One step ahead

Emma Anastasi, 30, has been a dental nurse for six years, joining King’s College Hospital as a trainee dental nurse in March 2012. This was a full-time, two-year course in which she attended classroom-based lectures and worked in departments on rotation in all areas of specialism. From there, she joined a multidisciplinary specialist practice in Wimpole Street and, in 2016, joined a practice in West Sussex as practice manager.

I completely fell into dentistry. I started as a receptionist at a mixed NHS practice in Mitcham in 2008 and was encouraged to follow the path of a dental hygienist – and this had been my main goal until 2016. I never thought of it as a career until I started my dental nurse training. For me, it was a job to have until I knew what I wanted to do. At the time, I was volunteering as a special constable with the Metropolitan Police and was hoping to become a full-time police officer, so definitely not what I had aspired to do.