General Practice Dentist - George Gwynne

Visiting the dentist is something most people try and do as infrequently as possible, so the thought of becoming one isn’t likely to be top of mind. However, if you’re interested in the medical world and a people-focused career it struck us as really good option.

For a start, there’s the flexibility of working in a hospital or being a general practice dentist with your own business and patients. So if you’ve always fancied yourself as a closet entrepreneur you can get the excitement of building your own business coupled with the stability of a secure profession. Or if you prefer the hustle and bustle of hospital life, you can specialise into a particular discipline like dental surgery.

General practice dentistry looked to us like a great lifestyle option as it pulled together so many benefits from the medical world, excluding some of the less desirable aspects. Like medicine you care for patients and get the huge satisfaction of helping improve people’s lives. However you don’t get lumbered with weeks of nights or weekends ‘on call.’ You can work almost anywhere in the country and through private work make a very healthy living. We also liked the creativity involved in some aspects of dentistry. Much of the work is cosmetic in nature and the dentists we spoke to loved the craft involved in making sure their work not only functioned as intended but looked brilliant for their patients too.

The one down side we could see was that as a general practice dentist you’re in a very small business. Most likely it’ll be you and your dental nurse which doesn’t necessarily make for a buzzing atmosphere and you’re not going to be out and about very often. 

Becoming a dentist isn’t something you just fall into though. You need to make it into dental school which is extremely competitive and the course last for 5 years. Once qualified though you can expect a salary that will start somewhere between 28-35K and after about ten years you’ll be in the 70-160K bracket. Those that undertake private work can expect to see higher earnings than this.

Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Georgina Gwynne and I am a dentist.

What is Dentistry?

Dentistry I would say is all about looking after people who come in. Looking after their whole oral health and making them feel comfortable and friendly when they come into the surgery and making sure they leave dentally fit and healthy.

What attracted you to this career?

I wanted to work with people to help people and a lifestyle choice as well, I knew you could work for yourself and work what hours you wanted so that was the main factor.

What does your job involve?

As a dentist I look after people's oral health, everything from teeth, gums lining of the mouth we would also be expected to pick up other illnesses that people have when they come in, anything with the head and neck that is visible. So looking after peoples general oral health.

What do you do on a typical day?

I get into work about 8.30 have a cup of coffee with my nurse and receptionist, I would have 10-15 patients in the morning where I will do a variety of things anything from general check ups to scale and polishes, to root fillings, to false teeth, to placing an implant, then have an hour for lunch same again in the afternoon and I personally finish about 5-5.30.

What are the speicialisms within your industry?

There are many different specialities, you can go into implants, which is purely placing implants everyday, you can go into root therapy, which is called endodontics, you can go specialising in gums which is periodontics there are lots, you can go into child dentistry pediadontics, there are many different specialities.

What's the difference between Hospital and General Practice dentistry?

If you do go down the hospital dentistry route you would be specialising, you would be working in a hospital environment and the advantages of that is that you would have colleagues of similar age with you. In general practice, I am working here pretty much on my own, I  work here with my dad, there is one other dentist, we are in separate rooms - there is me and Carol, my nurse. Whereas, at hospitals you would be in a more open plan environment and there would be more interaction with colleagues and I guess more social opportunities as as result of that.

Hospital dentistry could be any of the specialities, such as oral surgery. A lot of dentists having qualified will go and do a year in the oral surgery department which is taking teeth out predominantly or doing biopsies for mouth cancers things like that.

Interviewer: So you do more of the same thing again and again?

Yes you would become very good at taking teeth out or the oral surgery aspects but you would be specialising if you were in hospital. So in general practice in dentistry, an analogy would be like being a GP, a Doctor, whereas doing hospital dentistry would be like being a doctor in a hospital and going down one of the speciality routes.

What are the best bits about your job?

I guess the best bits are helping people who are in difficulty, so people come in with raging toothache looking pretty desperate having been in all last night with dreadful toothache, you give them local anaesthetic and you see their face, suddenly relax, and usually they are extremely grateful. That is very satisfying.

What are the worst bits about your job?

It can be pretty intense you have got for example if you are very busy and you have five people waiting in the waiting room and your local anaesthetic hasn't worked on someone and you are under time pressure and people are very nervous coming in and it can get very intense.

