MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Professional. Ethical. Courteous. Compassionate. Those are just a few of the characteristics the 60 members of the West Virginia University School of Dentistry Doctor of Dental Surgery Class of 2018 will promise to embody during their four years of dental school and beyond at the School’s Professionalism Assembly, which will be held at 4 p.m. on Friday in the WVU Health Sciences Center’s Okey Patteson Auditorium.
The assembly caps three days of orientation to the School and is intended to raise awareness of professional standards that are integral to success in dental school and necessary to sustain public trust in the dental profession. As an indication of dedication to the educational environment of integrity, members of the entering dental class repeat in unison the Pledge of Professionalism and individually sign the corresponding document in the presence of their families, friends, and dental faculty and staff.
Terrance L. Smith, D.D.S., a 1979 graduate of the WVU School of Dentistry, will serve as keynote speaker. Dr. Smith, a West Virginia native, is an owner and partner of Village Family Dental in North Carolina.
After graduating from the School of Dentistry, Smith entered military service with the U.S. Army. While on active duty, he completed both Airborne and Special Forces Qualified tours. His last tour with the Army was at Fort Bragg, where he was the chief of fixed prosthodontics and a principal instructor in the Army’s graduate dental program.
Smith received his specialty training in prosthodontics at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and is board certified. He joined Village Family Dental in 1992, when he and Dr. Michael Knowles established the foundation of the practice.
He has published several scholarly articles and teaches on a monthly basis at the University of North Carolina. He is actively involved in the Care Clinic of Fayetteville, where he provides free dental care for local residents.
The evening will end with a reception sponsored by the WVU School of Dentistry Alumni Association.