Volume 8 • 2021 • Issue 6

Handicapped (now called Special Care Dentistry) where he was introduced to many leading professionals in the special needs field, including Dr. David Tesini whom he assisted in developing the D-Termined program for treating individuals with autism, and Dr. Steven Perlman, global director of the Special Olympics. From there, Dr. Friedman progressed to the board of the International Association for Disability and Oral Health (IADH), becoming president in 2004, and has since built an extensive global network of teachers and leaders in the area of special needs care. “I’ve met some phenomenal individuals along the way, many of whom I still have close contact with today. All were very good mentors from whom I learnt most of what I know. It’s been an incredible journey.” Pediatrics and Working with People with Disabilities Dr. Friedman left his homeland the day after his graduation from the University of Witwatersrand in 1976 and he never looked back. Initially, he emigrated to Israel where he worked in private practice for six months before deciding on a specialty in pediatrics. After a one-year stint in London, England, working in the NHS, he accepted a place at the University of New Orleans (UNO) for graduate training, a school he chose for its broad educational perspective and the opportunity to spend a whole year working in a hospital that only treated individuals with disabilities. “The theory is that, as a pediatric dentist, if you can learn to work on a child with disability you can work on any child. It gives you the background training in terms of behaviour and the ability to function well as a pediatric dentist.” It wasn’t long before the work started to make a big impression on Dr. Friedman. So much so, that he can still recall the key learning moment during graduate training that would come to inform his practice for so many years to come: “A child in a wheelchair with cerebral palsy came in and the professor spoke to this individual as if he was intellectually disabled as well as physically disabled. He spoke down to him. But I remember looking down and seeing that the patient was reading a book— The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksander Solzhenitsyn—and I remember thinking that this individual probably had an I.Q. double that of both myself and the prof put together. It was a pivotal moment when I realized that you must never make assumptions.” Dr. Friedman was hooked. A fire had been lit and he found his calling. After graduating from UNO, he accepted a full-time position at Western University, a posting that presented an invaluable opportunity to work alongside Dr. Gerald Wright, who was the world leader in pediatric behaviour at the time. Soon after, Dr. Friedman was invited onto the board of the American Academy of Dentistry for the If you can learn to work on a child withdisability youcanworkonany child. It gives you the background training in terms of behaviour and the ability to function well as a pediatric dentist. Dr. Clive Friedman volunteering in Honduras. 33 Issue 6 | 2021 | Issues and People