Emma Gaudreau Casgrain (2 June 1861, in

Montmagny, Quebec Montmagny () is a city in the Montmagny Regional County Municipality within the Chaudière-Appalaches region of Quebec. It is the county seat and had a population, as of the Canada 2011 Census, of 11,491. The city is on the south shore of the Sai ...

– 1934) was the first woman to be licensed as a dentist in Canada.

Biography

Gaudreau, born in Montmagny, studied with the Ursulines. In 1879, she married

Henri-Edmond Casgrain Henri-Edmond Casgrain (born August 5, 1846, L'Islet, Canada East; d. 30 October 1914, Quebec City, Quebec) was a Canadian dental surgeon, inventor, city councillor and the first motorist in Quebec. Casgrain studied at Collège de Sainte-Anne-de-la ...

(1846-1914), dental surgeon, inventor, alderman and first Quebec motorist. She trained as a dentist under her husband, a

dental surgeon A dentist, also known as a dental surgeon, is a health care professional who specializes in dentistry (the diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases and conditions of the oral cavity and other aspects of the craniofacial com ...

who was 15 years her senior. After graduating from the "Dental College of the Province of Quebec" (predecessor to the

McGill University Faculty of Dentistry The Faculty of Dental Medicine and Oral Health Sciences is one of the constituent faculties of McGill University. It became established as a constituent of McGill University in 1904 as the McGill Dental School, a department in the McGill Universit ...

) in 1898, she became the first woman in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

to be officially admitted to the

profession A profession is a field of work that has been successfully ''professionalized''. It can be defined as a disciplined group of individuals, '' professionals'', who adhere to ethical standards and who hold themselves out as, and are accepted by ...

of dentistry. She practised until 1920. She and her husband had an office on Rue Saint-Jean from 1898. She died in 1934. The city of Quebec placed a plaque on the house where she lived at 180 Aberdeen Street.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Casgrain, Emma Gaudreau 1861 births 1934 deaths Women dentists Canadian dentists Canadian women physicians People from Montmagny, Quebec