Becoming a smile champion

“They seem to be having a great day in there!” said my Mum, “The pair of them have not stopped laughing”. Sat outside the orthodontist’s surgery, I was fifteen years old and anxious to get my teeth straightened. I can’t imagine that my mother was aware that what she said next would plant the seed of my career in dentistry, “Imagine working here, nice hours, a clean environment, no work to take home and you can stay nice and dry, unlike your Dad who’s outside in all weathers!”. And just like that, I was hooked!

A year passed and my school asked me to put forward my three top choices for work experience. I chose to spend the week at a dental surgery, and to be totally honest, it was horrible. It was nothing like my positive experience with my friendly orthodontists. The nurses were running from room to room, the dentist was humourless and rather icy, and the conversation was minimal to put it lightly. I sat in the corner of the surgery on a chair that was positioned directly in front of the patients to self-consciously observe. I could see their faces and had nowhere else to look as the dentist continued his examinations and treatments without really giving the mouth in front of him any respect or friendliness. Ignoring the person with feelings in front of him, he was robotic in his manner and I felt uncomfortable viewing it. I remember sitting there and thinking, ‘This is not right, they are not telling the patients anything’. All I could do was look on sympathetically and know in my head that I would not treat my future patients this way. I vowed to myself to treat my patients as I would wish to be treated myself.