Give me a little bit of a background in dentistry?
The BDS application form was in my hand because of my constant thirst for learning. I saw dentistry as a never-ending supply of knowledge and development. My gut also told me that I had already had useful transferable skills both technically and non-technically. My path into dentistry was a bit random. It’s a long one but what happened before my applying is very important for me, as it now shapes who I am as a dentist and what I will do next. I started my dental training later in life, at the age of thirty-three!!
At high school I wanted to be an architect, engineer or a medical artist.
When I left high school, I went to Art school and lasted one week! I walked out after they asked me to paint a portrait with the wrong end of a paintbrush. They tried to squeeze every inch of discipline out of me and I loathed it!
I decided I needed to find a profession that could combine my love of science, drawing with discipline and work with my hands. I was accepted into a degree course in Medical Illustration in Glasgow. A profession responsible for producing imagery that serves a specific purpose; to communicate. My job was to translate the surgeons’ words (the medical theory and human anatomy) into a visual. Where we extract the ‘noise’ from a surgical procedure to communicate specific elements of that.
However, I was not satisfied with Medical Illustration as it didn’t really challenge me mentally, visually or technically in the way I wanted. I had a young child so wasn’t able to move away to study dentistry at that time. I had begun to fall in love with healthcare though and became a Dental Therapist.
Subsequently I became a tutor on the same course. It married my artistic and scientific passion so it married some things but it didn’t check everything.
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Teaching has been one of the most creative aspects of my career so far and I use many of these skills e.g in educating patients, understanding people and leadership of a team.
My ability to visualise and translate words into shape was useful to me within my role as a dental therapist. Yet the restorative scope was not nearly enough for me.
The reason I wanted to become a dentist was because of my love for restorative dentistry, and I saw the prospect in amalgamating my abilities and experiences so far within a new role. I wanted to learn so much more (and still do) and this move remains the best decision I have ever made.
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Okay, lets break this down- What does a degree in medical illustration entail?
It was filled with numerous lectures with doctors and dentists- digital graphics, art based illustrative work and a lot of photography. I was responsible for documenting patient conditions- way of diagnosing and monitoring, recording injuries or photographing accidents, non-accidental emergencies, crimes or even press photography. It also included hospital photography during a surgery- documenting a procedure step by step and work with individual surgeons so you are creating imagery with them. Most hospitals in the uk would have medical illustrators.
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How was your experience with dental nursing?
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Shortly after my degree in medical Illustration, I had my daughter and moved back to the highlands. At that time, there weren't many opportunities for work as a medical illustrator but I found an opportunitty to become a dental nurse. At that time, I thought, nursing would be part-time clinical work with on the job training training. It also involved working in a hospital which I loved so I just took my leap of faith.
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Funnily enough, the place I worked as a dental nurse had a school for dental therapy too. I really enjoyed the dental environment from my nursing experience but I wanted to do more and I wanted more autonomy, responsibility and knowledge and thats why I started dental therapy.
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I worked as a dental therapist for about 4.5 years. I worked in a private teaching hospital and I had an amazing time. I was comfortable, wasn't stressing out, was well-respected and had a decent salary so at this point, it was real gamble for me as to whether I really wanted to do dentistry. Despite all the perks of being a therapist, I felt that I had nearly reached my ceiling and was feeling trapped.
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I was immersing myself with work and enjoyed restorative dentistry and dental therapy wants offering me the scope that I wanted to do with the potential I had. It was a real gamble for me to go back into dentistry at this point.
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What made you want to do dentistry?
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The reason I wanted to become a dentist was because of my love for restorative dentistry. I wanted to learn so much more (and still do) and this move remains the best decision I have ever made.
I qualified as a dentist in 2021. I chose to complete the four-year post-graduate dental degree at the Institute of Dentistry Aberdeen. Previous students spoke very highly of the education and its vocational trainees were regarded highly by local trainers. The location suited me too, as I have a family and a teenage daughter to consider. Though the pandemic resulted in my training taking a little longer than expected I tried to achieve as much as I could both personally and professionally during my time as a student there.
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