Volume 7 • 2020 • Issue 1

30 | 2020 | Issue 1 I ssues and P eople University of North Carolina Greensboro, made a Deaf friend who communicated with ASL, and then ended up taking— and excelling in—ASL courses. “I picked up the language easily,” she says. “Far better than I had with Spanish or French.” For 20 years, Dr. Stack worked as an ASL interpreter. She interpreted university courses, government meetings, and a conference on spirituality in Ireland. She interpreted for women during labour and birth. “Interpreting brought me into so many different contexts. I was constantly learning,” she says. Dr. Stack moved to Washington, D.C., to work with its large Deaf and hard of hearing community. The city is home to Gallaudet University, a leading educational institution for the Deaf and hard of hearing since 1864, and many alumni continue to live and work nearby. Later, she moved to Rochester, N.Y., which has the highest per capita number of Deaf and hard of hearing people of any American city because the National Technical Institute for the Deaf attracts students and faculty from around the world. In Rochester, Dr. Stack interpreted for a Deaf pediatric dentist who had a two-year residency at a local hospital. “My story came full circle,” says Dr. Stack. “I realized, ‘I want to be doing that!’” She went to Western University in London, Ontario, for dental school—“it was hard to go back to school in my 40s, but I wasn’t the oldest student that they’d ever had”— and began practising in Ottawa. Dr. Stack feels that her background in ASL interpreting helps her better serve her hearing patients. “I pick up on it when people don’t understand what I’m trying to communicate,” she says. “Much of the work of being a dentist is communicating about preventative care.” Access to health care and health outcomes for Deaf and hard of hearing people are lower than for the general population. “The communication disadvantage plays out in different ways,” says Dr. Stack. Deaf and hard of hearing children who grow up in hearing families often don’t experience the incidental learning that hearing children do; they don’t overhear other people talking about flossing, brushing, cavities or dental visits. “Instead, explicit learning has to happen. Someone needs to explain directly,” says Dr. Stack. When it comes to visiting a dentist, often family members work as impromptu interpreters for Deaf and hard of hearing people. “The quality of the interpreting varies, of course,” says Dr. Stack. Dentists are supposed to provide professional interpreters upon request, according to the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act . One of Dr. Stack’s patients in Ottawa, Monique Dozois—who is Deaf—was interviewed by the CBC and said that when she had her wisdom teeth removed by another dentist, she and her dentist communicated by writing on a scrap of paper that they handed back and forth. “I do think that being able to communicate with me directly makes dental visits less anxiety-inducing for Deaf and hard of hearing patients,” says Dr. Stack. She also enjoys the opportunity to communicate with ASL. “I miss being an interpreter,” she says. “I didn’t stop because I was tired of interpreting, I just wanted to be a dentist more.” a I do think that being able to communicate with me directly makes dental visits less anxiety-inducing for Deaf and hard of hearing patients. ➜ Dr. Shelly Stack communicating with ASL.