Mary Wood will tell you it seems like yesterday when she was a student alongside Mary Allen, Jeane Ford, Debbie Monday, Maria Pappas, Cynthia Scott, Carol Gilliland MacLane, Debra Russell, Cheryl Haggerty and the late Emily Norris Cottle, and all among the 1975 dental hygiene graduating class at Fayetteville Technical Community College.
She cherishes to this day those days of yesteryear.
“God put me in the right class,” Wood, 87, says with fond memories, “and I believe the best class.”
They were together again on Oct. 24 as the class celebrated its golden anniversary at the Dental Hygiene Department.
“Oh, my, has it ever changed,” Wood said Friday about how far oral health care has come since 1975 for today’s dental hygiene students at the college along Hull Road. “They are very fortunate to learn more than I ever got to learn and do much more than our class ever got to do. I would love to go back and learn everything they are learning now to become a hygienist. They have more knowledge and things have changed for the better.”
Wood and Pappas remember learning under instructors such as Dr. David Dunham, who was head of the dental hygiene program, and others to include Linda Spruill, Kay Irvin Sargent and Ilene Hoehne Fallon, who celebrated her 107th birthday Saturday.
Wood remembers instructors as dedicated to helping them along their dental hygienist way.
“They were good and patient,” she said, “and had encouraging words.”
Dental hygienist pioneers
“We took a tour of the new clinic,” Pappas said. “Everything is quite different and modernized using the technology of today.”
They learned about dental advancement for hygienists such as the Guided Biofilm Therapy units, which use air polishing and EMS technology to remove biofilm in a minimally invasive way; the Flamingo intraoral camera system, which allows for high-resolution imaging during instrumentation instruction; and a state-of-the-art sterilization room, which is designed to meet the highest standards of infection control and efficiency, giving students hands-on experience with modern sterilization protocols.
Kim Utley and Steven Tucker of the FTCC dental hygiene faculty, under the supervision of Dr. Amanda Jones, who is chair of the school’s Dental Hygiene Department, say they “were honored” to welcome what they describe as “pioneers” of the dental hygiene program.
Utley and Tucker say they could see the “strong sense of nostalgia and camaraderie” in the faces of those attending the reunion. And, they say, it was rewarding for current FTCC dental hygiene students “to witness the legacy they’re becoming a part of.”
Pappas fondly remembers her years as a dental hygienist.
“I always loved my profession and never forgot it,” said Pappas, who, after graduation, worked as a hygienist for the late Dr. R.A. Carnevale.
Mary Wood worked for nearly 30 years under Fayetteville dentists Dr. James Hancock, the late Dr. Joel Hedgecoe and Dr. Carnevale, but most of those years with Hancock.
“I miss it,” she said.
A dental hygienist, she says, is an integral part of the dental profession.
“A dental hygienist is an educator,” Wood said. “I enjoyed teaching patients how to floss and brush and how to keep their teeth and gums healthy for their lifetime. And dental hygienists also perform oral cancer screenings.”
Mary Wood and Maria Pappas will tell you that celebrating the 50th reunion of their class was a joy, and seeing one another again, although they missed Emily Norris Cottle, who lived in Dunn and worked 45 years as a dental hygienist for Benson Dentistry before her death at age 70 on Christmas Day in 2024.
“We went, those of us who could, as a group to her funeral,” Pappas said, “and paid our respects.”
Epilogue
While missing Cottle, Pappas says, the class of 1975 reunion was one for sharing memories of their dental hygiene days gone by.
“We were so happy we could get together for this reunion,” said Pappas, who once was president of the Greater Fayetteville Area Dental Hygiene Society. “We’ve always been a very good class. FTCC was so kind. It was so nice.”
It was a reunion to remember.
“It was absolutely wonderful,” Mary Wood said. “Everyone was enjoying themselves. We were all friends in school and have remained friends.”
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
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