Dr. Paul Germain
On May 28, the Ordre des dentistes du Québec awarded its 2011 Prix Hommage to Dr. Paul Germain. In doing so the Order wished to recognize this great humanitarian’s work to promote oral health and greater access to dental care, both here, among the most underprivileged, and elsewhere in the world, through Dentistes Sans Frontières, the co-operative organization he co-founded.

After earning his degree in dentistry in 1962, Dr. Germain opened a private practice in Verdun, where he is still working today. Some years later, he was hired as a Lecturer at the Université de Montréal Faculty of Dentistry. In 1996, he joined the advisory committee on the teaching of dental hygiene at Collège Maisonneuve, and remained a member until 2004.

Elected as a Director of the Association des chirurgiens dentistes du Québec (ACDQ) in 1985, he later served as a Counsellor on the Executive Committee several times. Since 1998, he has also been serving as a Director of the Société de Services Dentaires. In 2006, he was made a lifetime member of the ACDQ in recognition of his commitment to his colleagues. In 2010, the Pierre Fauchard Academy awarded him a Certificate of Merit for distinguished service, and in 2011, he was made a Fellow of the Académie dentaire du Québec.

In 1999, Dr. Germain co-founded Dentistes Sans Frontières (DSF), affiliated with the international co-operation organization Terre Sans Frontières. He has since been pursuing his commitment to this humanitarian cause with an impact extending beyond our borders, both as a member of the DSF Executive Committee and on the missions he has undertaken since the founding of the organization, in particular in the Honduras.

Through his continuing commitment to teaching, Dr. Germain has contributed to improving the skills of future dentists, and hence the quality of dentistry in general. His contribution to professional activities and his devotion to his patients for close to 50 years are eloquent evidence of his professionalism.

The Prix Hommage of the Ordre des dentistes du Québec recognizes the exceptional contribution by one of its members to the development of the profession, in keeping with the Order’s mandate to promote dental health and public protection.

As the recipient of the 2011 Prix Hommage of the ODQ, Dr. Germain received a blown glass sculpture evoking the different materials used in dentistry, including gold, porcelain and titanium, and symbolizing both the future and excellence.

Dr. Jean-Paul Lussier
On May 29, the Ordre des dentistes awarded its 2010 Prix Hommage to Dr. Jean-Paul Lussier, as recognition by his peers of his exceptional contribution to the development of the profession. Dr. Lussier, a Professor Emeritus, was Dean of the Faculty of Dentistry of the Université de Montréal for 17 years. He devoted most of his career, over a period of nearly six decades, to teaching dentistry and contributing to advances in the dental profession.

Dr. Lussier earned his Doctorate in Dental Surgery in 1942 and a Master of Science in 1952 from the Université de Montréal, and a PhD from the University of California in 1959. A graduate of Harvard Business School (1974), he also holds honorary PhDs from McGill University (1972) and Université Laval (1995). In addition to his duties as Dean of the Faculty of Dentistry of the Université de Montréal, Dr. Lussier was a very active member of a number of scientific organizations, including the Council on Education of the Canadian Dental Association, the Dental Research Committee of the Conseil national dentaire du Canada, the Medical Research Council of Canada, the Conseil de la recherche en santé du Québec, the World Health Organization and the International Association of Dental Research.

Dr. Lussier devoted more than half of his lengthy career to teaching and administration at the Université de Montréal, where he was Assistant Professor in the Physiology Department of the Faculty of Medicine (1946-1952), Associate Professor (1954-1958), Vice-Dean and Academic Director of the Faculty of Dental Surgery (1957-1962), Full Professor (1958-1983), Director of the Department of Preventive and Community Dentistry of the Faculty of Dental Surgery (1965-1975) and Dean of the Faculty of Dental Surgery (1962-1979). He also chaired the Commission des sciences de la santé from 1979 to 1983.

Dr. Lussier was the co-founder and President of the Association of Canadian Faculties of Dentistry, of the Académie dentaire du Québec and the Advisory Committee of the Réseau thématique de recherche en santé buccodentaire of the Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec. He was also a Governor of the College of Dental Surgeons of the Province of Quebec and was mandated by the Ordre des dentistes du Québec to organize the Estates General of the dental profession in Quebec in 1991.

