Former Mackay Students Return For Dentistry Placement

Four former Mackay school students are all smiles about returning to the region and doing their final year dentistry placement at Mackay Base Hospital.

Jael Mezieres, Carly Featherstone, Lauren Pearson and Aditya (Adi) Suvarna all attended primary and high school in Mackay and are now in their fifth year of studying a Bachelor of Dental Surgery in Cairns. They are part of a group of eight students in their final week of a four-month placement in the dental unit at Mackay Base Hospital.

Jael, who is originally from Zambia and moved to Mackay with her family aged five, attended Mackay Christian College and St Patrick's College for Year 11 and 12.

Coming from a large family including six brothers, Jael always knew she would pursue a career in healthcare.

"I always had a passion for science and thought I’d do either medicine or dentistry - it's science but with people and doing something where you are helping and serving people."

Carly Featherstone is excited to be working and learning in the dental unit of the hospital in which she was born. She lived in Moranbah until she was 10 before moving to the Pioneer Valley, completing her schooling at Mirani State Primary and State High Schools.

"I undertook a school-based traineeship and completed a Certificate 3 in Dental
Assisting which enabled me to work at a practice in Marian two days a week while still finishing high school," Carly said.

Her years of work experience solidified her decision to return to study and earn her degree in dentistry. Placement in regional areas complemented her clinical knowledge and helped build skills, experience and attitude to become competent dentist.

"I'd really like to return and work in regional areas as there's still a lot of stigma about going to the dentist," Carly said.

Adi, who attended St Francis Xavier Primary School for Years 5 to 7 and then Mercy College for years 8-9, originally moved to Mackay from Scotland with his parents who are both doctors. His father worked as an orthopaedic surgeon at Mackay Base Hospital.

After the family moved to Townsville, Adi completed a biomedical degree at JCU Townsville in physiology and pharmacology with a focus on research. In his third year and while studying genetics, his interest in dentistry was piqued by an oral cavity unit.

"I'm very excited to actually start work as a dentist - it's been a very long eight years of studying," he said.

"Having lived in India, England, Scotland, Mackay, Townsville and Cairns, I really don't mind where I end up."

The trio were thrilled to be back in Mackay working beside and learning from the
"fantastic team" in the MBH dental unit.

"It's a fantastic place to learn from people who are very keen to help teach you. They are all so approachable and very helpful," Carly said.

Lauren Pearson says “being in the dentistry industry is so flexible, it’s good money and I get to help so many people and I like the artistic side of it as well like restoring people’s smiles.

“Smiles are so important, so being able to help people like that is really interesting to me.”

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(Left to Right) Supervisor Nancy Thanki, Jael Mezieres, Carly Featherstone, Lauren Pearson and Aditya (Adi) Suvarna. Photo Credit: Hannah McNamara

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