{"id":115988,"date":"2016-08-25T11:14:54","date_gmt":"2016-08-25T15:14:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?post_type=school-college-post&p=115988"},"modified":"2019-01-28T16:52:22","modified_gmt":"2019-01-28T21:52:22","slug":"incoming-dental-students-receive-white-coats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2016\/08\/incoming-dental-students-receive-white-coats\/","title":{"rendered":"Incoming Dental Students Receive Their White Coats"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dr.
Dr. Monty MacNeil, dean of the UConn School of Dental Medicine, speaking to students and parents during the White Coat Ceremony. (Photo by Kristin Wallace)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The 49 students in the UConn School of Dental Medicine Class of 2020 celebrated the traditional White Coat Ceremony last Friday.\u00a0 The annual event is a symbolic induction into the profession of dental medicine but the ceremony isn\u2019t as \u201cancient\u201d as you might think.<\/p>\n

Dean of the dental school, Dr. R. Lamont (Monty) MacNeil, told the students and their loved ones attending the event that Columbia University first started it 23 years ago.\u00a0 UConn only adopted the ceremony about 10 years ago.<\/p>\n

No matter when it started, the ceremony marks a milestone for students and is also \u201ca symbol of commitment to your patients \u2013 your patients while in dental school and your patients after you graduate,\u201d explained MacNeil.<\/p>\n

MacNeil also urged the students to think of themselves as health professionals who happen to be dentist, not dentists who happen to be health professionals.<\/p>\n

\"The
The UConn Dental School held its White Coat Ceremony for the 49 students of the Class of 2020. (Photo by Kristin Wallace)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There are 25 female and 24 male students.\u00a0 Thirty-two are Connecticut residents while 19 completed their undergraduate degrees at UConn.<\/p>\n

Dean MacNeil warned them that some students might find that their coats don\u2019t fit them too well. \u201cBut it\u2019s not how the coat fits you, it\u2019s how you fit the white coat.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also pointed out that the white coats are lab coats – working coats – and they won\u2019t stay white for very long as the students spend more time in the labs.<\/p>\n

The formal presentation of coats was performed by Dr. Michael Goupil, emeritus associate professor, Dr. Donna Paolella, associate dean for admissions, and Dr. Sarita Arteaga, associate clinical professor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe white coat has become health care\u2019s symbol of compassionate and scientific patient care,\u201d said Goupil. \u201cThe White Coat Ceremony represents the faith and trust the faculty has for the entering students to carry out their responsibilities for the welfare of their patients.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the students had donned their white coats, Dr. Steven Lepowsky, senior associate dean for education and patient care, led the recital of The Dentist\u2019s Pledge.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 49 students in the UConn School of Dental Medicine Class of 2020 celebrated the traditional White Coat Ceremony last Friday.\u00a0 The annual event is a symbolic induction into the profession of dental medicine but the ceremony isn\u2019t as \u201cancient\u201d as you might think. Dean of the dental school, Dr. R. Lamont (Monty) MacNeil, told […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":116075,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2166],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1867],"class_list":["post-115988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sdm"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-29 19:25:13","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/116075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115988"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=115988"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=115988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}