SENSATIONAL

TECHNOFILESteve Cheema andRosemary KuikenROSEMARY’S ANGELSask rosemary kuiken about Steve Cheema and TomSulek and she’ll tell you they’re her “special angels.” Thetwo Denturist Technology instructors made a discoverythat likely saved her life.It’s a serendipitous story that started in 2009 whenKuiken became a patient at the NAIT Dental Clinic. Thatsame year, LED Dental Inc. donated its VELscope toNAIT. Cheema was asked to familiarize himself with thetool – which assists in identifying abnormalities in themouth, including those not visible to the naked eye –and develop protocols for how it would be used in theclinic. It was January 2010 when he went in search ofhis first patient on whom to test the scope. He scannedthe charts, identifying Kuiken, who was in to have herdentures adjusted, as a good candidate because ofher history of smoking. While he says he expected hertissue to be a little different, “I didn’t expect to findanything.”Normal, healthy cells produce chemicals thatglow under the light of the VELscope. Abnormal cells,including denture sore spots, scar tissue and cancer,appear dark. When he looked through the scope intoKuiken’s mouth, Cheema saw a dark line on her tongue.He asked Sulek, who was also supervising in the clinicthat day, to take a look.Cheema referred Kuiken to a pathologist, whoconfirmed that the line Cheema had seen was, indeed,cancer – something that surprised Kuiken, who felt fine.“If it wouldn’t have been for that scope and Steve andTom,” says Kuiken, trailing off. “They probably ended upsaving my life.”Kuiken, 59, had surgery in November 2010, losinga small part of her tongue in the removal of the tumour.Aware that it could have been much worse, Kuiken, whohas smoked since she was about 20 and has quit manytimes, is now trying to cut down to two cigarettes a dayand, soon, give up the habit entirely.This year, students in the Denturist Technologyprogram will begin to use the VELscope routinely.— Kristen VernonPhoto by blaise van malsen22 techlifemag.ca