How do you deal with patients who have really bad breath?

On the whole people come in are meticulous about getting their mouths really clean before they come in so you rarely get people with bad breath but you know you have a mask and you get pretty used to it.

What has been your greatest achievement?

I guess when you do something for the first time, I have recently placed my first dental implant which took quite bit of training to get to the stage of putting it in but you put it in for the first time and you get your xray back and it looks good and you have a happy patient and so doing something difficult and it working is very satisfying.

What is a dental implant?

A dental implant is a relatively new way of replacing teeth whereby you make a little flap in the gum and you drill in a titanium cylinder which could be used to fix bits on the top so you get a new tooth back effectively.

Any regrets?

As I have gone down the route of being a general dentist, there is another route you could take of being a hospital dentist and going down the oral surgery route. You can go and spend a year or two in hospital after qualifying which would give you a better insight into surgical dentistry which I think will be useful in general practice. So if I could wind the clock back I would go and do a year in hospital straight after I qualified.

What is the pay like and are there any perks?

The pay is pretty good to start with , as soon as you come our of university you are on good pay, I guess about the same as what a doctor would get after that it varies enormously depending on whether you work for the NHS or whether you work privately.  Most private practices will work on a fee per item basis so you basically get paid what you earn so depending on how hard you work, how many hours you do or what type of fillings, implant work you do, you get paid on that basis, so it is hugely variable. I don't think you could put a precise figure on what a dentist would get paid, but I would say it is good money and in line with what doctors would get.

I guess the main perk of it is you are working for yourself so you work out the hours you want to work, as long as you have got a boss that allows that, ultimately you become self employed, you can become your own boss and run a team of people but in terms of nights out and what have you, you may be working with other dentists and go out with them but it is not part of the job.

If you work for the NHS you could opt to take part in the NHS pension scheme, which is a very good pension, where as if you work privately, you have to set up your own pension if you want to.

How long is a working day and do you have to work out of hours?

It is hugely up to, if you are working in a practice as an associate you may be limited by what your bosses such as the partners say when they want you to work so that will be in agreement with them. I am very lucky I work with my dad here and working hours are fairly flexible but again when you are not working you are not being paid and if you go on holiday you are not being paid so the working hours I choose here are 8.30 to 5 and occasionally we will do a Saturday morning if we are doing an implant or something but you know it usually fits in with what I am doing and if I have got a wedding or something or want to leave early on a Friday, I just book it out in the book so it is pretty flexible, the working hours.

Is there much in the way of travel?

We will have the odd meeting out such as a dental showcase, which is exhibition once a year or conference. You have to do post graduate education so we have the odd day out doing for example resuscitation, or updating our knowledge basically.  But there is no big corporate jollies or anything like that.  We have our staff Christmas party.  Normally we come to work in the same practice every day so no you are not normally out travelling.  Occasionally you can do a home visit to a patient but that will tend to be quite local.  I work in two different surgeries so the most travel I get is in between them.  You could within dentistry go and work somewhere like a cruise liner or you could go into the RAF or the Army and you would get travel with that but not in a general dentist, working in one surgery there is into a huge amount of travel.

Do you have to be based anywhere in particular?

You could do it anywhere in the UK you could set up anywhere, we are sitting here in Basingstoke in a converted house you could set up pretty much anywhere there is a need for it obviously.

What is the working environment like?

The working environment for dentists again is hugely variable. We work in a clinical, clean environment we wear a clean uniform and what have you, but it is a relaxed type of environment, we try and keep it as relaxed as we can for our patients I work with a nurse who is also wearing a clinical uniform. We work in a very nice relaxed atmosphere certainly here is and we see 10-15 patients in the morning and an afternoon, it is very civilised, fairly quiet on the whole, whereas if you worked in a hospital, it would obviously be quite a lot busier and bustling and a bit more frenetic. It really is as laid back as we can make it here to try and put the patients at ease.

How did you get into your job?

You need to go down the science route, certainly in your GCSE's and then on to your A levels, I did chemistry, biology and physics and you certainly need chemistry and biology to get in to do it. The grades I needed were three B's but I think that has gone up to 3 A's so yes you have to go down the science route and work hard.

What's the application process like?

