April 21, 2025
Ferris State Dental Hygiene students embrace opportunity to serve in Guyana, bringing dental care to people in need
Cathy Archer just smiles when she hears her Ferris State University students talk about their life-changing experiences helping people in desperate need of dental care in Guyana.
Archer, an assistant professor of Dental Hygiene, has been on four such trips, the first in 2011 and the most recent in 2021. She knows first-hand the ways in which the experience is life-altering both during the time in the South American country and also on the return to Big Rapids.
She knows in her hands and her feet and her aching back what it's like to work from 7 a.m. to well past sunset, providing free dental services to people who started lining up at 2 a.m. to get their teeth cleaned, to have cavities filled and sometimes to have teeth pulled. She describes the experience as grueling but fulfilling.
"It's the hardest work I've ever done," she said. "But there are also no words to describe how much it means and how life-changing it is."
So when Ferris State seniors Alayna Deemter, who went back to Guyana for a second time as part of the 2024 trip, and Sydney Hodgins, who went for the first time in 2024, recall what a typical day was like for them, Archer can nod her head as the memories come flooding back.
"As a dental hygiene student, I cleaned teeth for 14 hours a day the first time I went and 11-12 hours a day the second time I went," Deemter said.
She noted that "breaks" might come in the way of assisting the doctors on the operative side or helping another hygienist during a particularly difficult cleaning.
Hodgins echoed her classmate.
"They were long days," she said simply. "There were times when the line of patients would be outside the door, and all we could focus on was the patient we had at that moment. It was very difficult not being able to do everything I could do for a patient in America because of the time constraints we faced."
But the Marquette native, and graduate of Marquette Senior High School, was quick to add that the good far outweighed the bad when it came to her time in Guyana, a trip open to any dental professional.
"Getting to personally communicate with each patient was an amazing opportunity," she said. "We also were able to learn about their culture, to assist them with overcoming dental anxiety and to play a part in giving them the smile they dreamed of their whole life."
Deemter, a graduate of Unity Christian High School, grew up in Hudsonville. She also appreciated the opportunity to hone her hygienist skills in a different setting than the usual American office. She had done some real-world, hands-on work in Big Rapids, including at free clinics the university runs for area children. But working in Guyana gave her insights that no amount of training stateside could replicate.
And she and Hodgins both liked that the trip, which is organized by Grand Rapids dentist Scott Hodges, has a faith component, though being a person of faith is by no means required for participation. In Deemter's case though, she has grown up as a Christian and liked that she didn't have to hide that foundational aspect of her life on the trip.
She added that her first semester of Dental Hygiene classes were difficult. But hearing about the trip sparked something for her, and actually going was everything she thought it would be.
"It is such a life changing trip," she said. "Everything is phenomenal. I could talk for hours about it. Many blessings and miracles along the way."
Similar sentiments were expressed by Hodgins.
"I have always had a huge heart to help others, but I felt like God was telling me I needed to go and do this," she said. "The faith aspect originally was not the most important factor for me, but once I went, I can say that it became the most important part. Guyana assisted in growing my faith and allowed me to share that faith with others."
As both seniors approach graduation, they say they appreciate their Ferris State experience, and know their skills are in demand.
Ferris State’s Dental Hygiene degree program is the largest in Michigan and one of the largest Dental Hygiene associate of applied science degree programs in the nation.
Employment of dental hygienists is projected to grow nine percent from 2023 to 2033, much faster than the average for all occupations, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. About 16,400 openings for dental hygienists are projected each year, on average, over the decade.
"To a high school student, I would say that dental hygiene is such a wonderful profession," Deemter said. "The school is hard, but so worth it. Ferris is known to be one of the best schools in the state. I believe I got a wonderful education."
Hodgins said the same.
"The Dental Hygiene program at Ferris may seem challenging at times, but it is so
worth it in the end," she said. "It will challenge you in more ways than you can imagine,
but it will also build you into an amazing dental hygienist and enable you to feel
confident in the work you will be doing outside of school."
Archer was a dental hygienist for many years before becoming a fulltime professor
at Ferris State in 2008.
One of seven children, born and raised in the eastern Upper Peninsula, her father practiced veterinary medicine and she said that is where her passion for the field of dentistry began.
"I used to assist him with many dental procedures on his canine and feline patients," she recalled.
She graduated from the Ferris State College Dental Hygiene program in 1987 (as winner of the "Outstanding Clinician" award), practiced from 1987 to 2002 and then returned to Big Rapids to earn a bachelor's degree and then a master's degree.
She admitted that as a clinician she could leave her work behind at the end of the day, but that as a professor she is often "doing homework" at nights and on Sunday afternoons as she grades, preps for the week ahead and more.
But it's a small price to pay, she added, to do what she loves.
"Teaching is a whole different ball game," she said. "You live it. You take it with you. But, oh my gosh, I am passionate about it, and I do love it."