acific Coast Society of Orthodontists Bulletin Summer 2018 - 61

New and Younger Members

Dr. Rob Mintenko,
Orthodontic Resident, UBC

Dr. Rob Mintenko
University of British Columbia
(UBC) Faculty of Dentistry

Dr. Mintenko with his wife,
Daniela, during their wedding in
Cartagena, Colombia, in February
2016
Summer 2018  PCSO Bulletin

What first interested you in orthodontics?
My first exposure to orthodontics came from a
family friend, Dr. Kent Goldade, who was an
orthodontist in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. I
babysat his children for several years while growing up. Throughout high school and university, I
had the opportunity to shadow his office, and ask
him and his then fellow partners, Dr. Mike Ziglo
and Dr. Kam Olfert, lots of questions about dentistry and orthodontics in particular. Those early
interactions started to plant the seed in my mind
that becoming an orthodontist offered a greatly
satisfying career. Each of the orthodontists I
knew seemed to truly enjoy helping others and
going to work every day. Once in dental school, I
was fortunate to have several great orthodontic
faculty help me learn much more about orthodontics. They were always some of the most
upbeat faculty we had, and they spoke so highly
of their specialty and how much they were able
to positively impact their patients' lives. Their feedback and advice only helped further solidify my
interest in wanting to specialize as an orthodontist.

year, with typically one of those spots taken by a
PhD student. Residents build a thorough foundation of orthodontic concepts and literature and a
wide variety of treatment philosophies and practice management skills. Residents also participate in rotations through craniofacial and cleft
clinics at the nearby British Colombia Children's
Hospital, which treats the majority of cleft and
craniofacial cases in the province. A significant
focus of the curriculum is preparing residents for
both the Canadian board exam (administered by
the Royal College of Dentists of Canada) as well
as the American Board of Orthodontics written
and clinical exams. To become a licensed orthodontist in Canada, one must pass both parts
of the Canadian board exam, which is a very
high-stakes examination. All residents are also
required to produce graduate-level research with
topics typically focusing on obstructive sleep
apnea, craniofacial morphometrics, embryological mechanisms in craniofacial development,
cleft palate epidemiology, and long-term effects
of serial extraction and palatal expansion.

Tell me about your orthodontic residency program.
The UBC Faculty of Dentistry offers a three-year
combined diploma in orthodontics and MSc in
craniofacial science, as well as a six-year combined diploma in orthodontics and PhD in craniofacial science. Five residents are accepted per

What are some highlights of your residency?
The people involved in our program, from program director Dr. Ed Yen and clinic director Dr.
David Kennedy to our many support staff in the
clinic, are what truly make our residency special.
The amount of effort and organization that is
undertaken by everyone in our program to help
best educate and prepare residents for practice
cannot be overstated. From a clinical standpoint,
we are very fortunate to have four other specialty
programs (pediatric dentistry, periodontics,
endodontics, and prosthodontics) that collaborate in planning and treating cases. We also hold
bi-weekly interdisciplinary seminars for which
each resident prepares a case review of a patient
treated across multiple disciplines with background literature provided. The program also
allows residents ample time off to enjoy many
conferences across the continent as well as various local continuing education events taking
place in Vancouver. Our group of residents has
found a good work/life balance and has enjoyed

UBC Class of 2018 in the graduate orthodontic
clinic. Resident names, left to right: Negar Salimi,
Suliman Alsaeed, Kathleen Martin, Rob Mintenko

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of acific Coast Society of Orthodontists Bulletin Summer 2018