It is five years at dental school at one of the universities, after that there is something called a vocation training scheme which is your first job and you go into that and you have a trainer, you are working as a dentist but under the guidance of another dentist.  If you want to work in the NHS this is compulsory, if you want to just work in private practice it's not compulsory but most people who come out of dental school do it to gain experience.

Interviewer: And how do you apply for something like that is it a central system and you get allocated or you have to pick a surgery or go to or apply separately?

A list of jobs is posted on the website and you send your CV and apply for it like you would in any other job and you compete with fellow dentists around the country.

What are the key skills required for your job?

So you need to like people and get on with people be able to gain a rapport with people you are meeting with for the first time and ten minutes later injecting and drilling a tooth, you need to be manually dexterous you are going to be working with your hands and doing quite intricate work. Another skill that you need to have is being artistic, you are rebuilding teeth and sculpturing and moulding them to look like teeth again, so having an artistic flair is helpful.

What's your top tip for breaking into your industry?

It is a changing industry all the time, obviously you have probably heard on the news with the NHS contract, quite a lot of dentists have opted out from the NHS., certainly when I qualified, there was lots of NHS places available, where as now more and more people are wanting to go private and competition to get private jobs is quite pronounced. Generally looking at the back of the DBJ, which is our trade journal, where all the jobs are advertised in, to get a private job they say you would need five years minimum experience.  So to start with I think you could expect to work in the NHS, which I did myself and found hugely beneficial.

What do you think makes an application stand out?

I think again it very much varies what job you are applying to and what the partners in that surgery are looking for, I recently went through the job application process. I work in two different surgeries, I work here in Basingstoke and another surgery in Kingston and applying for that one, they actually told me afterwards that everyone had very similar clinical abilities who were applying and the only thing that differentiated people were they hobbies and what they were interested in and I got the job on the basis that I liked bicycling and sailing and they liked me when they met me so you know maybe that is a one off surgery that I applied to but I think they are looking for someone they think they will get on well with to work.

What's the career progress and how quickly can you move up the career ladder?

When you finish vocational training you are a fully qualified general dentist practitioner after that. you don't need to do any more post graduate qualifications if you don't want to.  You can go on and do lots of qualifications and specialise thereafter and there are lots of different specialities such as gums, you can specialise in implants you could go down the orthodontic route, tooth straightening or the oral surgery route, you could go back into hospital but if you wanted to just stay in general dental practice, you don't have to do further exams. You do have to do compulsory continued professional development which is a minimum of so many hours per year so you have to keep up to date but you don't have to de more exams but there is the option to do so if you want to.

Where do you see the industry going?

Cosmetic dentistry is always at the forefront.  People come in wanting their teeth to look straight and white and that is certainly a favourite amongst patients and something I mentioned earlier, implants.  In the past there were bridges and dentures to replace missing teeth, so removable plates you see your granny putting in water at nights, rather than having those you can put in these dental implants and they are becoming more and more popular.

Is there scope for movement during or after this career?

Having worked in practice for a few years, you could go back and do a Masters course or a post graduate qualification and specialise on one of the specialities such as orthodontics, root canals, dentures, there are lots of different specialities that you could go in and specialise in but you would need to go back to university and do more studying and become a specialist.

In terms of having a career break yes there is no reason why you couldn't do that. If you were working in your own practice, you would have to get a locum dentist in and if you were working as an associate for a partner you would have an understanding with them that you wanted to come back after., but there is no reason why you couldn't give it up for a year and come back to it. In terms of other things you could do if you didn't like it and wanted to go down a different path, you come out of university with a science degree so I guess that would open doors to other careers.

We are pretty specifically trained at dentist school, it is aimed at clinical dentistry and treating patients. Saying that when you come out to work in practice you gain experience of running a business and certainly working with people so you may be able to transfer that into another office environment.

What are the industry resources that someone interested in joining must know about?

I read the BDJ which is the British Dental Journal, which is the magazine brought out every fortnight from the BDA and is by the British Dental Association, which you can choose to be a member of.  That gives you up to date articles, keeps you informed what is going on in the industry, also gives you the jobs in the back and gives you articles that you can gain  CPD which is Continued Professional Development hours through.  There are lots of different journals you can subscribe to another one I subscribe to is Dental Update which is quite popular among general practitioners and that has just got articles on various clinical techniques that might be of use to us.

If you weren't in this career, what would you be doing?