High Arctic Adventure - Arctic Bay

After leaving Pond Inlet, I arrived home for a four day mini vacation. Next stop was Iqaluit to meet my new dentist for the high arctic trip. Our first stop was Arctic Bay on Northern Baffin Island. The plan was to stay for two weeks, but we cut our visit down to ten days due to the fact that we were struggling to get patients in. There was a dental team in just a couple of weeks ago, and the community seems to have been over-serviced. I welcomed the slower pace since I have been working a lot of overtime and could use a bit of a break. Did I also mention that I caught a horrible flu that made it's way around town not once, but twice. Not fun to be sick in the Arctic!

Arctic Bay has a population of approximately 1000. There is a Northern Store, a Co-Op, a couple of convienient stores, and a heritage centre where they sell local carvings, mittens and artwork. There are also three churches in the community.

Street and Skidoo.

Northern Store, just three houses from the health centre

The Bay. Too frozen to use these. Two dog teams are tied up on the ice.

Church to the right of the health centre

Stuart and I had the opportunity to visit the school and meet some great kids in grade 5 and 6. This school has a dental therapist who takes care of all of the children's oral health needs, so instead of doing a dental presentation Stuart showed pictures from his trip to Africa, which the kids loved!

Grade 5/6

All giggles. They loved having their picture taken.

I was thrilled to see the toothbrushes in the classroom!