Clodagh O'Dowd, a dental hygienist with Paul McEvoy's dental surgery, Dublin, believes in prevention rather than curing the problem after it starts
I have been working as a dental hygienist in the same practice for four years now. Gradually my days have increased and I'm here four days a week, and one day in a practice in Molesworth Street. Generally, I start work at 8am or 8.30am, because people like to get in before work, and I finish at 5pm or 6pm.
Before becoming a hygienist, I worked as a dental nurse in the Dental Hospital at Trinity College where I did my training for both jobs - three years all together. I enjoyed the assisting part of nursing but I really wanted to work hands on and to have responsibility. I like to think I am a people's person and I wanted to be in an area where you're one to one with people.
Working as a hygienist involves being part of a team; you sit down with the dentists, Paul and Catherine, and work out a treatment plan and follow it through with after-care so it's very much a team effort.
Periodontal disease and dental cavities are the two most common diseases in the mouth. I'm doing a lot of treatment and prevention for both diseases. You might see a patient over a period of four to six visits initially and then you're seeing them on a preventative/maintenance treatment course afterwards so you build up a really good rapport with people. It's nice if you get a good result. They've listened, I suppose, to the advice you've given and the treatment you've done has been successful.
Sometimes, time can be a bit of pressure in the surgery because a patient could be booked in with a couple of people on the same day and if one surgery runs late, it can have a little bit of a knock-on effect but generally everything is pretty much fine. There's no stress if you're organised.
Children can sometimes be a bit of challenge. Adults can choose to take on your advice or not but sometimes a child has had a bad experience - or even an adult - and coming to the dentist can be nerve-wracking for them. It can put them totally off and you're just trying to break down the barrier so that they trust you and once you build that up, it's pretty good.
There are just under 300 hygienists in the country and some 80 per cent of dentists now have a hygienist but the whole attitude towards healthcare has changed.
It's all about changing people's attitudes and beliefs and trying to give advice on prevention rather than the trouble actually starting. And that's about getting in at a young age and trying to instil things when somebody's a child rather than having to change habits when somebody's older, which is often more difficult.
That can also mean travelling to schools and the community to give talks on prevention. I think we need more hygienists in the health sector to go out to schools and to the elderly, to people in nursing homes. They're the people who are forgotten about.
That's the great thing about this job; there is a lot of variety. You can be in general practice, a dental hospital, working for the health board or working as a teacher and researcher.
I love the area I do, because it gives me so many different aspects outside of the surgery. It's often us who are going out to schools with the health board - it's not really the dentists - so we've got a wide spectrum of things that we can get out and do.
To switch off, I like going out with friends or going to the gym or yoga. I've also started salsa dancing which is a really great workout and great fun too. But I don't find the job stressful. I love it, I really do.
In conversation with Niamh Kavanagh