In the late 1990s, Dr. Lussier was a member of the roundtable on workforce planning in dentistry in Quebec, and responsible for studying the professional workforce in oral and maxillofacial surgery in Quebec.

He is a Fellow of the American College of Dentists, the International College of Dentists, the Royal College of Dentists of Canada and the Académie dentaire du Québec and an honorary Fellow of the Academy of Dentistry International. He was honoured by the American Academy of Dental Medicine (1957), the Alpha Omega Fraternity (1962) and the Académie Pierre Fauchard (1989). He is an honorary member of the Canadian Dental Association and the Association des dentistes en santé communautaire du Québec, and received the Award of Merit from the Québec Interprofessional Council in 1996.

In 2000, the Réseau de recherche en santé buccodentaire et osseuse created an award in his honour, the Prix Jean-Paul-Lussier, to salute the exceptional contribution by a student to the advancement of the profession and to the development and improvement of oral medical care.

Over the course of his career, Dr. Lussier produced over one hundred reports, articles, briefs and presentations on subjects ranging from dental care to fluoridation, the reform of the dental curriculum, dental education and research.

The Prix Hommage recognizes the exceptional contribution by an ODQ member to the development of the profession, in keeping with the Order’s mandate to promote dental health and public protection. As the recipient of the 2010 Prix Hommage, Dr. Lussier received a blown glass sculpture evoking the different materials used in dentistry, including gold, porcelain and titanium, and symbolizes both the future and excellence.

Dr. Jean-Marc Brodeur
A native Montrealer, he earned his Doctorate in Dental Surgery from the Université de Montréal in 1971, and went on to do a Master’s degree in Community Health there in 1978. He then did a post-doctoral internship in Epidemiology in Paris, before returning to the Université de Montréal to complete his PhD thesis on oral health in the elderly.

After serving as Assistant Professor in the Social and Preventive Medicine Department at the Université de Montréal for four years, Dr. Brodeur worked as an Associate Professor in Dental Public Health and Assistant Director of the School of Dentistry at Université Laval.

In 1991, he returned to the Université de Montréal as Director of the interdisciplinary health research group, and then as Director of the Social and Preventive Medicine Department. He was involved in creating the oral health research network of the Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec, and was its first Director. In 1995, Dr. Brodeur helped found the Association des dentistes spécialistes en santé dentaire publique du Québec, and was its first President.

Dr. Brodeur also earned a diploma as a specialist in dental public health from the ODQ in 1990. He is a Fellow of the Académie dentaire du Québec and the Académie dentaire internationale, and in 2007 was presented with the Advil–Micheline-Blain award for his exceptional contribution to the development and advancement of oral health and public health research in Quebec.

He has written some one hundred research reports and publications on assessing and monitoring oral health among Quebecers and the effectiveness of public dental health prevention programs.

Dr. Stéphane Schwartz
Dr. Schwartz began practising dentistry in 1962, and has been interested in pediatric dentistry since 1972. She has chaired the Coalition de Montréal pour des dents en santé since 2003, and heads the Dentistry Department at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, which treats over 15,000 children a year. The Coalition is an initiative of the Montreal Children’s Hospital, and promotes water fluoridation as a way of halting the scourge of dental caries among Montreal children.

She is a Fellow of the Académie dentaire du Québec and the Royal College of Dentists of Canada, and has given over one hundred lectures, authored some forty articles and conducted about twenty research projects on pediatric dentistry. She has taught pediatric dentistry at McGill University since 1978, as an Associate Professor.

During her productive career, Dr. Schwartz has received a number of distinctions, including the W.W. Wood Award for Excellence in Dental Education in the Faculty of Dentistry, from McGill University in 1993, the Distinguished Service Award, from the Canadian Dental Association in 2002, and the Mead Johnson Medical Award of Excellence, from the Montreal Children’s Hospital in 2005. Just recently, the Council of Physicians, Dentists and Pharmacists at the Montreal Children’s Hospital of the McGill University Health Centre presented her with its 2008 Award of Merit for the body of her work.

Dr. Roland Baribeau
This prestigious award is a tribute to Dr. Baribeau’s exceptional contribution to the development of the profession and improvement of dental care for Quebecers.

Dr. Baribeau was a founding member and President of the Association dentaire de la Province du Québec. He was the driving force behind water fluoridation in Trois-Rivières, and devoted a fifty-year career to caring for his patients.