A Dentist

Welcome to “A day in the life of: Halloween edition!” Which basically means that yes oh yes today we are delving into the world of someone most of our team (well this writer at least) is deathly scared of… A dentist! Dun dun dunnnnn….

We cornered dentist Mark Bechara and got him to ‘fess up to the weird things he does every day. As it turns out he’s not that scary.

MARK BECHARA: DENTIST

Can you describe a typical day on the job?

I work from roughly 8am to 6pm every day through the week and my day consists predominantly of treating patients. I approxamitely have a half-an-hour slot per patient back-to-back sometimes longer depending on the procedure. The work involves interacting with people to find out what is bothering them and can range from something simple like a check up and clean to difficult procedures such as root canals extractions or even cosmetic procedures such as straightening teeth whitening or veneers.

Why did you choose this career path? What or who inspired you to do so?

I’ve always wanted to work in healthcare mainly in medicine and to become a doctor but I didn’t like the work/life balance that most doctors have. Dentistry allows you to interact with patients to diagnose and treat problems but with a more ‘9 to 5’ lifestyle than medicine tends to have.

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY ARE SOME KEY PERSONALITY ASPECTS OR SKILLS FOR YOUR ROLE?

• Being personable is probably the key factor you have to be able to get along with people.
• Kindness and empathy also helps you to understand what is going on and how to best treat your patients.
• Commitment to learning and improving because you always have to want to do your best for people.

What have you learned about yourself through the work that you do?

Managing stress is really important in dentistry and in life as a whole. Being caring is an especially important value. The people around you will contribute a lot to your happiness and enjoyment in your chosen profession.

What’s been your best moment while doing your work?

When patients are really grateful for the work that you’ve done for them. It always makes you feel good about what you’re doing.

And a difficult moment?

When things don’t go your way. Not everything goes perfectly in dentistry or any profession for that matter and dealing with things when they don’t go as planned can be quite challenging. 

Can you share a funny or weird story about something you experienced while working with a patient?

How about a meme?

How do you keep going when things get really challenging?

I remind myself that at the end of the day they’re just teeth. There’s always a way to fix it.

ARE THERE ANY SURPRISING OR ODD THINGS THAT PEOPLE WOULDN’T EXPECT IF THEY PICKED THIS CAREER?

It can be really really stressful! Sometimes it’s hard when things don’t go well so you have to be able to deal with that and get over it quickly as the next patient comes in straight after. So you have to be able to deal with your emotions and move on pretty quickly.

What advice would you give to young people thinking of pursuing a career in this industry?

It’s an amazing profession and very rewarding and you get a lot out of it personally. But you have to be committed resilient and learn to manage people and stress very well. I would encourage any young person to do it because of how rewarding it really is.