He completed his D.D.S. and residency in orthodontics in Brazil and also pursued a master's degree in the United States. In 1999, he was selected as a Magnuson Scholar at the University of Washington for his research project on osteoclast recruitment after appliance activation. Wellington used to be a private practitioner and part-time professor in Brazil for eight years before starting his full-time academic career in orthodontics at the University of Manitoba, Canada. In 2009, he was granted a three-year, full-time, faculty teaching fellowship by the American Association of Orthodontists, and his peer-reviewed evaluations were highly positive.