Liz King is retiring after 50 years in dental therapy. PHOTO/SUPPLIED
In the 50 years since Liz King started a career in dental practice only the mirror and the explorer remain the same.
The Lakes District Health Board dental therapist has more recently been in the two-chair mobile clinic servicing St Mary's, Reporoa, Malfroy and Otonga schools.
When she began her two year training at Christchurch School for Dental Nurses, she wore a white uniform, shoes and stockings, a hair veil and red cardigan even in the heat of summer.
The training was very regimented and she had to speak to the dental officers with her hands behind her back.
Dental nurses gave injections for extractions but not for fillings when Liz first started, she's not sure why, it was just the standard of the day.
The filling material is different, it used to be copper amalgam pellets melted in a spoon over a little burner.
The cleaning of instruments was done in boiling water, now it's a high pressure autoclave; the chair was wooden and therapists stood to work; the air and water bulb were hand-held and there were no gloves in the early days.
There have been huge technical changes with x-rays now readily available, fillings are bonded to the teeth with a light and new computer system Titanium means all the records are kept on a data base.
"It's a huge advantage and a big change," she said.
"I used to do a day book and monthly returns and I had to add up everything I had done."
She remembered the visits of the dental nurse inspectors who would wear hats and gloves and look around the clinic for dust. She said they had to keep the clinic spotless.
If the floor got marks, the inspectors asked them to get down on their hands and knees with the scrubbing stuff.
In recent years assistants have been brought on board and they now do the administrative work, chasing up and booking of appointments and cleaning that the therapists once did.
"Initially it was an adjustment to have someone else working alongside you, but it's great having an assistant and she's very busy working with two therapists," she said.
"I'm nowhere near as tired at the end of the day and we can treat more kids."
The dental service is now a community one, not a school one, which means therapists now see babies.
It's good to get in early and talk to parents about prevention, she said. There's also informed consent for everything - in earlier days you got initial consent and that covered everything.
Asked if she would choose the same career again, Liz noted that her older brother did dentistry, but she didn't choose it because it wasn't thought of as an option for a girl.
She might have chosen dentistry if she had her choice again but she loved working with the children.
"I have really enjoyed my career. I would not have gone back to it and retrained if I didn't enjoy it. It's still challenging, every mouth is different and every day is different, every kid is different. There are not many kids you can't like - they are all pretty cute."
She first came to the Lakes District Health Board in the mid 1970s and then again in 1992 and had worked in Rotorua ever since.
She was the therapist at Otonga School for 13 years and worked also at Whakarewarewa School.
She stopped work to look after her children and retrained in 1985 while she was living in Palmerston North.
"I still enjoy the work - working with the children makes it all worth while helping them with their dental needs if they are in pain I can help relieve it and do something for them."
Highlights of her career include being on the Dental Therapist Association, the national body. She was also the president of the local branch when she first came to Rotorua.