Lakes District Health Board has recognised 21 staff for long service with one staff member employed for 50 years.
Dental therapist Jan Stevenson has worked in Rotorua for the last 50 years.
She said she decided she wanted to be a dental therapist when she was 12 years old.
When she trained at the Christchurch School for Dental Nurses the students wore white uniforms, veils and stockings, and had to stand with their hands behind their backs to speak to the dental offices.
The later years of her career saw her learn to use the computerised patient record system called Titanium.
She came to Rotorua in 1974 after working elsewhere in New Zealand and travelling overseas.
She started at Kawaha Point School when it opened in 1979 and was there when the school clinic was closed in 2010 with the new oral health business case.
She has treated a generation of people through the school as patients and then seen their children as patients, but said her 50 years of service had gone in a flash.
"I like working one on one with people. The children have kept me going I would have left if I didn't like it. I've been lucky to do a job I enjoy and work with children which I like."
Another dental therapist recognised for long service was Ngaire Mitchell, who celebrated 40 years of long service.
Other staff acknowledged for long service were:
