SCFVD of Texas A&M

A letter from SCFVD Texas A&M – highlighting their club’s activities!

Dear Lou Brown,

Thank you so much for the yearly contribution to our club that the Foundation for Veterinary Dentistry donates. The majority of the funds were used to purchase supplies and food for our annual Canine and Equine Dental wet labs.

During the Canine Dental Wet Lab, Dr. Dodd teaches the 1vm and 2vm students how to perform an oral exam, what dental tools to use, and how to perform dental cleanings. He teaches them do do the cleaning from tartar removal to polishing at the end with the exact equipment we will be using in practice. The 3VM and 4VM students practice extractions, and Dr. Dodd dedicates one-on-one time to each person in this lab, giving each student specific advice.

The second half of the day is spent doing the Equine Dental Wet Lab. Here Dr. Griffin goes through the equine oral exam and common pathology. He gives an hour lecture before the lab begins, and then students get to perform the oral dental exam, and identify pathology, anatomy, practice floating teeth, and extractions.

Any funds left over were used to purchase lunches for our lunch-and-learns. These are monthly meetings that the club hosts for members, and sometimes the entire class if we have a sponsored meal by our speakers. This year we brought in Dr. Jordan to speak about exotic dentistry, Dr. Dodd to speak about feline stomatitis, (BI/Merial brought) Dr. Lobprise to speak about small animal dentistry, Dr. Griffin to speak about equine dentistry, Virbac also brought a speaker this year, and Dr. Loes from Nutramax to talk to us about Consil.

The club uses the majority of its funds for the aforementioned activities. A large portion this year was also used to purchase merchandise to sell to students and at the CVM Open House. We have not sold all the merchandise yet, but we hope to sell it all this coming year. We purchased Baseball-T’s that say, “Texas A&M Vet School,” and comfy pants that have the veterinary medicine emblem.

We also offered an exotic mammal wet lab led by Dr. Hoppes. It is for additional wet labs like this, and to purchase club food items that we need additional funds for every year.

Thank you so much for everything you do to support the club. We enjoyed such a great year, and offered students at Texas A&M CVM numerous opportunities to learn about veterinary dentistry. I am very proud to be part of this club, and the officer team for next year also held different officer positions this year, and I can say from personal experience they are an amazing group of students that are also dedicated to promoting excellence in veterinary dentistry. Here are their names:

James Sanchez, President
Nantika Du, Vice President
Ashley Polasek, Treasurer
Emerald Rodriguez, Secretary

Again, thank you so much! And we look forward to working with you all next academic year.
Best wishes,
Maria Elena Cartagena
Former President of the Student Chapter of the Foundation for Veterinary Dentistry