Dr Raymond Young is a male General Dentist.
People will often ask me as to why I wanted to become a Dentist. Simply, the thought of staring into someone's mouth all day long was not their idea of a pleasant job. My reply, "there's lots of worse jobs out there". Not to mention there being lots of worse body parts to look at day in and day out!!!! And no, I won't mention what parts of the body I am talking about!
My first memories of dentistry were rather disturbing to say the least. Many people would say that my initial experiences of dentistry explains a lot about me... I still don't know whether that is a good thing or not. I remember being called out of class at primary school. Initially I suspected that it must have been my turn for that dreaded visit to the School Dental Clinic. However, once inside the clinic, it became apparent that I was there to help Mum hold my little sister down while the School Dental Nurse tried to restore some cavities in my sister's teeth! Imagine doing something like that these days – especially the trauma for my little sister!!! Over the years my little sister has learnt to forgive me for the part that I played in her dental visits. My excuse is that I didn't have any choice in the matter. It wasn't that the School Dental Nurse was mean or anything like that, she was actually very nice.
Growing up in rural Napier meant that everybody in the small community knew each other. Especially as she only lived a short drive down the road. So I guess, if our School Dental Nurse was being mean and/or nasty, then our parents would hear pretty quickly.
During my Secondary School years, I always "enjoyed" the sciences. At least with the Sciences you always knew whether you were 'right' or 'wrong'. As opposed to the Art subjects... to me, there was no 'black' or 'white'... it was all 'grey'. So I guess my path was always angled towards Health Sciences and Dentistry.
I guess another factor in choosing the dental 'path' was my next door neighbour. Graham was ten years older than myself and he had just graduated from Dental School at Otago University. I always 'idolised' Graham as he was always easy to talk to and made Dentistry sound very interesting. After I graduated, we would always meet up every Christmas time in Napier when visiting our respective families (still living next door to each other in Napier). Unfortunately Graham passed away recently after a short battle with cancer. Sadly, he didn't even make it to enjoy his 50th birthday.
Dentistry is everything Graham said it was. It's a rewarding profession where no two days are the same. We get to meet lots of interesting people from all walks of life. However I do find that it's quite difficult to have a decent conversation with any of our patients while they are reclined in a comfortable dental chair. It still doesn't stop me from trying! There are some days are quite stressful when things don't always go according to plan... but at the end of each day, there's always the satisfaction that we have performed to the best of our ability, and that we have helped a lot of people. It's the satisfaction that keeps me going.
Unlike a lot of my colleagues, I never did the OE thing after graduating from Otago University. Instead I chose to work at the Christchurch Hospital Dental Department. I thoroughly enjoyed being at Christchurch Hospital, so much so that I decided to stay for a second year.
