LIFE OF A DAY IN THE
LOUISA KELLETT DENTIST
My day starts with a gym session at 6.30 a.m. with a lovely group of ladies and trainer Craig Culkin. I spend most of my working day sitting down so it is very important to maintain my core strength and I love food so much that I need to do something now that I am getting older and a little wider!
Work starts at around 07.45 a.m. as a lot of patients like to be seen before work. As I treat 17 to 30 patients a day, I see a huge range of people and have some fascinating conversations.
The biggest change I have seen applies to most professions and that is the huge rise in potential litigation. This means I have to keep very detailed notes on each patient.
As a general dentist I carry out a range of care including fillings, crowns, check ups and extractions. I know I work on an area of the body with a high number of nerve endings and is therefore very sensitive and I do my utmost to be as gentle as I can.
A lot of patients are also anxious, nervous, terrified, in pain or all of these. That is the toughest part of my job and you need to build up a huge reserve of emotional resilience. I can’t think of many jobs where people tell you on a daily basis that they hate you. Modern dentistry has to work hard to erase people’s negative perceptions, often resulting from bad experiences at the dreaded old school dentist. Our work can therefore be physically demanding and emotionally draining.
As well as the clinical side of the job I am a small business owner and so deal with everything from HR, psychology to basic engineering, marketing, general maintenance and a lot of counselling of staff and patients! The running costs of a dental practice are extremely high which explains the often asked question, why is it so expensive to visit the dentist. I have to balance providing value for money with paying my staff a fair wage as well as rent, utilities, leasing new equipment, indemnity and insurances. I also have to complete 250 hours of CPD over a five year period which may mean travelling to the U.K. It is a very fast moving discipline so it is important to keep up with the latest advances and legislation.
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Page 100 20/20 A day in the life of...
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