New doctor and dentists practicing in Neepawa

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Published on Thursday, September 17, 2015

Photos by Kira Paterson. Neepawa's new doctors: (l to r) Dr. Daniel Zettler, Dr. Allison Simpson, Dr. Nichelle Desilets.

By Kira Paterson

The Neepawa Banner

Neepawa's newest arrivals are pleased to be a part of the community. Recently three new doctors began new practices within the town. 

Daniel Zettler is the new dentist at Neepawa Dental. He started there part time in November of 2014, and took over once Dr. Moyer retired the following January. 

Zettler’s strengths in high school were math and science, so he knew at that point he wanted to pursue a career in health care. He likes to work with people, so he decided dentistry would be a good fit because it would allow him to meet people, talk to them and help them.

He studied at University of Manitoba for six years. After he graduated, he started his career in Carberry. Once a spot in Neepawa opened up, he came here. Now he works one or two days a week in Carberry and the rest at Neepawa. 

Growing up on a farm just outside of Portage la Prairie, Zettler always preferred the rural lifestyle to city life. Neepawa has been an excellent fit for him in that way. He enjoys working in this small town setting so much that he plans to stay at Neepawa Dental until he retires. 

Zettler has done extra training in occlusion, which is how people bite. If people are grinding or clenching their teeth, he has had the training to help prevent or alleviate those problems. 

Education and prevention are very important in his work. He makes sure that his patients know what their options are to deal with certain problems. He works with his patients to teach them how to take care of their mouths to prevent certain issues from arising, or to stop early problems from becoming worse. 

In the future, Zettler plans to take training in more specialized fields that he has been interested in. Orthodontics and implants are two services he hopes to learn so he can offer them to his patients as well. 

Zettler believes that every job worth doing is worth doing right. He doesn’t believe in cutting corners or taking shortcuts. He strives to give his patients the best care possible.

Simpson happy to be in Neepawa

When Allison Simpson was in Grade 8, she went to Dr. Fedorowich for her braces; that was when she decided she wanted to be a dentist. From that point on, she worked toward getting into dentistry, doing job shadowing and work experience with Dr. Fedorowich for a Grade 12 credit. Now she works with her former dentist at Mountain Dental in Neepawa. 

Simpson grew up in Shoal Lake, Manitoba and was raised on a farm by the lake. Throughout school she played a lot of sports and was involved in many extracurricular activities. 

She went to University of Manitoba in Winnipeg for both her undergrad and dentistry education. After she graduated, Simpson worked in Winnipeg for a year at the Health Sciences Centre (HSC) for her residency. 

While at HSC, she was trained for conscious intravenous sedation. This method doesn’t put a patient right to sleep, but calms them down and makes them more relaxed, so that they can be more comfortable during a procedure. This isn’t set up at Mountain Dental yet, but once it is, she can use that skill to help patients have the best experience possible. 

Simpson also worked a lot with special needs patients at HSC. She heard about the Touchwood program in Neepawa and is very excited to provide services to their clients if they are interested. 

Simpson is happy to be in Neepawa to provide area residents with another dentist. Having another dentist in Neepawa taking patients makes it more convenient to make appointments without having to leave town. She started on Aug. 24 and although she is very booked, she is always taking new patients.

Simpson has been very busy lately, seeing patients and settling into her new job, so she hasn’t had the chance to see much of Neepawa. She hopes that once the fall comes and she has settled in, she will be able to get involved in the community with sports and other activities. She looks forward to meeting more people and getting to know the town better.

 Desilets back in Manitoba

Dr. Nichelle Desilets grew up in Elie, Manitoba. She went to the University of Manitoba for five years, studying biology and developmental psychology before she started her medical training. 

While a student in Winnipeg, she had a part time job as a receptionist at a doctor’s office. Seeing it from the inside, she decided that being a family doctor was something that she would enjoy, so she decided to pursue a career in medicine. 

Desilets saw a lot of western Canada during her medical training. She went to Calgary for two years of medical school, then Yellowknife, Northwest Territories for more training. From there, she went to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan to do two additional years of family medicine training and an extra year of training in surgery. 

Now, she is back in Manitoba, starting her career as a family doctor at the Beautiful Plains Clinic in Neepawa. She is keeping busy starting a new practice and readjusting to the Manitoba health care system. She just started here on Sept. 8, and she has already reached her maximum of 550 patients. She can only spend a couple of days a week in the clinic because she is also busy doing surgeries at the hospital.

Desilets specializes in maternity care and higher risk obstetrics, the care of pregnant and nursing women. She is able to do obstetrical and gynaecological surgeries. She can also do general procedures, such as removing an appendix or fixing hernias.

Desilets enjoys working in Neepawa. “ Neepawa has a really good medical system here. It’s one of the reasons I wanted to come and work here,” she said. “The group of physicians that works in this town is excellent. They are all excellent doctors and they’re all really friendly. Everyone gets along well, which is really important.”