell the local members I’d be happy to pass on.
David McDonald (Retired Dentist of Busselton)